April 2, 2009
The NDP have released ads today that claim they have a plan for crime. Shockingly their plan has been stolen from government and is the exact same initiative announced in February.
Carole James says she will hire 168 new police, hire more prosecutors, and demand tougher laws. Yet this is EXACTLY the announcement made by the Premier on February 13 when he laid out his 7-point plan to tackle gangs that include 168 new police, 10 dedicated prosecutors, new corrections facilities and an agenda to toughen our laws. The only difference is that in Carole James' version, she forgets to mention that the NDP voted against all of those measures in last week's budget vote.
Carole James continues to mislead people by telling only half the story. She criticizes the decisions to close unsafe and inefficient courthouses and jails in 2002 that were the product of a decade of NDP neglect and resulted in prisoners simply walking away - then rallies her party to oppose the construction of new jails. She claims that the new budget is cutting corrections, police and prosecutors even though she knows that's just not true -- the budgets for all of those services went up this year, not down.
The most misleading part is that Carole James does not tell you that she and her party voted against EVERY NEW DOLLAR invested in policing and safety since 2001. They voted against 1,100 new police on our streets, $185 million in new correction facilities, over $210 million for community safety through traffic fine revenues, and the $66 million in integrated gang task forces. And she won't tell you that her party has actively campaigned against the building of new corrections facilities, or that they endorsed members of their federal party who actively opposed much-needed changes to the Criminal Code.
The B.C. Liberal approach is producing results and the record is clear. Carole James' new ads are dishonest, plain and simple, and to see them now trying to steal this agenda is disgraceful. To get the truth go to the Real Story.
