Well, look who finally woke up. La Presse just published a piece confirming what TheGunBlog.ca reported weeks ago: the Trudeau–Carney Liberals are terrified that their so-called “assault-style weapons” ban is going down in flames — and Canadians are refusing to play along.

The federal government quietly commissioned EKOS Research to conduct a 148-question deep-dive into the minds of lawful gun owners — because they’re not just enforcing a policy, they’re losing a narrative. And they know it.

This wasn’t a survey — it was a $100,000 taxpayer-funded psy-op to figure out why law-abiding citizens won’t voluntarily surrender their firearms for Ottawa’s latest confiscation campaign.

And guess what EKOS found?

Gun owners don’t trust the government. Shocking, I know.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they do not trust the feds to make good decisions about firearms in the public interest. In Alberta, that distrust jumps to 81%. Let me repeat that: eighty-one per cent. 

That’s not skepticism, that’s open rejection of federal overreach.

And it gets worse for the Liberals.

Only 34% of respondents nationally said they support the so-called assault weapons buyback. In Alberta? A dismal 21%. That’s a four-out-of-five “get stuffed” ratio.

But the biggest panic bell for the Liberals was this: When asked how many people would actually comply with the ban, only nine respondents — out of 1,712 — thought 100% of owners would turn in their guns.

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Over 50% believe less than 30% of owners will comply. Translation? Civil disobedience is not a fringe reaction. It’s the mainstream response.

So, what does the federal government do in response? Learn? Apologize? Back off?

Of course not. They dig in. They analyze our “values.” They ask if we think gun ownership is a right or a privilege. They try to profile gun owners so they can tweak their messaging to get more voluntary disarmament.

And again, Alberta bucks the trend.

While 58% of Canadians overall say owning a firearm is a privilege, in Alberta that number drops to 51% — and a growing number see it as a right, not a government-granted luxury.

Meanwhile, 56% of Albertan respondents said firearm ownership is an important part of their identity. That’s culture. That’s legacy. That’s not something you can buy back with a gift card and a smile.

Here’s another truth bomb: 28% of respondents own more than five firearms. Most said they use them for target shooting, not hunting. The usual Liberal excuse — that gun owners are all hunters with no use for modern sporting rifles — falls apart under their own data.

And the biggest slap in the face? 78% of owners say they are unfairly targeted by federal policy. In Saskatchewan? 88%. Even in Quebec, it’s 72%.

And they’re right.

Because when Liberals says “assault-style,” what they really mean is “it looks scary to a Liberal.” This isn’t about function or lethality. It’s about cosmetics.

If your rifle has black plastic — it gets banned. No matter how it works. No matter how it’s used. No matter the crime stats. If it looks like something from a video game, it’s gone.

Don’t believe me? Ask Sterling Arms.

This month, the company's R9 Mk1 sporting rifle — a non-restricted, Canadian-made, semi-auto range toy — was reclassified as prohibited. No incident. No violence. Just a bureaucratic whim and a death sentence for a Calgary-based manufacturer.

The result? The company shut down. Employees were laid off. Legal owners were criminalized. All because Sterling Arms' product looked a little too “tactical” for a federal government bureaucrat.

This isn’t gun control. It’s optics-based authoritarianism.

And even the NRA, south of the border, called the Liberals panic a “monumental understatement.” When an American gun rights group has a more honest take on our own government than our media does, you know you’re living in clown world.

La Presse just figured it out this week. But TheGunBlog.ca called it weeks ago: this isn’t a buyback. It’s a public relations rescue mission for a collapsing regime trying to criminalize the wrong people.

And let’s be honest — Albertans are different. Even among already skeptical gun owners, we stand apart.

We’re not here to cooperate. We’re not here to comply. We’re here to remind Ottawa that we don’t trust them — and we don’t have to.

My gun. My choice. My province. And you can’t reclassify that.