TOUGH COP APPROACH

It's one thing to show you're tough on crime. However, even a harsh
stance against criminal behaviour -- something Canadians demand -- has
its limits.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Justice Minister Vic Toews have told
Canadians in no uncertain terms that there are new sheriffs in town.

Speaking to a national gathering of police officers in Ottawa Monday,
Harper and Toews reiterated the Tories' hang-'em-high,
take-no-prisoners approach to lawmaking.

We applaud their crime-fighting efforts, such as: locking up repeat
offenders for the long haul rather than granting them parole so they
can commit more crimes; getting rid of feeble conditional sentences
that are handed to criminals who deserve far longer jail sentences;
putting more police, including 1,000 additional police officers on our
streets, and; finally scrapping the wasteful, inefficient and
ineffective long gun registry.

But on one front, Harper's hard-as-nails sheriff act wears pretty
thin.

Once again, both the prime minister and justice minister vowed to tear
up the Liberals' proposed bill to decriminalize possession of small
amounts of marijuana and instead enforce the current law, which too
often results in recreational pot smokers tying up the court system
and carrying a criminal sentence for their insignificant crime.

Stances like these, draconian and out-of-step with the practices of
many younger Canadians, will be what make Tories appear archaic and
stale to younger Canadians.

The current governing party needs more libertarian thinking, like that
of Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette MP Inky Mark -- who to his credit says
marijuana should be legalized.