Toronto posted a 15-year high in the rate of homicides with firearms in 2005, and the press and the public have begun to fret that the country is becoming infected by the lethal ways of the United States.

“Canadians deserve safe streets. Toronto isn’t Detroit. Vancouver isn’t south Los Angeles,” Martin said. “We are not going to allow our cities to fall into mindless violence.”

But in the campaign leading up to next Monday’s parliamentary elections, Martin’s opponents have lambasted him for failing to get tough with the United States to stop the smuggling of weapons across the border.

“This is the first government that couldn’t control the flow of guns,” Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper said in a televised debate last week.

Click here for link.