raven
01-06-2006, 09:15 PM
Source: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/CanadaVotes/2006/01/05/1380140-cp.html
Harper talks tough on gun crime
By MARTIN O’HANLON
OTTAWA (CP) - Stephen Harper is hoping to strike fear into the hearts of street punks and soothe the souls of voters with a pledge to get tough on gun crime - really tough.
The Conservative leader promised Thursday to crack down on crime so hard that anyone convicted of even holding an illegal, loaded handgun would get at least five years in jail.
It's part of a five-year, $500-million Tory plan to overhaul the justice system with sweeping reforms that would include:
-Shutting down the federal gun registry.
-Raising the age of sexual consent to 16.
-Allowing 14 year olds to be tried in adult court for serious or repeat offences.
-Ending conditional sentences (house arrest) for serious crimes and making it harder to get parole and bail.
-Hiring 1,000 new RCMP officers.
Harper also said he would allow border guards to carry sidearms, echoing a pledge made by NDP Leader Jack Layton on Wednesday.
The Tory effort is aimed at getting a big bang out of new polls that suggest people want action on crime, especially after a brazen Boxing Day gunfight between two groups of youths in downtown Toronto that left a 15-year-old girl dead.
Harper, standing just steps from where the girl was felled, accused the Liberals of being soft on crime and said that under a Conservative government, serious crime "means you do serious time."
"The revolving door of criminal justice of this current government bears significant responsibility for the tide of gun, drug and gang crime plaguing our cities," he said.
He then took a shot at Prime Minister Paul Martin, who has said that "exclusion" of some youths is a factor in the violence.
"Some suggested immediately that the Boxing Day shooters themselves were the victims of social exclusion, even as they were last seen leaving the scene in a BMW," Harper said.
"Social exclusion does not excuse turning Yonge Street into a shooting gallery."
He added that special efforts must be made to help at-risk youth.
Harper is riding a wave of momentum with all the major polls putting his Conservatives either ahead of the Liberals or in a statistical tie after weeks of trailing.
The latest poll, done by Leger Marketing for The Canadian Press, had the Tories at 34 per cent and the Liberals at 32 per cent. The NDP stood at 16 per cent and the Bloc Quebecois at 11.
Martin is hoping to stem the Tory tide and lure NDP supporters with a slew of multibillion-dollar announcements on health care, education, environment and foreign affairs.
On Thursday, he announced a new education and skills plan that would pay half the tuition of university and college students, up to $3,000, in their first and last year of study. The tuition measure alone would cost $600 million annually.
The plan would also commit $500 million for an income tax benefit to help people get off social assistance, lower barriers to help immigrants find jobs and increase the number of apprenticeship graduates to 75,000 a year from the current 37,000.
"I'm here today to announce that we will further support families by helping Canadians overcome barriers to obtaining an education, getting the right training and finding a good job," Martin said in Waterloo, Ont.
"Education and skills training unlock potential. They create choice for Canadians."
The total package adds up to $8.1 billion over five years, but Liberal officials said most of that was built into the November fiscal update.
The NDP's Layton rounded out his health-care platform in Winnipeg, saying he would create a $200-million-a-year fund to train more medical professionals, and stop federal money from going to provinces that allow private health insurance.
For a second day, Layton - who could be kingmaker in a minority government - warned about the dangers of Conservative government.
He said the Tories are "offside with the views of a great majority of Canadians" and have little in common with the New Democrats.
But he also dismissed the Liberals as "arrogant and corrupt," refusing to say which of the other parties he'd prefer to work with in the next Parliament.
The Leger poll, which surveyed 1,500 Canadians from Dec. 30 to Jan. 4, is considered accurate to within 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
After seeing Stephen Harper's latest comments I might actually make the effort to go to the polls and vote for the Conservatives. I am happy with some of the things he has been saying. He is clearly not the type of candidate who is going to reverse the multicult problem in Canada but he's shown himself to be more hard-assed than those softy liberals and I respect Harper for that at least.
