Make that Change

Fire of Liberty

Here's a good piece by David Frum in the National Post on the latest happenings in Canada. According to Frum, our neighbor to the North is experiencing an uptick in homicides and the current government has decided to blame the US for this upsurge of criminal activity but Frum aptly points out that Canada's Liberal led government is derelict in fighting crime while the US has been reducing crime. Luckily Frum has the facts on his side and pretty much lays waste to the Liberals claims when he notes the following:

1) America's crime problem has dramatically improved, while Canada's is becoming seriously worse. Toronto's 78 homicides in 2005 appears to compare favorably to the homicide totals of the three American cities cited by the Star. But those 78 Toronto homicides in 2005 represent a 28% increase over the 61 homicides recorded in Toronto in 1995. Meanwhile, the three U.S. cities cited by the Star each achieved dramatic decreases over the past decade: Chicago down 46% from 823, Washington down 46% from 365, Baltimore down 17% from 322.

More broadly: Canada's overall crime rate is now 50% higher than the crime rate in the United States. Read that again slowly--it seems incredible, but it's true. It's true too that you are now more likely to be mugged in Toronto than in New York City.

2) America's crime problem is becoming concentrated in ever fewer places, while Canada's is spreading out to ever more places.

The United States is a huge country, and it will always be possible to find a jurisdiction with shocking crime numbers. The overwhelming majority of Americans, however, live in places that are becoming steadily safer. Since the early 1990s, crime rates have dropped in 48 of the 50 states and 80% of American cities. Over that same period, crime rates have risen in six of the 10 Canadian provinces and in seven of Canada's 10 biggest cities.

3) While American cities and states are adopting anti-crime policies proved to work, Canadian cities and provinces are adopting policies proved to fail.

Over a decade of successful crime-fighting in the U.S., criminologists and police departments have learned some important lessons.

Bluntly: prison works. Criminals do not commit crimes while they are held in prison. Yet a Canadian criminal is 80% less likely to go to jail than his American counterpart.

You know a it's rather sad that a party that has mismanaged the domestic affairs of Canada like the Liberals have, is so willing to place the blame on another country instead of themselves. The Liberals might think they can put up this "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" smoke-screen up for this election cycle but the folks of Canada can look out their windows and read Frum's piece and know that this rise in crime is not attributed to their neighbor to the south. I'd say that this latest tactic is the straw that breaks the camel's back and will most definitely push a lot of people in Canada to pull the lever for Stephen Harper and his fellow Conservatives rather than Martin and the tanking Liberal party in the upcoming election. Now I'd prefer an Canadian styled Paul Kersey ("Death Wish") to emerge and start blasting away the thugs who mug, rape, or murder the folks in Toronto or the other great cities of Canada and cause the people of Canada to rise up and do a national push-back on crime but being its Canada, I think the folks of Canada and their American well-wishers will be satisfied to call Stephen Harper their new PM. So go Harper and take Canada back for the folks.