NDP would bring back long-gun registry, Liberals wouldn’t

If you thought the decade long debate about the long-gun registry was over, you are sadly mistaken.

While the bill to end the controversial registry received royal assent in Ottawa last Thursday, the NDP's newly minted leader vows to bring it back if he becomes Prime Minister.

Speaking on the Radio Canada show Tout le Monde en Parle Sunday, Thomas Mulcair said the solution is to fix the long gun registry — not get rid of it.

"I will work to register firearms. The public and the police have the right to be protected," he said according to iPolitics.

"It is a monumental error and it is the first time in my political life that I see a government removing one of the public's protections. All of the police forces across Canada, except for the Calgary police, want to maintain it because it protects them and it protects the public."

The long-gun registry issue has sparked divisions within the NDP caucus in the past with some MPs from rural ridings breaking ranks and siding with the Conservatives.

But Mulcair says in the future, all MPs will be expected to toe the party line.

"It is certain that if we run in an election with that as a platform, everyone will follow," he said.

Meanwhile, the Liberals, who introduced the controversial registry in 2001, say they would not re-introduce it if they were to form government after the 2015 election.

"Liberals would not bring back the registry," Liberal spokesperson Daniel Lauzon told Yahoo! Canada News in an email exchange, Monday.

"But we strongly support maintaining the data so Provinces can maintain their own if they wish to do so."

The gun control debate in Canada isn't over - not by a long shot.