TORONTO — Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan is condemning what she calls the intervention of the American National Rifle Association in the federal election campaign.

"The NRA and their U.S.-style, big-money gun lobby efforts are not welcome here,'' McLellan said Monday.

McLellan is unhappy with a speech last weekend by an association director to the annual meeting of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. The Canadian association says on its Website that it asked the NRA for political organizing tips during an election.

But McLellan said "Young people are dying on the streets of Toronto as a result of gun violence.''

And NRA "efforts to foist a U.S.-style gun agenda on Canadians are inappropriate, especially given that this is the week when we remember the murder of 14 young women at the Ecole Polytechnique 16 years ago.''

McLellan says there is a place for responsible gun ownership in Canada.

"What I reject are the values of groups like the NRA u groups that would attempt to undo the laws we have . . . to protect Canadians when it comes to firearms,'' she said.

"The Conservatives need to think long and hard about the ramifications of their hard-line position on relaxing gun laws in Canada,'' she added.