01/24/2026
🇨🇦 The Coalition of Rejection Is Growing - And Ottawa Is Standing Alone 🇨🇦
For years, Canadians were told that opposition to the federal gun “buyback” was ideological and that concerns about cost, enforcement and effectiveness came only from conservatives or firearm-rights advocates with a political axe to grind.
That argument no longer holds.
What is now emerging is something far broader and far more damaging for the federal government: a coalition of rejection made up of police services, provincial governments and now, unexpectedly, every candidate seeking to lead the federal New Democratic Party.
When institutions with little in common begin arriving at the same conclusion independently, it is worth paying attention.
🇨🇦 Police Have Already Walked Away 🇨🇦
The cracks began with law enforcement.
Canada’s largest municipal police service, the Toronto Police Service, declined to participate in the federal Assault-Style Fi****ms Compensation Program, citing the absence of any “operationally viable plan.” That was not political messaging. It was a professional assessment that the program, as designed, could not be executed safely or effectively.
Now the Barrie Police Service has joined them, confirming it will not offer collection appointments. In the west, the Calgary Police Service has taken a similar stance, refusing to administer the federal compensation scheme. Even the Ontario Provincial Police, responsible for policing roughly one-quarter of Ontario’s population, including vast rural areas where firearm ownership is highest, is out.
These decisions matter. Police services are not activist organizations. They are pragmatic, risk-averse institutions tasked with delivering results. When they step back from a program like this, it is not out of ideology. It is because the program does not function in the real world.
🇨🇦 Provinces Are Building a Wall of Refusal 🇨🇦
Provincial governments have followed a similar path, creating a jurisdictional firewall across the country.
In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford has now completely dismantled the federal narrative. In an unprompted rebuke at Queen’s Park this week, Ford was blunt: “Start focusing on the bad guys, not on the good guys.”
Ford noted that while he hears concerns about public safety “a dozen times a day,” he has “never, ever once” had a constituent ask him to seize guns from lawful owners. While Ontario is not passing blocking legislation like its western counterparts at this time, the message is clear: the province and its provincial police will not lift a finger to help.
Manitoba’s NDP Premier Wab Kinew has been equally dismissive, calling the program a bureaucratic “headache” that “won't make our community safer.” When an NDP Premier and a Conservative Premier use identical language to reject a federal policy, the argument that this is partisan politics falls apart.
In Saskatchewan, the government went further, amending the Saskatchewan Fi****ms Act to shield owners from federal overreach. Alberta has invoked the Sovereignty Act to prohibit provincial resources from being used and even the Yukon government has declined to participate.
From the prairies to the territories to Queen's Park, the map is turning red. Not politically, but functionally.
🇨🇦 Now Even the NDP Is Saying No 🇨🇦
The most striking development, however, comes from the federal NDP leadership race.
All five candidates seeking to lead the party have publicly opposed the Liberal gun "buyback". This is a remarkable consensus from a party that supported the Liberals on many key votes in the last Parliament.
Frontrunner Avi Lewis has described the buyback as divisive and politically driven. But, he is not alone. Rob Ashton, representing the party’s labour wing and Edmonton MP Heather McPherson, the voice of prairie pragmatism, have all turned against the policy.
Their reasoning echoes what police and Premiers have said all along: if the goal is public safety, the focus should be on intercepting illegal fi****ms at the Canada–U.S. border, not pursuing legal owners.
🇨🇦 When Opposition Becomes Consensus 🇨🇦
Taken individually, each rejection might be dismissed. Police saying no could be framed as institutional caution. Provinces opting out might be chalked up to jurisdictional friction. The NDP breaking ranks could be waved away as leadership politics.
But together, they form something much harder to ignore.
Police services. Provincial governments. Progressive politicians. Rural advocates. Urban MPs.
They are all arriving at the same conclusion: the gun "buyback" is expensive, divisive, operationally unsound and disconnected from the sources of gun violence in Canada.
That is not partisan opposition. That is systemic rejection.
🇨🇦 Ottawa Is Running Out of Cover 🇨🇦
The federal government continues to insist the program improves public safety. Yet, fewer and fewer institutions tasked with delivering that safety appear willing to stake their credibility on it.
When even the NDP, a party that helped the Liberals pass Bill C-21, draws a clear line here, the question becomes unavoidable: If police won’t enforce it, provinces won’t support it and progressive politicians won’t defend it, who exactly is this program for?
The coalition of rejection is growing. And Ottawa is increasingly standing alone.
