Second Thots

Sometimes one has to step back, take pause, and have some "second thots"

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

 

Will Dion shed the 'soft on crime' label?


Stephane Dion's announcements today are an attempt to defend himself against the charge that he's soft on crime. However, he must know that they don't address the central issue in the debate, which is that of sentencing.

As the Winnipeg Sun's Tom Brodbeck outlines for us today with a stark example, our current justice system isn't putting and keeping enough hardened criminals in jail. It's giving them too many chances to reoffend — and to create more innocent victims while they're at it.

From a political standpoint, I'm not sure if Dion has done enough to neutralize himself on this issue. He's spending more money. He says he wants to get tough. He's even vowing to support the prime minister's tough bail policies. Yet his proposals don't seem to contain a big-ticket item to counter what the Tories have and will continue to throw at him, which is that serious offenders need to be put behind bars — period.

While Dion is obviously not surrendering on the issue of crime, I'm not sure if he'll be able to shed the label that the Tories have been able to stick on him as that of being a weak leader.


Comments:
I'm waiting to see how the MSM will fall all over itself reporting this. Whenever the Conservatives propose getting tough on crime during campaigns the first thing you hear from the MSM is bleating on how much extra it is going to cost the taxpayer to keep people in jail longer, nada about how they wont be able to commit more crimes while they are in etc..

It'll be interesting to see if they spin it the same way now that it's Dion talking the tough talk.

Besides, does anyone take him seriously on this?

 
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It's pretty difficult to see how Canadians are going to react positively to this tone from Prof. Dion. The Liberals just came across as soft on terrorism, yet again, only two weeks ago, when the opposition voted down extending two anti-terrorism provisions.

Put the two together, and you get Dion doing damage control. That's all.

 
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On CBC Politics today, they showed Dion making his 'law and order' proclamations, followed up by a 10 second Harper rebuttal ... and then they brought in the Ontario A-G who explained how good Dion's plan was for Ontario .. giving him about 5 minutes of free CBC-Liberal promotion time.

Why are Canadian taxpayers subsidizing the CBC for an estimated $1.5 Billion from all sources .. when all they are is a Liberal propaganda organ?

 
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I am not surprised the Ontario AG was on the show to explain this amazing turnaround on crime. HE wrote it!!!! A few weeks ago the Liberals actually leaked his letter of "advice" to them on this issue.
Problem is - Dion is stepping on Provincial jurisdiction in much of this; he did not consult with the AG's of any other provinces, his one off deals skrew up the equalization payments to provinces which is to pay for provincial and municipal police and crown attorneys AND he did not consult with the RCMP who already have a capacity of recruits to train -it has nothing to do with money.

It is to laugh.

 
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I think mandatory minimums are going to be an election issue, especially since they tie into Harper's policy of putting more police representation on judicial selection committees.

Harper says all opposition parties supported mandatory minimums during the election campaign. Now they don't.

 
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A good start would be taking the vote away from incarcerated criminals. This effectively gives the vote to the victims.

 
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