Law-and-order agenda is short
Not much left to legislate in public safety and justice portfolios, professor says
The Conservative government has pumped out more justice and public safety policy than perhaps any other area since taking office, but a major shakeup this week in those portfolios suggests the law-and-order agenda may shift into cruise control heading into the 2015 election.
And if the medium is indeed the message, it also signals a notable shift in personality, as sympathetic former Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay takes over justice from the tightly scripted Rob Nicholson, while fly-below-theradar former veterans affairs minister Steven Blaney assumes the public safety portfolio, replacing the confrontational Vic Toews, who announced his retirement from federal politics.
“Toews was like a bull in a china shop and wore his colours on his sleeve,” University of Ottawa political historian Michael Behiels said of the former minister, who once proclaimed that those who didn’t like his now-defunct Internet surveillance bill were effectively siding with child pornographers.
Behiels suggested Blaney is “not driven by the same kind of moralistic zeal” and would be able to deliver the same government message with “a different tone.”
As for the government’s tough- on- crime agenda, Carleton University political science Prof. Bruce Hicks said much of it was “frontloaded” to appeal to the Conservative base that voted the party into power — even if experts argue certain controversial changes like mandatory minimum sentences won’t have a serious impact on crime rates or recidivism.
The government’s Safe Streets and Communities Act passed early last year along with a bill to scrap the longgun registry, while legislation to improve RCMP accountability and address harassment in the police force became law last month.
“It’s not clear that there is much more to do,” Hicks said, suggesting that could be good for MacKay, a “more traditional Progressive Conservative-Liberal style politician” who tends to “trust” the bureaucrats who ultimately run his department.
“It’s really running a big department that is a service department.
“You don’t need a strong partisan advocate at the top. You need a good manager who will ensure the department runs smoothly.”
With Nicholson at the helm of justice for more than six years and Toews in charge of public safety for more than three, it appears much of the heavy lifting has indeed been done and that the goal now is to steer the course ahead of the next election.
That said, there remain a few areas left to tackle.
University of Ottawa criminology professor Irvin Waller said MacKay will be called upon to lead the charge on the new victims’ bill of rights, while Blaney will have to stickhandle efforts to rein in policing costs — an initiative Toews launched early this year.
He described MacKay, who once practised criminal and family law, as an “interesting appointment” given his “centre right” rather than “extreme right” leaning.
Waller said he’s “hopeful” the new minister will put forward a “world-class bill” that’s really focused on victims rather than “punishment for the most extreme cases, which is what Nicholson has really been doing.”
He described Blaney, a civil engineer, as a bit more of an “unknown” but suggested there’s an opportunity for him to make a name for himself, especially in his native Quebec, which has been particularly critical of the Tories’ law-and-order agenda.