TORIES TAKE ON DRUGS

Harper Vows Tougher Laws, Says He Won't Decriminalize Pot

Conservative leader Stephen Harper released his party's plan to crack
down on drug crimes yesterday while crossing swords with New
Democratic Party leader Jack Layton over trade issues.

On a day when Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin did not campaign,
the Conservatives promised to impose mandatory minimum sentences;
eliminate conditional sentences such as house arrest; bring in
tougher fines for drug traffickers and producers; scrap plans made by
the Liberal party to decriminalize marijuana and introduce a national
drug strategy targeted at Canadian youth.

For the fourth consecutive day, Harper rolled out a key plank in his
platform. He has promised to cut the GST to five per cent, tackle
hospital wait times and create a special office to oversee federal
criminal prosecutions .

Harper also took the opportunity yesterday to accuse Martin of
abandoning Quebec Premier Jean Charest and focusing instead on the
separatist threat posed by the Bloc Quebecois, and enabling drug use
and drug addiction through weak law-and-order policies.

"I haven't yet heard from Mr. Martin and ... from the Liberals talk
about the future of the country and where they want to take it,"
Harper told reporters. "I don't anticipate I'll hear very much about
that in this election campaign."

The Tory approach to drug crimes - which are staples of Conservative
policy - would slap mandatory minimum sentences of at least two years
for trafficking drugs such as heroin, cocaine and crystal meth.

It would also apply the same penalties to similar offences involving
bulk amounts of marijuana or hashish. Fines for trafficking or
producing drugs would be increased to "reflect the street value" and
would escalate for repeat offences.

Harper said Ottawa must send a clear message the proliferation of
illegal drugs is unacceptable.

"Our values are under attack," he told reporters, adding that
ensuring a peaceful and safe society is "a value that none of the
other parties seem to care about."

The Liberals quickly tried to turn the tables on Harper.

The party issued a statement saying the opposition parties, by
forcing this election campaign, effectively killed eight bills that
would have strengthened law enforcement in Canada.

Among those bills was a proposed law that would have established new
criminal offences and tougher sentences to target marijuana grow-ops.

NDP leader Jack Layton said his party is alone in offering a balanced
approach to drug crime.

"We've got to get to the root causes of crime - despair, poverty,
addiction - in our communities," Layton said during a campaign stop
in Vancouver.

"That means we've got to put an equal emphasis on the prevention of
crime in the first place, as we put on dealing with the results of
crime at the end of the day."

Layton said the NDP will be coming out with its own criminal justice
platform soon.

Layton and Harper crossed paths only briefly on the West Coast
yesterday, but it was long enough to spark a war of words on trade policy.

Layton continued his assault on the Liberals' handling of the
softwood lumber dispute with the United States, calling on Prime
Minister Paul Martin to stop chatting and start fighting back.

"Here's the Martin line to the United States," Layton said. "Now ...
you guys ... you just stop that ... or I'll ... talk again."

The New Democrat is pushing a plan that would see the country slap
export duties on oil-and gas-exports as a way of recovering billions
in tariffs collected by the U.S. on Canadian softwood.

But while Layton was mocking the prime minister, Harper had his own
assessment of the NDP strategy.

"If you are going to take retaliatory actions - and we don't rule
those out - you take retaliatory actions against the other country,"
Harper told a news conference in Vancouver. "To slap tariffs on our
own products won't do anything but hurt our own producers."

Harper added while the Layton plan "sounds superficially appealing,"
in reality it's "absurd" and "ridiculous."

"I think it's a reason why the NDP should never run the economy of
any province or this country," he said.

Layton denied a surcharge would hurt energy companies because demand
for energy from the United States is so great.

Since the writ was dropped Tuesday to kick off the winter campaign,
Harper has come out with his message early, forcing other leaders to
respond before being able to shift the media's focus back to their
own message of the day.

But faced with an eight-week campaign, the leaders are no doubt
strategizing as much about pacing as they are about building momentum.

Shortly after his announcement in Burnaby, Harper was asked to
revisit an earlier campaign theme.

In an interview with a Vancouver radio station yesterday morning,
Harper sparked interest with comments he would seek out and use
private health care if his wife was forced to wait upwards of 18
months for a hip replacement under the public health-care system.

"Well, I'll just say that as a father and a husband you will do
whatever you need to do to take care of your family," he said, adding
he would take sick family members to a private clinic "if that's what
I had to do."

"I need to point out," he added, "that I never have. Unlike our
national leader, I never used private health-care services."

Harper pledged this week that while he would not force private health
clinics to shut down in Canada, he would not put in place a private,
parallel health-care system if he were prime minister.

Harper would, however, try to force provincial governments to pay for
patients to be transferred to other jurisdictions, or to the United
States, if they are unable to offer timely local health services.