Well, though this may be my first time blogging I still plan to make the best of it. And what with the up and coming Canadian election the potential joy of looking at the various promises made by the five parties during the campaign is enough to make a cynic like me chortle with barely concealed mirth. So without further ado here are a few of the parties campaign promises dealing with crime and punishment.
The Conservatives pledge to get tough on crime, again, by hiring another 1000 RCMP officers and 2,500 more provincial or regional officers. This begs the question as to how the Conservatives will go about hiring police officers in the provinces, since I'm pretty sure that would be the provinces job. The Harper crowd also pledges $20 Million in anti-gang initiatives and youth protection programs. This would actually be great, providing a decent system is in place to make proper use of the money. Finally, Harper plans to do away with the firearms registry. While I must admit that the firearms registry has been a blatant waste of money so far and has all the tracking ability of a blind, deaf and anosmic bloudhound it would be ridiculous to simply scrap something that cost millions of tax payers dollars to set up.
Now for the Liberals. Again with the idea of gun control but this time coming from the other side. Rather than do away with the registry, the Liberals want to ban guns. Mind you, they only want to enforce a ban on military semi-automatic assault models that are currently on sale. I can see the value of outlawing something that was meant to kill people. I mean, you don't need armour piercing rounds to go deer hunting so why sell them at all. That's pretty much it from the Liberals so far.
The NDP completely ignore any issues with the gun registry and go straight for the real problem: Illeagal firearms. Layton wants to stop illeagal firearms sales and imports from the United States and want's to set 2,500 new police officers on such a job. This would actually help limit crime as for the most part, criminals don't worry too much about registering their weapons in the first place. The NDP also want to strengthen the Witness Protection Program, another move that makes good sense.
Now for the Bloc Quebecois. Duceppe and his party wants to alter the firearms registry to actually make it effective. While this sounds like a great idea in theory I think we need some more details as to how he wants to change it before I'm sold on the matter. Once more, the fight against street gangs is heralded by the Bloc.
The Green party adds to the Gun registry debate by proposing an eventual ban on handguns adn semi-automatics while at the same time eliminating fees for long gun registration. In another note they also want to legalise Marijuana. This is more in an effort to put a tax on the billion dollar revenue that weed makes in an average year than for any real desire among the greens to smoke up while in parliament.
And there you have it. Until I somehow get my hands on some more election promises/laws best of luck to you all and vote safe.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
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2 comments:
First off, thanks for the summary. It gets a little hectic to keep up with the elections and actually know what each party proposes. It seems like the NDP is the only one ready to actually make an effective change in gun laws. While the Liberals have a good start at wanting to ban guns meant to kill people, as you put it, they fail to address the issue of illegal firearms. I agree with you in that illegal firearms are the true issue because as we are all aware our neighbourhood criminals are not exactly going out to buy guns at our local gun stores. It may be a difficult task but the fact of the matter is that our government needs to invest their time and our resources in stopping illegal firearm sales and imports and only then will we probably start to see a difference in the matter. As for the Conservatives, I don’t think that adding extra police force across the country is the answer to our crime problem. In an effort to decrease street crime why not take the money intended for this increased police force and invest it in programs aimed at keeping young people off the streets and instead keeping them in school or working. Most street criminals resort to such a life because of no other choices available to them. – Melissa Iacono
I tend to agree with your idea, properly educating the youth and having social programs in place to help the poor tends to stop criminality more than simple enforcers prowling the streets. Ultimately a mix of good education, advanced social policies and a strong police force can pretty much decrease most forms of crime. Granted organized crime would survive but you can't have everything.
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