Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The distemper of our times

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, February 24, 2011 11:54am - 54 Comments

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews goes to Newfoundland and says opposition MPs from the province have said nothing about building a prison there. Liberal MP Scott Simms produces a letter from 2008 to show that this is untrue. Mr. Toews says that letter doesn’t count because it was sent when Stephane Dion was leader of the Liberal party and when Stockwell Day was the public safety minister.

“These letters date back to a previous leader of the Liberal Party of Canada to a previous Public Safety Minister,” Toews said. “If Mr. Simms disagrees with his current Leader’s position on law and order matters he should raise it with his leader.”

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  • Mike T.

    New criteria invented on the spot, to be replaced by another if its met.

    • Jenn_

      You said this somewhere earlier this week, didn't you? How very quickly its been added to the DefCon list. TedBetts, can you remember to revise the list please?

      • BCer in Mtl

        That list is probably invalid, it was made when we had a different opposition leader, and prior to several cabinet shuffles.

      • Mike T.

        I think it started with "Dion has to renounce his French citzenship".

      • Cats

        Hey Jenn_ aren't you, Ignatieff, and Scott Simss against prison spending ?

        Except when you're not I guess.

        Epic Hypocrisy Alert Cats!

        • YYZ

          I've been watching your posts the last few days, and I like to think I can learn something from even the most partisan commenter on either side of the spectrum.

          But you are an unmitigated disaster. This will be my last reply to any of your comments. I encourage fellow readers to ignore you also.

          Cats: Away!

  • OriginalEmily1

    A new statute of limitations has been enacted apparently.

  • lgarvin

    Talk about your blank slate!

    Toews has the intellectual heft & the historical memory of an Etch-A-Sketch.

    • Dave

      In an intellectual heft cage-match with an Etch-A-Sketch, I'd put my money on the Etch-A-Sketch, not Toews.

      • lgarvin

        Depends on who's working the knobs…

        Hmmm… that might be a good description of Harper's style of caucus management. He works the knobs and then shakes em up when necessary.

        • Dave

          He is fortunate, then, in that he has a lot of knobs to work with.

    • wilson

      Well when Ignatieff lays out Liberal policy on an Etch-A-Sketch,
      that's what yah gotta work with!

      Ignatieff is still trying to figure out if a coalition is neccessary or, not neccessarity a coalition but something else, to be announced at a later date…subject to change

      • lgarvin

        Well when Ignatieff lays out Liberal policy on an Etch-A-Sketch,
        that's what yah gotta work with!

        If the Cons are taking their lead from Ignatieff, then it's a little weird to say he's "not a leader," isn't it?

        He's certainly setting the agenda for you guys,.

        • MostlyCivil

          "He didn't come back for you. He came back for us. Again, not you."

  • john g

    First we have rabid partisanship, now our politicians have distemper?

    Politics has really gone to the dogs.

    • ZestyMordant

      That's why it's best to keep them on a short leash.

      • CAPS

        Hi-yoh!

    • Mike T.

      heh!

    • Crit_Reasoning

      You're barking up the right tree. Things have gotten ruff.

    • gottabesaid

      Toews pooched this one if you ask me.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Ottawa_Centrist Ottawa_Centrist

    This sums up how this centrist is feeling lately:

    Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you,
    And I'm wondering what it is I should do,
    It's so hard to keep this smile from my face,
    Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place,
    Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right,
    Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

    • john g

      You're not going to slice somebody's ear off are you?

      • frobisher

        Well, it is almost the Super 70s Weekend. But gas is sooo expensive these days….

        Though current political discourse does seem to have devolved to events depicted in that awful scene.

  • Andrew Coyne

    Wait a minute: so the Conservatives are against building prisons (in Newfoundland) and the Liberals are in favour?

    I'm so confused.

    • Jan

      Crazy notion – building them where they're needed.

      • lgarvin

        Maybe we can put the unreported criminals in the unconstructed prisons. Two birds with one stone.

        • MostlyCivil

          Andrew, you eat this stuff all day and you're confused Imagine how the rest of us feel

        • Cats

          I hope we can catch a lot of unreported criminals !

          Unreported crime is WAY up.

          And we already know that 9 out of 10 sx crimes go unreported.

          You don't want to see rapists put behind bars ?

          Yes or No Cats ?

