Let's Be Sensible About Crime

This is how the Conservatives presented the options.  
Do Canadians really believe this message?

The Conservative Party’s strategy of targeting issues that their polling machinery assures them have popular support is nowhere more evident than in its proposed legislation to get “tough on crime”. We may not agree as to whether or not we are in the midst of a wave of crime that justifies tougher legislation but we probably do agree that we should know its cost. That issue was the focus of John Ibbitson’s article in this morning’s Globe. John points out that “the House Finance committee which is dominated by opposition MP’s, wants to know two things: the projected corporate profits from 2010 to 2015, and the cost of implementing the Conservative’s legislation to lengthen prison sentences and reduce parole. To both requests, the Finance Department returned a one paragraph answer: Such data was ‘a matter of cabinet confidence and, as such, the government is not in a position to provide such information’.” Here are a couple of other quotes from John’s column that I though were particularly insightful:

“The Harper Government uses ‘cabinet confidence’ the way the Nixon administration used ‘executive privilege’.”


“this latest episode reinforces the government’s determination to keep such a tight control on information that it becomes impossible for you to judge your government or for Parliament to do its job”

In the same article the point is made that the Conservatives hope to win a majority in the next election based on their prudent management of the economy. Prudent and stable it may be but so too was the management style of the late Mubarak regime.

AH