Ryan Leef, the Conservative candidate for the Yukon, calls the May 2 federal election unnecessary, but now that it's a reality, electing a majority Conservative government would be in the best interests of voters.

"I know none of us on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's team wanted this campaign; this is not where any of us should be,” Leef told media assembled at his Whitehorse campaign headquarters this morning.

"All the parties shouldn't be on the campaign trail, but back in Ottawa working on the real priorities of Canadians.”

These priorities, said Leef, are "keeping taxes down, giving the armed forces the tools they need to do their jobs and working to make the streets safer ... (by) putting the rights of victims ahead of the rights of criminals.”

Leef's references to the Conservatives' plan to drop corporate taxes, the controversial sole-source purchase of 65 next-generation fighter jets and Harper's "tough on crime” policy, stopped short of acknowledging that the latter two issues are what ultimately plunged the country into a federal election.

On March 25, the majority of MPs supported a Liberal non-confidence motion based on a House of Commons committee's determination the government was in contempt of Parliament for failing to disclose the real costs of purchasing F-35 jets and increasing the number of beds in the Canadian prison system.

Leef also repeated the Conservatives' mantra that a "coalition” government of Liberal, NDP and Bloc Québécois MPs would pose a threat, in the event Canadians elected another minority government.

And the former cage fighter and current superintendent at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre came out swinging against Liberal incumbent Larry Bagnell's flip-flop on the long-gun registry last September.

"It's certainly not the only issue but this is getting a fair bit of attention right now primarily because it was an important issue for Yukoners,” said Leef.

"We were told one thing on our doorsteps and another happened in Ottawa ... when an MP makes a commitment to do something, you should be able to take that to the bank.”

Bagnell is on record as opposing the registry, and originally supported a Conservative MP Candace Hoepner's private member's bill to scrap it last year.

But after Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff whipped his caucus, Bagnell said he had no choice but to vote against Hoepner's bill, which was narrowly defeated 153 to 151.

Leef said the Conservatives would abolish the long-gun registry if elected to a majority government – a promise that Harper's already made on the hustings – and touted the prime minister's proposal to create a new hunting and wildlife advisory panel.

"We have to make common sense of northerners and rural Canadians more common in Ottawa,” said Leef.

Asked how the panel would affect the myriad of wildlife management boards already in place in provincial and territorial jurisdictions, including the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board, Leef said it would act as an information clearing house.

"I don't think we'd see (the panel) as an oversight ... it certainly would be something that would take information and work together in some form or fashion,” said Leef.

"I think this is looking more at how we celebrate that heritage and that past ... and what roles that board can play in supporting the existing things that are already here in the Yukon.”

Like Harper did at the start of the federal election campaign, Leef warned that only a "strong, stable Conservative majority” would safeguard Canadian interests at home and abroad.

"A sea of troubles is lapping at our shores – disaster in the Pacific, chaos in the Middle East, debt problems in Europe and of course some serious challenges south of the border,” Leef said.

"This country, Canada, is the closest thing the world has to an island of stability and security, and the last thing Canada needs is an Ignatieff, NDP, Bloc Québécois government that would raise taxes in the middle of an economic recovery to pay for spending the country cannot afford.”