          • gottabesaid

            So we build new prisons for crimes that go unreported. Interesting logic. Maybe if you can come up with a way to make more of those unreported crimes become REPORTED crimes, then we can start building new prisons.

          • TimesArrow

            There's a plague of unreported crime out there!

            …lock up your sons and daughters, say your prayers and keep your powder dry.

            Geez! Has there ever been a worse case of no credible evidence fearmongering for votes in this country?

          • Livebloggin Junkie
          • D.D.S

            perhaps not so much anymore eh!… http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20100727/cle…

          • Halo_Override

            If that's a call to the ballot box, mark me down as No Cats.

          • Dave

            There are a whole host of problems with getting unreported rapists behind bars. I'll let you think about that for a while.

          • frobisher

            Yes to pre-crime!

          • lgarvin

            I'd like to see convicted rapists behind bars.

            An unreported crime makes about as much sense as a skinless balloon. It's an absurdity, an infinite regression, an abstraction that can not be made real. Formulating public policy on the basis of unreported crime is nothing more or less than voodoo. You might as well sacrifice a goat to balance the budget.

            Voodoo Cats.

    • TimesArrow

      I guess the cons aren't counting on the Newfoundland seats for their majority push right now – the moment they do it'll rain prisions in Newfoundland.

      • Jan

        I guess rural Quebec will be getting a prison.

        • Dave

          Does Port-Cartier count? If so — done!

    • Dave

      Newfoundland is also half an hour ahead.

  • Cam

    More Toews please. Canadians need to see more of him. The Conservatives should use him more as he just secured the re-election of the Liberal and the NDP MPs in St. John's.

    • Jan

      They could run a few of his committee meltdowns. He should be called 'Short fuse' Toews.

  • LdKitchenersOwn

    Could this all be explained by the fact that Stockwell Day forgot to give Vic Toews the key to the public safety filing cabinet?

  • Twisted_Mentat

    Hilarious: red, blue or orange Newfoundlanders are screaming out for a new prison or at least some federal funds to help maintain/fix the current penitentiary and nothing doing. This is exactly the kind of thing that would make inroads for the federal Conservatives in the province and they're just throwing it away.

    Mind-boggling.

  • wilson

    So would someone in the LPC kindly provide a list of what the Liberals said in 2008 that still applies today?
    Or is this one of those 'prisons if neccessary but not neccessarily prisons' thingys?

    And a list of, in what cities prisons ARE preferable to schools and hospitals and helping working families, the sick and the elderly.

    And further explaination please on the LPC policy about cancelling the purchase of $19B for fighter jets,
    confused with the Monday to Thursday version:
    'yes we want fighter jets,
    just not those ones unless the non-existant contract is cancelled and then WE pick the F35s'

    • http://dougsamu.wordpress.com dougrogers

      Could someone supply a list of what the CPC said in 2008 that still applies today?

      • danby

        That whole transparency and accountability line of horessh!t

        • Cats

          In 2008 the Liberals supported corporate tax cuts.

          Now they're against them and especially against prison spending.

          I guess Toews was suppose to know there was a magical, hyopcritical exemption for prisons built in the ridings of Liberal MPs ???

          Hyopcrisy alert, BIG TIME Cats

          • TimesArrow

            "Look, we want to put money into families and pensions as opposed to fighter jets and prisons. This is what he’s feeding off of, but we’re not talking about a brand new prison here,” Simms said. “This is an existing prison that desperately needs to be fixed or replaced.”

            No, Toews, like cats, simply doesn't do context.

          • Cats

            The prison program Toews is behind is almost 100% about renovations and expansions, not new facilities.

            TimesArrow doesn't understand hypocrisy I guess.

            Cats away!

          • Dave

            Then it should be a perfect fit to do work for the prison in Nfld. right?

      • wilson

        The wreckless coalition of socialists and separatists will seize government if Harper doesn't get a majority.
        Tax cuts are good.
        The economy is the number one priority of Canadians.
        Put criminals behind bars……etc etc
        what's changed?

        • MostlyCivil

          "The wreckless coalition "

          It's a maritime coalition?

          Wait, I remember something about pirates…

    • Thwim

      So what you're saying then, is that Liberals today do not share any characteristics of Liberals pre-Ignatieff?

      I trust that means it's the last time we've heard the Adscam rallying cry?

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