‘Radical’ gun control activist runs for Liberal seat near Montreal

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OTTAWA – She survived four bullets fired by a mass murderer during the 1989 Polytechnique massacre. She has campaigned for decades for stricter gun control. Now, she is a Liberal candidate.

Nathalie Provost, who recently criticized the Liberals for their slow pace of the mandatory gun buyback program and threatened not to invite former prime minister Justin Trudeau to the 35th anniversary of the Polytechnique commemoration, will run under the Liberal Party of Canada banner in Châteauguay–Les Jardins-de-Napierville, near Montreal.

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“My greatest fear was to see a Conservative government being elected, because if there’s a Conservative government it means that everything we fought for in the last 35 year will be lost forever,” said Provost in an interview with National Post.

She said Prime Minister Mark Carney “cannot backtrack” on the launch of the mandatory buyback program announced by the Liberals in December. The program, according to them, aims to retrieve commercial inventories of prohibited assault weapons.

“There’s still work to be done, but I think that I will be able to help complete it,” she added.

Provost said no other parties can push gun control further than the Liberals. Recently, days before Trudeau’s resignation, the Liberals banned nearly 200 additional types of firearms and promised details on the mandatory buyback compensation this spring.

“I know that sometimes I’ve been very, very strong against them because I didn’t agree with the way they were managing things. But one thing I remained sure for the last 10 years is that we share the same values,” she said.

Provost, an engineer and public servant in Quebec who graduated from Polytechnique, was the spokesperson for PolyRemembers which campaigns for better gun control.

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She reached out to the party to become a candidate before Carney was elected as the leader in March. Friday, she said she had never had the “privilege” of speaking to Carney.

Liberal sources said they were “surprised” and almost honoured by the idea of her candidacy. Over the past year, the party has struggled to find star candidates, even in a province where the Liberals have won the last three general elections.

Though, ever since Justin Trudeau announced his resignation, the pool of candidates has increased significantly.

In Quebec, she is certainly seen as a “star and a strong candidate” that is well known in the media ecosystem. Many Liberals have said in private that she is the same type of candidate as Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault, who was a well-known environment activist before joining the Liberals in 2019.

On social media, the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, the Canadian gun lobby, called Nathalie Provost a “radical anti-gun activist” and that voting Liberal would mean gun owners would “lose” their firearms. “It’s never been more clear,” the group wrote.

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“Detecting a hint of panic,” PolyRemember replied.

Provost didn’t see what was posted on social media Friday because she’s not on it. But she has an idea. She says she knows how difficult it can be for a woman who advocates for stricter gun control to get involved in politics.

“It’s a case of mental health for me in my own capacity to do my job. And it was real as an advocate, and I know it will be the same as a politician,” she said.

Guy Morin knows her well. The president of All Against a Quebec Firearms Registry debated publicly with Provost, notably on Quebec’s most popular TV show Tout le monde en parle.

“The problem is that since she is a victim of the Polytechnique, no matter what is said, no matter what can be reported, she always has the aura of a victim, and we cannot question what she said,” said Morin in an interview.

Morin is a supporter of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in Quebec. Though, he thinks the Liberals just scored a first goal in this campaign that has yet to be called.

“There is no Conservative MP or Conservative candidate who will want or be allowed to question what Nathalie Provost says, so Nathalie will have complete free rein to say whatever she has to say,” he said.

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Morin thinks the Liberals will now have a perfect candidate to “push the ideology of gun control” and to “put the Conservatives on the ropes again when the subject comes up.”

Châteauguay–Les Jardins-de-Napierville is a new riding which replaces Châteauguay—Lacolle, held by Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan since 2015. The Bloc Québécois was recently favoured in the polls in that riding and is said to be hopeful in the next election.

National Post

atrepanier@postmedia.com

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