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“Our government believes that parents know what is best for their children. The NDP disagree,” Social Development Minister Candice Bergen tweeted this week.

Policies that resonate in rural ridings in particular have helped send a number of MPs to Ottawa. Support in those constituencies is being rallied again.

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The party unveiled a separate website last month entitled “Safe and Sensible Firearms Policies,” featuring a photo of two men in jeans walking through a field with rifles slung on their shoulders.

“We’re proud to be the government that stopped treating hunters and farmers as criminals, and we’re proud to be the only party that promotes safe and sensible firearms legislation,” the website says. The government recently introduced legislation to ease some of the restrictions around firearms licensing.

The government recently directed the RCMP to reverse its decision to replace muskrat-fur hats with wool tuques.

“Our government will always stand up for Canada’s hunters and trappers,” Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq told the Commons.

Bob Sexton, managing editor of Outdoor Canada, said the Conservatives have managed to display a level of understanding of the history and traditions that are tied up in hunting and fishing.

“A lot of our readership is in a rural part of Canada. Often, a lot of these issues are city versus country, or rural versus urban,” said Sexton.

“Maybe politicians who don’t really connect with that rural element don’t do as well in an outdoors community…There’s also a disconnect between what people in cities think happens in the fishing and hunting world.”