LEGALIZING MARIJUANA WON'T HAPPEN UNDER THE CONSERVATIVES, HARPER SAYS

Prime Minister Takes Part in Celebration of $ 35 Million in Renos to
Science World

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday he won't bow to Vancouver
civic pressure to relax marijuana laws and subject the drug to a tax.

"That won't happen under our government," Harper told reporters at a
news conference celebrating $35 mil-lion in renovations to Science World.

"We're strongly opposed to the legalization of drugs. Obviously,
we're very concerned about the spread of drugs in the country and the
damage it is doing to our kids."

Four former Vancouver mayors of varied political stripes - Larry
Campbell, Mike Harcourt, Sam Sullivan and Philip Owen - this week
endorsed a call to end the prohibition on pot, which they blame for
contributing to gang violence. The call was later echoed by current
mayor Gregor Robertson.

Harper also waded into the growing debate over the unsustainable
global harvest of sharks.

Fin Donnelly, MP for New West-minster-Coquitlam and the NDP's critic
for fisheries and oceans, joined groups such as Shark Truth in
Vancouver on Friday to launch a national petition campaign calling on
the federal government to ban the import of shark fins.

In response, Harper said: "Canada does not favour a ban of shark
fins. We do, however, and we've been very clear that Canada supports
only the humane harvesting of sharks."

Donnelly said that the problem is there's no way to know whether an
imported fin came from a shark killed humanely. He said Canadians
strongly oppose the killing of sharks for shark fin soup - a status
symbol only - and hopes the prime minister can maintain an open mind
on the subject.

Of the $35 million in Science World upgrades, $10.5 million each came
from Canada's Economic Action Plan and the B.C. government.

Science World itself is chipping in $14 million.

The upgrades, which began in spring 2010, include a new lobby, an
additional 13,000 square feet of gallery space, an 11,000-square-foot
green roof, and solar-thermal technology for hot water and to reduce
the need for air conditioning.

The area around the building will become a 35,000-square-foot outdoor
science park, with completion due in spring 2012.

As Harper's motorcade left Science World, flanked by dozens of
heckling protesters, a van ran over the front wheel of an 18-speed
road bike owned by Holly Hendrigan of Vancouver.

She said she'd come to protest the cancellation of the long-form
federal census and to demand an inquiry into the sale of BC Rail.

"It's my trusty commuter," she said of the old bike. "I have been
told to keep it as a wheel of honour."

A Science World official promised to pay for the damage.