As If There Were No More Important Issues Enough (Part Deux)

Ooh yeah - can ya feel da toughness and manlymaness of our Prime Douchebag?

Cuz there he goes again.

Dig it:

Tories would end house arrest sentences for serious crimes

Stephen Harper on Tuesday continued his party's focus on anti-crime proposals, saying a re-elected Conservative government would amend the Criminal Code to ensure serious indictable crimes are not eligible for conditional house arrest sentences.

The announcement comes a day after the Conservative leader's pledge that young people 14 and over found guilty of crimes such as manslaughter, murder or aggravated assault would face tougher sentences, and no longer have their identities protected.

Yes indeed - because crime is THE issue of the times in Canada, right?

Right?

Ummm ... let's see:

Crimes by type of offence

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
	rate per 100,000 population
All incidents	8,900.6	8,949.0	8,532.0	8,298.7	7,778.2
Criminal Code offences (excluding traffic offences)	8,142.3	8,160.5	7,769.4	7,542.7	6,983.6
Crimes of violence	965.0	944.4	949.1	953.8	929.6
Homicide	1.7	2.0	2.1	1.9	1.8
Attempted murder	2.2	2.1	2.5	2.6	2.4
Assaults (level 1 to 3)1	747.6	732.2	732.5	737.0	718.5
Sexual assault	74.2	72.0	72.8	68.1	65.0
Other sexual offences	8.1	8.2	8.6	8.5	8.4
Robbery	89.8	85.9	89.1	94.2	89.8
Other crimes of violence2	41.3	42.0	41.6	41.6	43.7
Property crimes	4,120.6	3,969.3	3,735.8	3,596.0	3,319.7
Breaking and entering	899.5	862.2	808.9	769.9	700.3
Motor vehicle theft	550.0	531.3	495.2	485.9	443.2
Theft over $5,000	61.3	53.0	53.2	52.4	52.7
Theft $5,000 and under	2,211.8	2,106.6	1,976.6	1,892.3	1,756.5
Possession of stolen goods	104.7	111.7	106.7	110.2	99.4
Frauds	293.4	304.6	295.2	285.4	267.7
Other Criminal Code offences	3,056.8	3,246.8	3,084.5	2,992.9	2,734.2
Criminal Code offences (traffic offences)	369.7	377.1	376.3	374.3	400.1
Impaired driving	245.1	251.1	242.5	233.2	241.1
Other traffic offences3	124.6	126.0	133.8	141.2	159.0
Federal statutes	388.5	411.5	386.3	381.8	394.6
Drugs	274.0	305.1	289.9	294.6	305.3
Other federal statutes	114.5	106.3	96.5	87.2	89.3
1. "Assault level 1" is the first level of assault. It constitutes the intentional application of force without consent, the attempt or threat to apply force to another person, or openly wearing a weapon (or an imitation) while accosting or impeding another person. 2. Includes unlawfully causing bodily harm, discharging firearms with intent, abductions, assaults against police officers, assaults against other peace or public officers and other assaults. 3. Includes dangerous operation of motor vehicle, boat, vessel or aircraft, dangerous operation of motor vehicle, boat, vessel or aircraft causing bodily harm or death, driving motor vehicle while prohibited and failure to stop or remain. Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM, table (for fee) 252-0013. Last Modified: 2008-07-17.

Find information related to this table (CANSIM table(s); Definitions, data sources and methods; The Daily; publications; and related Canadian Statistics tables).

Ooops - looks like the rates per 100,000 population of pretty much every type of crime catalogued have been going down since 2003.

So what to do then? Pretend nevertheless that crime in our streets is a (shriek!) plague (shriek!), that we are "too soft" on those menacing (shriek!) and scary (shriek!) criminals, and of course blame the previous "liberal" governments, as well as the current LPC and NDP opposition, for these desparing times for all of us helpless law-abiding citizens - right?

Ri-ight:

Speaking in Saskatchewan, Harper said his government's past attempts to end house arrest were thwarted by the Liberals, NDP and the Bloc Québécois during the last session in Parliament.

"Unlike the opposition parties, we don’t believe that house arrest is a suitable punishment for those who commit these kinds of crimes, and Canadians don’t believe it either," Harper said during an appearance in Saskatoon while campaigning for the Oct. 14 federal election.

The Conservatives say more than 11,150 criminals were serving conditional sentences in 2006, including 2,791 convicted of violent crimes.

And there you have it: when truly important issues like the economy, Afghanistan, freedom of choice for women and shameless U.S. G.O.P./Bush/Cheney/neocon emulation run the risk of sinking your chances at being re-elected, borrow (always) from the typical U.S. G.O.P./Bush/Cheney/neocon playbook and use fearmongering to push instead the "vital" (non-)issue of fighting crime, of being tough on criminals and of being tough on crime punishment (that is, if 9/11 and the fear of terrorists do not float as well as expected).

Q.E.D. yet again.

This works especially when most Canadians are not paying that much close of attention to these current elections.

This also works when the LPC and NDP are now back to their unfocused, ill-planned and ill-prepared campagning ways (examples here, here, here and here) - instead of hammering home the messages that are supposed to be so simple and direct.

So there you have it - Harper and the CPC: when throwing pixie dust in your eyes and scaring the beejeesus out of you matters more than dealing with reality and their failings as government, as a neocon/far right/Christian right party, as an ideology.

But hey - if they make you feel safe and secure and blahblahblah ...

Right?

(I think I'm beginning to suffer from stomach ulcers ...)