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OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin took a break Saturday from the eight-week federal election campaign, allowing Conservative Leader Stephen Harper to once again set the daily news agenda by focusing on crime and punishment.
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For the fourth consecutive day, Harper rolled out a key plank in his platform, this time highlighting the drug-control section of the party's criminal justice agenda with promises of mandatory prison sentences, stiffer fines and an end of conditional sentences.
"I want to talk about the values of a peaceful, orderly and safe society, and a problem none of the other parties seem to care about - the problem of crime and the threat it poses to our families and our communities," Harper said at a recreation centre in Burnaby, B.C.
Among the Conservative promises:
-Mandatory, minimum sentences of at least two years for trafficking, exporting, importing or producing heroin, cocaine and crystal meth, as well as more than three kilograms of marijuana or hashish.
-Eliminating conditional sentences, or house arrest, for all indictable drug offences.
-A commitment to not reintroduce legislation to decriminalize marijuana.
-Make it harder to get the chemicals needed to make crystal meth, such as ephedrine and cold remedies. Manitoba and Saskatchewan adopted a similar strategy last month.
-Close safe-injection sites in Vancouver and elsewhere.
Several studies have shown minimum mandatory sentences add an enormous cost burden to the corrections system without offering any clear deterrent.
But Harper said he wants to see concrete justice ideas that work.
"I think common sense is that if you're serious about enforcing the law, you provide real penalties," said Harper. "And the evidence I've seen suggests that what works are penalties that are fairly certain, not penalties that will not, in fact, be imposed."
The Liberals quickly tried to turn the tables on Harper.
The party issued a release stating the opposition parties, by forcing this election campaign, effectively killed eight bills that would have strengthened law enforcement in Canada.
Among those bills was a proposed law that would have established new criminal offences and tougher sentences to target marijuana grow-ops.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said his party is alone in offering a balanced approach to drug crime.
"We've got to get to the root causes of crime - despair, poverty, addiction - in our communities," Layton said during a campaign stop in Vancouver.
"That means we've got to put an equal emphasis on the prevention of crime in the first place, as we put on dealing with the results of crime at the end of the day."
Layton said the NDP would be coming out with its own criminal justice platform soon.
But the softwood lumber dispute with the United States was his issue of choice Saturday.
He repeated his party position that duties may be necessary on Canadian energy exports heading south as retaliation for American tariffs that remain on softwood imports.
"Nobody wants to have to do this," Layton told reporters.
"We're suggesting that if fairness isn't brought into the trade relationship around softwood . . . you've got to take some action," he added.
"A self-respecting nation can't simply roll over and say, as Mr. Martin has been saying, 'I will continue to chatter at you if you don't give us some fairness.' "
Layton rejected claims that an export duty on energy would hurt Canada's oil and gas industry, arguing Canada provides "an enormous percentage" of oil and gas to the United States.
He suggested the duty could be used to recoup the more than $5 billion the U.S. has collected in softwood duties.
Since the writ was dropped Tuesday to kick off the winter campaign, Harper has championed a special prosecutor for federal criminal matters, a two-per-cent reduction in the GST and a health-care wait-time guarantee.
At each turn he has come out with his message early, forcing other leaders to respond before being able to shift the media's focus back to their own message of the day.
But faced with an eight-week campaign, the leaders are no doubt strategizing as much about pacing as they are about building momentum.
On Saturday, Harper met with local residents at the Burnaby recreation centre and heard some of their horrifying experiences with drugs.
Lori, a recovering crystal meth addict who does not want her last name used, said she doesn't vote and was contacted by his staff to attend the event.
But she wasn't very positive on Harper's plan.
The 40-year-old Surrey resident still carries her inmate's card from one of her many stints in jail, but is now unrecognizable when compared to the shockingly thin, haggard brunette in the photo.
Lori hadn't been shown the details of Harper's drug crime platform and wondered if it contained anything about recovery programs. It did not.
"If it's not in there, that's really going to make me angry," she said, after offering her advice and sharing her story with Harper's team.
"I'd really like to know why he'd not say anything."
Conservative officials say Harper will clarify his stance on recovery funding later.
Last summer, the Liberal government increased penalties for processing, making and trafficking crystal meth to bring them in line with those associated with heroin and cocaine.
The measures came under attack by some frontline social workers as doing little to combat the problem with those other drugs.
Specially designated prosecutors also now deal with the most serious cases and will speak to judges in sentencing about crystal meth.
Shortly after his announcement, Harper was asked to revisit an earlier campaign theme.
In response to a reporter's question about private health care, Harper suggested he would opt for private care rather than see his wife suffer.
"Well, I'll just say that as a father and a husband, you will do whatever you need to do to take care of your family," Harper told CKNW.
When asked if that means he "would have gone private?" Harper replied: "If that's what I had to do."
Harper was emphatic Friday when he rolled out his health-care plan that "there will be no private, parallel system."
But he added that if elected prime minister, he would require provinces to meet wait-time deadlines or patients could be sent to other provinces or the United States to ensure timely care.
