Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made the violence plaguing Canada's biggest city front-and-centre in the federal election campaign by calling for an outright ban on handguns.
One day after a 16-year-old youth was shot and critically wounded outside a Toronto high school, Mr. McGuinty urged all leaders campaigning for the Oct. 14 election to distinguish Canada from the United States by imposing the ban.
Police have yet to make public what type of gun was used in the school shooting.
“We have an opportunity as a distinct Canadian society to say, ‘we are not going to do what other countries have. We're going to do everything we can to eliminate handguns,' “ Mr. McGuinty told reporters today. “My advice to all party leaders is that they should embrace this.”
Mr. McGuinty said it is incumbent upon political leaders at every level to look at doing everything they can to ensure the safety of children, especially in their schools.
The victim in yesterday's shooting was listed in serious condition last night at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
“This is a frightening experience for our children and parents,” Mr. McGuinty said. “It is tragic, and if there's one place outside the walls of our own home where we are entitled to expect that our kids will be safe, surely it's at their schools.”
However, Mr. McGuinty suggested that federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and his Liberal counterpart, Stéphane Dion, might be reluctant to embrace a ban on handguns because, unlike him, they have not confronted first hand the tragic consequences of violent crime.
For Mr. McGuinty, by contrast, much of the violence has taken place in his own backyard. Yesterday's shooting at Bendale Business and Technical Institute came 16 months after another student was fatally shot inside a Toronto high school.
Mr. McGuinty said he visited C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute following the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners in May, 2007 and met with the school's principal and students.
“I think when you're confronted in the face of the tragic consequences of gun crime, that might act as a stronger impetus to speak to it and to want to find a way to address it,” he said. “I think this is something that transcends politics and partisanship.”
This is not the first time Mr. McGuinty has called on the federal government to ban handguns. He made a similar plea during the provincial election campaign last September, following the fatal stabbing of a Scarborough teenager on a walkway leading from Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute.
This time around, the effort by Mr. McGuinty to make gun violence in Canadian cities an issue in the federal campaign reveal just how out of step he is with his federal Liberal cousins.
Mr. Dion has been reluctant to make a handgun ban an election issue even though his predecessor, Paul Martin, promised during the last federal campaign that he would impose a ban.
On Wednesday, Mr. Dion said he would not commit to implementing Toronto Mayor David Miller's call for a complete handgun ban, saying he believes in gun control, but his first priority is banning assault weapons.
“I will discuss with the mayor. We have today strong restrictions; he wants complete abolition. We will look at that and we'll make a call at that time. But for now, our priorities are military assault weapons.”
Mr. Dion has also failed to win Mr. McGuinty's support for his plan to fight climate change, the centrepiece of the federal leader's campaign platform. Last week, the Premier refused to endorse the plan when questioned by reporters.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party released a new tough-on-crime televised ad Wednesday, one day after the shooting. The spot features the now-familiar image of Mr. Harper in his sweater, discussing his government's handling of justice issues.
“Soft-on-crime does not work when you're dealing dangerous, repeat, violent behaviour towards other people and their property,” Mr. Harper said. “We're determined to crack down on crime, whether it is by youth or anybody else.”
With a report from Daniel Leblanc in Ottawa
