Thread by @Norlaine

A financial incentive may be the key to this bizarre request from the UCP. That would be common garden-variety corruption. But, it could be more... 1/10

https://twitter.com/edwinmundt/status/1418250551268048902

You know the conservatives are wooing the gun crowd, right? So what is the next logical step after a woman in a hijab gets badly beaten or killed by someone she sprayed with pepper spray? 2/10

Someone in the UCP is going to announce that obviously, pepper spray isn't sufficient. Maybe the public needs access to tasers, or guns, to protect themselves. This is upping the commercial value of the product being promoted significantly... 3/10

And also kicking firearms restrictions to the curb. This would delight the NFA and the CCFR, as well as gun and taser manufacturers. 4/10

This has become standard conservative MO of late. They find an issue tangentially related to their goals, that they feel they can get buy-in on from everyone left of the right. Like the CPC bill to ban sex-selective abortions. 5/10

Sure, they thought, we can sell this as a women's rights issue. After all, it discriminates against female fetuses. Then we can get an abortion law on the books. After there is one, no one can say that abortion isn't a legal matter in Canada anymore. Then there can be more. 6/10

But they are no more interested in women's rights than they are in protecting women in hijabs. There is another motive for wanting to arm citizens in Alberta. My guess is, it is to whittle away at firearms regulations. Incremental change. Get people used to packing spray. 7/10

Then, when people being assaulted with pepper spray becomes a big problem, they can declare that people need something more to protect themselves. And the gun lobby will be more than happy to hop in with solutions... 8/10

It's sad that conservatives can't come up with solutions that don't involve escalating problems. Public education, government officials actually condemning these attacks (without the wink, wink, and dog-whistles), and fostering a climate of inclusivity... 9/10

In which such attacks are simply socially unacceptable, are all de-escalating ways to address these terrible occurrences. But, none of those things help the conservatives achieve their goals. So they won't go there. 10/10