DOWN WITH POT, UP WITH SEALS: HARPER TO YOUTUBE

Stephen Harper waltzed through his first interview gig on YouTube on
Tuesday and along the way he gave a thumbs-up to the seal hunt and the
crackdown on "guns, gangs and drugs" and a firm thumbs-down to
legalizing pot.

"The reason drugs are illegal is because they are bad," the prime
minister said.

"And even if these things were legalized, I can predict with a lot of
confidence that these would never be respectable businesses run by
respectable people."

Canadian Patrick Pichette, Google's bilingual chief financial officer,
conducted the interview, and made a point of saying the question about
marijuana, which he asked last, won the most votes from those who
participated in the YouTube challenge.

"Well, it's a good question," Harper responded.

The 40-minute interview broke no new policy ground for the prime
minister, who appeared relaxed as he gave long, uninterrupted answers
to questions posed by Canadians and relayed by video or by Pichette.

The only hitch was that the interview, taped earlier Tuesday, was
posted more than an hour later than was scheduled.

A Google official later blamed technical problems for the delay -- the
problems in uploading an interview that was twice as long as expected.

The questions were straightforward and pressed Harper on such current
hot topics as the $56-billion budget deficit and his government's
handling of the Afghan detainee issue.

Someone identified as B. Jonte of Waterloo, Ont., asked Harper why the
government was not more open on the Afghan prisoner issue and why it
always responds to "legitimate" questions about the issue with "
'support our troops' and look the other way."

Harper said he disagreed with the premise of the question and said
that it's important to state there is no evidence Canadian soldiers
have done anything wrong.

He pointed to his appointment of Frank Iacobucci, a former Supreme
Court justice, to review the contents of still secret documents to
decide what can be released as proof of his openness on the issue.

Harper flatly rejected a questioner's appeal to cancel the 2010
commercial seal hunt, saying there is "no danger" of the seal
population disappearing and that his government would continue to
"vigorously defend our sealers" in the face of domestic and
international criticism.

"There is no scientific evidence that says the seal population is in
jeopardy," he said.

On mandatory sentencing, he said that although he didn't think crime
was out of control in the country, there are "worrying growth areas,
particularly if you look at the areas of guns, gangs and drugs, and
this is a growth area, not just in Canada, but around the world."

Google spokeswoman Wendy Rozeluk said the tape was unedited, and that
there was no vetting of the questions by the PMO.

However, Harper and his staff, like anybody else with access to the
Internet, were able to tap into You-Tube's Talk Canada site to read
the questions in advance.