Gun buyback comments an embarrassing mistake

Opinion

Cabinet unanimity is an interesting animal. Behind closed doors, cabinet ministers at the provincial and federal levels hash out the basic priorities and directions of government — sometimes, everyone at the table agrees. Often, it’s not unanimous.

But once cabinet members leave the cabinet room, everyone has to publicly support the decisions made at the table. They’re supposed to keep their doubts under wraps — in fact, they are required to keep all aspects of the cabinet discussions under wraps, as cabinet deliberations are meant to be kept confidential, so that no one can benefit, either politically or financially, from spilling the beans.

This week, a member of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet broke the rules of both cabinet unanimity and confidentiality — and in so doing, leaked messy details about the political machinations of Canadian gun regulation.

And the cabinet member was no less than Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree.

In a taped conversation with a tenant on Sunday, Anandasangaree talked about a coming Liberal multimillion-dollar gun buyback program, saying that it was primarily being done for political reasons — and particularly for voters in Quebec.

The tape was released by the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights on Monday.

“Quebec is in a different place than other parts of Canada, right?” Anandasangaree says during the 20-minute recording. “And this is something that (is) very much a big, big, big deal for many of the Quebec electorate that voted for us.”

The minister also said that he didn’t even think elements of the program would work. Anandasangaree has said he didn’t know the conversation had been taped, and that he tries to discuss issues with voters, regardless of where they stand on issues.

He also said his comments were “misguided.”

Well, they were much more than that. They also gave gun control opponents — and the Pierre Poilievre-led official Opposition — plenty of ammunition to argue against the buyback.

As Poilievre put it, Anandasangaree’s comments confirmed that the Liberals were “going ahead with the bad policy because it’s good politics.”

The comments also gave ordinary Canadians plenty of reason to doubt the Liberals’ motives for the buyback in the first place — and plenty of reasons to doubt other Liberal policies.

After all, the stated reason for the buyback, which came after the Liberals banned 2,500 variants of assault rifles — was for public safety.

Having the public safety minister undercut his own party’s stated reason is almost poetic justice.

Anandasangaree doubled down on Tuesday, when he announced a pilot project for the buyback in Cape Breton, saying he had “every confidence” local police forces could enforce the new rules — something he said he didn’t think local forces would be able to do when he was recorded on Sunday.

Anandasangaree has broken two basic rules: not only cabinet unanimity, but cabinet confidentiality as well.

He has also broken an unwritten rule — he has undercut his own party, and exposed its crassly political motivation for moving ahead with the buyback.

Carney told reporters in New York that he still supports Anandasangaree: “I have confidence in the minister … He’s got a lot of important work this session of Parliament, including legislation on borders …”

If Carney keeps him in the position, let’s hope that Anandasangaree quickly manages to develop the basic skills cabinet ministers need.

If cabinet members can’t maintain their public support on an issue, they’re expected to resign — something the Conservatives have already called for.

If they can’t keep cabinet deliberations secret, they are generally fired.

And if they embarrass their own government and its political motives in spectacular fashion again?

Nature usually takes its course. Quickly.

» Winnipeg Free Press