Harper talks tough on gun crime
By MARTIN O’HANLON
OTTAWA (CP) - Stephen Harper is hoping to strike fear into the hearts of street punks and soothe the souls of voters with a pledge to get tough on gun crime - really tough.
The Conservative leader promised Thursday to crack down on crime so hard that anyone convicted of even holding an illegal, loaded handgun would get at least five years in jail.
It's part of a five-year, $500-million Tory plan to overhaul the justice system with sweeping reforms that would include:
-Shutting down the federal gun registry.
-Raising the age of sexual consent to 16.
-Allowing 14 year olds to be tried in adult court for serious or repeat offences.
-Ending conditional sentences (house arrest) for serious crimes and making it harder to get parole and bail.
-Hiring 1,000 new RCMP officers.
Harper also said he would allow border guards to carry sidearms, echoing a pledge made by NDP Leader Jack Layton on Wednesday.
The Tory effort is aimed at getting a big bang out of new polls that suggest people want action on crime, especially after a brazen Boxing Day gunfight between two groups of youths in downtown Toronto that left a 15-year-old girl dead.
Harper, standing just steps from where the girl was felled, accused the Liberals of being soft on crime and said that under a Conservative government, serious crime "means you do serious time."
"The revolving door of criminal justice of this current government bears significant responsibility for the tide of gun, drug and gang crime plaguing our cities," he said.
He then took a shot at Prime Minister Paul Martin, who has said that "exclusion" of some youths is a factor in the violence.
"Some suggested immediately that the Boxing Day shooters themselves were the victims of social exclusion, even as they were last seen leaving the scene in a BMW," Harper said.
"Social exclusion does not excuse turning Yonge Street into a shooting gallery."
He added that special efforts must be made to help at-risk youth.
Harper is riding a wave of momentum with all the major polls putting his Conservatives either ahead of the Liberals or in a statistical tie after weeks of trailing.
The latest poll, done by Leger Marketing for The Canadian Press, had the Tories at 34 per cent and the Liberals at 32 per cent. The NDP stood at 16 per cent and the Bloc Quebecois at 11.
Martin is hoping to stem the Tory tide and lure NDP supporters with a slew of multibillion-dollar announcements on health care, education, environment and foreign affairs.
On Thursday, he announced a new education and skills plan that would pay half the tuition of university and college students, up to $3,000, in their first and last year of study. The tuition measure alone would cost $600 million annually.
The plan would also commit $500 million for an income tax benefit to help people get off social assistance, lower barriers to help immigrants find jobs and increase the number of apprenticeship graduates to 75,000 a year from the current 37,000.
"I'm here today to announce that we will further support families by helping Canadians overcome barriers to obtaining an education, getting the right training and finding a good job," Martin said in Waterloo, Ont.
"Education and skills training unlock potential. They create choice for Canadians."
The total package adds up to $8.1 billion over five years, but Liberal officials said most of that was built into the November fiscal update.
The NDP's Layton rounded out his health-care platform in Winnipeg, saying he would create a $200-million-a-year fund to train more medical professionals, and stop federal money from going to provinces that allow private health insurance.
For a second day, Layton - who could be kingmaker in a minority government - warned about the dangers of Conservative government.
He said the Tories are "offside with the views of a great majority of Canadians" and have little in common with the New Democrats.
But he also dismissed the Liberals as "arrogant and corrupt," refusing to say which of the other parties he'd prefer to work with in the next Parliament.
The Leger poll, which surveyed 1,500 Canadians from Dec. 30 to Jan. 4, is considered accurate to within 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
After seeing Stephen Harper's latest comments I might actually make the effort to go to the polls and vote for the Conservatives. I am happy with some of the things he has been saying. He is clearly not the type of candidate who is going to reverse the multicult problem in Canada but he's shown himself to be more hard-assed than those softy liberals and I respect Harper for that at least.