TORIES WILL HAVE TO GET REAL

If Stephen Harper becomes prime minister on June 28 he will, in Jean
Chretien's memorable words, "have a lot of work to do."

Much of that work, of course, falls into the category of undoing the "work"
performed by Chretien and his band of merry pirates. That monumental task
will include:

- - De-lousing every department in the federal bureaucracy.

- - Identifying and deleting the myriad programs that drain the public purse
for no defensible reason, the gun registry being an obvious example.

- - Ensuring any and all persons involved in criminal wrongdoing under the
previous government are prosecuted according to Canadian law.

- - Restoring the effectiveness of national institutions ranging from
Parliament to the military, which have been systematically debased under
the Liberals.

- - Maintaining and improving key federal services while reducing families'
overall tax burdens.

It's, in a word, overwhelming.

That's why Harper's status quo position on the big and sticky social issues
makes perfect sense -- and why Canadians are not buying the Liberal fear
tactics claiming Harper has a hidden social agenda.

Canadians seem to understand that this is not the political moment to
debate capital punishment, same-sex marriage, abortion, First Nation
reforms or the pot laws. Not when the fundamentals of government are in
such desperate need of overhaul.

The fact is, many Canadians who vote Conservative this time around will be
doing so to clean house, not replace it. Not yet anyway.

For Harper's newly constituted Party of the Right this buys valuable time
to develop sound social policies that will bring Canadian conservativism
into the 21st century.

Because, with all due respect to the Back to the Future wing of the party,
the Tories will have to get real on a number of these issues if they want
to stay in power beyond a single mandate.

AS IF TO illustrate that very point, this week the country's leading
conservative think-tank released an important study advocating legalizing,
regulating and taxing marijuana. The Fraser Institute position mirrors the
NDP's but argues its case on sound conservative principles.

Noting that 23% of Canadians admit having used the herb, the Fraser
Institute's "conservative" estimate of annual tax revenues from the crop is
more than $2 billion.

It's simple. If government doesn't collect that money, the study argues,
organized crime will. And will thereby keep getting richer and stronger.

"It is apparent that we are reliving the experience of alcohol prohibition
of the early years of the last century," says study author Stephen Easton,
a professor of economics.

"If we treat marijuana like any other commodity, we can tax it, regulate it
and use the resources the industry generates rather than continue a war
against consumption and production that has long since been lost."

The study spells it out: "Unless we wish to continue the transfer of these
billions from this lucrative endeavour to organized crime, the current
policy on prohibition should be changed. Not only would we deprive some
very unsavoury groups of a profound source of easy money, but also
resources currently spent on marijuana enforcement would be available for
other activities."

Clean, conservative logic -- nothing like the cynically hypocritical
Liberal decriminalization bill, which would have made it "almost OK" to be
caught with the herb but would have doubled the punishment for supplying it.

Typically, old guard Conservatives shot down the report, but the only
arguments people like Calgary MP Art Hanger could put forward were things
like "it would send the wrong message to kids" and "the Americans wouldn't
like it."

In reality, controlling pot the way we control hard liquor would give
society at least some lever in discouraging youths from lighting up -- like
vodka and rye, marijuana would be an adult sin, strictly off limits to minors.

As for upsetting the U.S., Conservatives going back to John A. himself have
never had a problem with doing that, if it was the only way to properly
serve Canadian interests.

Something else Stephen Harper should bear in mind if he becomes our next
prime minister.

Poor man. Does he have a lot of work to do, or what?