Martin's campaign tour was to resume Sunday with a flight to St. John's, N.L. for events Monday.
ADVERTISEMENT
For the fourth consecutive day, Harper rolled out a key plank in his platform, this time highlighting the drug-control section of the party's criminal justice agenda with promises of mandatory prison sentences, stiffer fines and an end of conditional sentences.
"I want to talk about the values of a peaceful, orderly and safe society, and a problem none of the other parties seem to care about - the problem of crime and the threat it poses to our families and our communities," Harper said at a recreation centre in Burnaby, B.C.
Among the Conservative promises:
-Mandatory, minimum sentences of at least two years for trafficking, exporting, importing or producing heroin, cocaine and crystal meth, as well as more than three kilograms of marijuana or hashish.
-Eliminating conditional sentences, or house arrest, for all indictable drug offences.
-A commitment to not reintroduce legislation to decriminalize marijuana.
-Make it harder to get the chemicals needed to make crystal meth, such as ephedrine and cold remedies. Manitoba and Saskatchewan adopted a similar strategy last month.
-Close safe-injection sites in Vancouver and elsewhere.
Several studies have shown minimum mandatory sentences add an enormous cost burden to the corrections system without offering any clear deterrent.
But Harper said he wants to see concrete justice ideas that work.
"I think common sense is that if you're serious about enforcing the law, you provide real penalties," said Harper. "And the evidence I've seen suggests that what works are penalties that are fairly certain, not penalties that will not, in fact, be imposed."
The Liberals quickly tried to turn the tables on Harper.
The party issued a release stating the opposition parties, by forcing this election campaign, effectively killed eight bills that would have strengthened law enforcement in Canada.
Among those bills was a proposed law that would have established new criminal offences and tougher sentences to target marijuana grow-ops.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said his party is alone in offering a balanced approach to drug crime.
"We've got to get to the root causes of crime - despair, poverty, addiction - in our communities," Layton said during a campaign stop in Vancouver.
"That means we've got to put an equal emphasis on the prevention of crime in the first place, as we put on dealing with the results of crime at the end of the day."
Layton said the NDP would be coming out with its own criminal justice platform soon.
But the softwood lumber dispute with the United States was his issue of choice Saturday.
He repeated his party position that duties may be necessary on Canadian energy exports heading south as retaliation for American tariffs that remain on softwood imports.
"Nobody wants to have to do this," Layton told reporters.
"We're suggesting that if fairness isn't brought into the trade relationship around softwood . . . you've got to take some action," he added.
"A self-respecting nation can't simply roll over and say, as Mr. Martin has been saying, 'I will continue to chatter at you if you don't give us some fairness.' "
Layton rejected claims that an export duty on energy would hurt Canada's oil and gas industry, arguing Canada provides "an enormous percentage" of oil and gas to the United States.
He suggested the duty could be used to recoup the more than $5 billion the U.S. has collected in softwood duties.
Since the writ was dropped Tuesday to kick off the winter campaign, Harper has championed a special prosecutor for federal criminal matters, a two-per-cent reduction in the GST and a health-care wait-time guarantee.
At each turn he has come out with his message early, forcing other leaders to respond before being able to shift the media's focus back to their own message of the day.
But faced with an eight-week campaign, the leaders are no doubt strategizing as much about pacing as they are about building momentum.
On Saturday, Harper met with local residents at the Burnaby recreation centre and heard some of their horrifying experiences with drugs.
Lori, a recovering crystal meth addict who does not want her last name used, said she doesn't vote and was contacted by his staff to attend the event.
But she wasn't very positive on Harper's plan.
The 40-year-old Surrey resident still carries her inmate's card from one of her many stints in jail, but is now unrecognizable when compared to the shockingly thin, haggard brunette in the photo.
Lori hadn't been shown the details of Harper's drug crime platform and wondered if it contained anything about recovery programs. It did not.
"If it's not in there, that's really going to make me angry," she said, after offering her advice and sharing her story with Harper's team.
"I'd really like to know why he'd not say anything."
Conservative officials say Harper will clarify his stance on recovery funding later.
Last summer, the Liberal government increased penalties for processing, making and trafficking crystal meth to bring them in line with those associated with heroin and cocaine.
The measures came under attack by some frontline social workers as doing little to combat the problem with those other drugs.
Specially designated prosecutors also now deal with the most serious cases and will speak to judges in sentencing about crystal meth.
Shortly after his announcement, Harper was asked to revisit an earlier campaign theme.
In response to a reporter's question about private health care, Harper suggested he would opt for private care rather than see his wife suffer.
"Well, I'll just say that as a father and a husband, you will do whatever you need to do to take care of your family," Harper told CKNW.
When asked if that means he "would have gone private?" Harper replied: "If that's what I had to do."
Harper was emphatic Friday when he rolled out his health-care plan that "there will be no private, parallel system."
But he added that if elected prime minister, he would require provinces to meet wait-time deadlines or patients could be sent to other provinces or the United States to ensure timely care.
Martin's campaign tour was to resume Sunday with a flight to St. John's, N.L. for events Monday.
