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Federal parties stake their claims

Grant Bachand
Team Member

ith the federal elections coming up, political parties are
Wi eecting ready to position themselves. The Conservative,
Liberal, and New Democratic Parties are all gearing up for
campaign season. Strategically positioning themselves for the
election seems to be one of the main goals of the leaders.

Recently, the Conservative party of Canada spoke to a

room full of supporters about “closing loopholes” in

the Criminal Code. According to Stephen Harper, his
government would be proposing legislation that would
make it harder for people who have committed major
crimes to get parole. Crimes which would be subject to these
changes include the killing of a police officer, kidnapping
and sexual assault that result in death, and terrorism.

Currently, people serving life sentences go before the parole
board, an independent body not elected or influenced by the
Department of Justice, after 25 years. According to Stephen
Harper, the Conservatives want to make it the duty of the
federal cabinet to determine if the individual is eligible for
parole. The Harper government is also proposing changes to
the parole date, making it 35 years rather than 25. Once 35

years is up a person may then apply to the Minister of Justice
and the Federal Cabinet to be released. Stephen Harper said
in his address that this “would not be parole,” it would be
something different (though exactly what is not clear).

This change sparked much debate over the timing of these

changes and the legality of the proposal. Some commentators

have pointed out that this will not pass the Supreme Court,

while others have said it is playing politics where impartiality

is important. Harper spoke a lot about victims and protecting
them from people who have committed crimes against them.
Conservatives want to ensure that life sentences mean a

life in prison. During an At Issue panel on the CBC, some

of the commentators said that this is all a strategy so that
the upcoming election will have a wedge issue to debate.

Jennifer Ditchburn from the CP told the CBC: “[Conservatives]

want to take the power away from a tribunal, that is
specifically impartial, the minister can’t direct a parole
board to do X, Y, and Z. They want to take it away from
the tribunal and put it in the cabinet, and as we all know
decisions get made in the cabinet room and they are not
always based on the public service and altruistic ideals.”

This new crime bill is not alone; Bill C-51 is a major political
issue. Political parties are staking areas all over the map on

this issue, and many predict that Bill C-51 will turn out to
be a major part of the election in 2015. In Parliament, the
NDP and Liberals do not have enough seats to vote down
this bill. However, that has not stopped them from making
their positions known. The NDP, led by Thomas Mulcair, has
directly opposed this bill, and said that the New Democratic
Party does not support it and will actively fight against it.
This stance is expected to trend into the election, and create
a wedge issue that the government, and the opposition, will
be able to go back and forth on. The Liberals are looking

for the middle ground on this issue, instead of outright
opposing the bill, like the NDP, the Liberals have said they
would support the bill but ask that sufficient oversight be
added to it so that no overstepping would happen. Justin
Trudeau has taken some backlash from this stance from
many people. Recently at UBC, Trudeau was challenged by
a student who said, “...supporting a bill that you know is
dangerous is tantamount to holding our rights hostage.”

The election is still months away, but it is easy to see that all
the leaders are getting ready for a major election battle. It is
impossible to predict the future of this election, but a look
at where it is going in polling data seems to show a possible
minority government of either Liberals or Conservatives.