and that guns were a "responsibility" in Canada and not a right as in the United States. The bill passed a House of Commons reading. However, the bill has received criticisms from both gun rights and gun control advocates, with each claiming that the bill serves the opposites' agenda. Leaders of opposition parties also criticize the bill as merely a political tool used by the Conservative Party to gain votes. The law took effect on September 2, 2015. Conservatism in Western Canada The four Western Canada provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have long been a hotbed for protest politics and political parties of the left and right. All four provinces have strong rural and Christian constituencies, leading to an active presence of the Christian right. Historically, the heavy presence of agriculture led to the emergence in the past of large left-leaning, agrarian farmer's based protest movements such as the Progressive Party of Canada and the United Farmers of Canada which supported free trade with the United States and increased social benefits. These movements were later absorbed by the Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada (who became the progressive conservatives) and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). During the Great Depression, two radical protest movements appeared: the CCF in Saskatchewan advocated progressive social policies and reformist democratic socialism; while in Alberta, the Social Credit Party of Alberta formed a provincial government that favoured evangelical Christian conservatism, provincial control over natural resources, limited government intervention in the economy and a radical philosophy known as Social Credit based on providing dividends to the population to support small businesses and free enterprise. Provincial Social Credit parties went on to dominate the government of Alberta from 1934 to 1971 and British Columbia from 1951 to 1972 and 1975–1991. However, unlike the CCF, which morphed into the social-democratic New Democratic Party, the Social Credit Party would die out. Their popularity grew in Quebec, leading to Western supporters of Social Credit feeling isolated by the federal party's Quebec nationalism. The provincial Social Credit governments of British Columbia and Alberta would abandon Social Credit economic policies and followed staunchly conservative policies while maintaining ties with the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada as opposed to the federal Social Credit Party of Canada. In British Columbia, the BC Social Credit Party was replaced as the party of the centre-right by the British Columbia Liberal