C-15 Stalled In The Senate; IP21C Looms

C-15 is the law imposing mandatory minimum penalties on drug dealers that the Liberals got behind a few weeks ago in an attempt to dodge the "Soft on Crime" (SoC) label, thus triggering a certain amount of angst among loyal supporters and more generally anyone blessed with a lick of common sense.

I've argued many times during Dion's tenure that, given the LPoC's position of weakness, it was okay to play a bit of political jujitsu and let stuff pass in the HOC knowing it would expire "in the process" behind the scenes somewhere. However, I thought that those days of weakness were all behind us now and it would be possible to fight some of these battles in broad daylight.

It appears I was mistaken.

IP21C is the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act (read Geist for background). This is another bill that I have assumed will go nowhere. However, Roblaw (a decent Libertarian-type dude who visits occasionally and argues with Ti-Guy) tells me it resembles previous, LPoC introduced legislation, and so perhaps there will be discussions re "How do we weasel out of this one without looking SoC?" in LPoC backrooms over the summer.

Frankly, this looks to me like the kind of legislation (like C-15) more likely to split the Tory constituency rather than progressives, and therefore something LPoC could safely stand tall against, but what do I know?

Western Standard On C-15

See, we are told by Liberal insiders that Liberal support for C-15 makes a certain amount of twisted sense if it is considered in the light of some cold political calculus: we want a crack at the Tory "tough on crime" voter. But, on this issue, how many votes does that amount to? There is a whole swath of the Conservaverse--ably represented by the lads at Western Standard--that demand some measure of effectiveness as well as "toughness" out of our drug laws. For them, C-15 is a load of crap, for reasons your typical progressive is likely to be familiar with.

It sounds to me like the Libs are selling their souls for a terribly thin slice of the electorate. (Otherwise somebody show me some polls demonstrating otherwise)

Iggy Vs. Dion: Spot The Difference

When Iggy grovels, he does it with clenched fists, thus displaying "leadership".



(PS. One thing about the Torys: at least they wait until they're in power before they start ignoring the grass-roots)