NDP PROMISES CRACKDOWN ON CRIME

Vancouver candidate praises Layton while colleagues quit over drug
use

NDP candidate Don Davies lavished praise today on party leader Jack
Layton's anti-crime measures, saying Canadians deserve to feel safe in
their homes, on the streets and in their communities.

Unveiled before an audience of about 200 supporters at a campaign
rally in Edmonton, Layton pledged that, if elected, he would spend
$100 million a year to put 2,500 new police officers on the streets.

The plan also calls for $50 million a year to be put toward prevention
programs for at-risk youth and $25 million a year over four years for
witness-protection programs.

Davies, who is running in Conservative MP David Emerson's
Vancouver-Kingsway riding, said it was high time tougher measures were
taken against crime -- in particular, the proliferation of handguns
and gang activity.

These are issues, he said, he's seen first hand in his own
riding.

"Our community has been touched by handguns and gang activity and
elevated crime," he said. "That is why I am pleased to see our
national campaign come out with a strategy to take action." Unlike
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's approach to crime reduction, Davies
said, the NDP's is more "balanced." Not only does the NDP want to be
tough on crime, he said, but also tough on the causes of crime.

Other measures announced included: targeting the sale of illegal
weapons over the Internet, creating special policing units dedicated
to fighting organized crime and making first-degree-murder charges
applicable to gang-related homicides.

Layton's announcement, meanwhile, comes on the heels of a second
resignation made by a Vancouver-area NDP candidate over video images
involving drug smoking.

On Friday, Kirk Tousaw, the Vancouver Quadra candidate, resigned after
a video surfaced of him smoking pot as part of a dope-judging
competition with marijuana activist Marc Emery.

On his blogsite, Tousaw wrote: "I feel compelled to make this
difficult decision in light of the events of the past few days and the
likelihood that my past involvement in drug-policy reform work might
serve to continue to take the focus away from the issues that matter
most to Canadians." His resignation came two days after Dana Larsen,
an NDP candidate in the West-Vancouver Sunshine Coast riding, tendered
his notice following the emergence of videos showing him smoking pot
and dropping LSD.

Larsen told The Province he decided to resign because he didn't want
to "screw up" the election campaign.