Back about 10 years or so ago, a friend of mine who happens to be quite liberal told me that the USA should have strong gun control laws like Canada was planning then. He called Canada a ' nation of hunters,' and said that if gun control didn' t hurt Canadians, it wouldn' t hurt us. His comment, smug and self-assured, made me do some research.

Canada at the time was a nation of about 20 million people. 90% of them lived within 100 miles of the US border. 88% lived in cities of 50,000 or more. If you took away Vancouver and Edmonton, 95% lived in Quebec and Ontario, and nearly all of those lived in the narrow corridor from Windsor, Ontario to Montreal, Quebec. Canada is really two nations. One is sparsely populated and has strong rural traditions. The other is city bound and resembles the population of Boston, Mass. in its politics. So, like the USA, most of Canada' s population are city dwellers.

In our last presidential election, Al Gore won the popular vote by about 250,000. Fortunately (IMO), George Bush won the electoral vote, and is president. Of the total land area of the USA, the people in 97% of the land area voted for Bush. The 3% of the land area that voted for Gore was the northeast corridor we call the eastern megalopolis and the West Coast population centers. I hope this puts it in perspective. We in the USA are in grave danger of being ruled by that 3% of the land area. Remember, in that 3% of the land area, they love Hillary Clinton.

I think also that it is important to be consistant. If you are using the excuse that the liberal government in Ottowa is against the war not to book a hunt with an outfitter in Saskatoon, do you also refuse to go to a baseball game in Anaheim, since the Angels are owned by Disney and Disney is against gun ownership and hunting? Do you prohibit your kids from watching Disney movies?