(Ontario, Canada) Hudak proposes modern-day chain gangs

[socialshockwave]

"Tim Hudak says convicted provincial prisoners should be working on modern-day chain gangs cleaning up Ontario highways, not watching TV and taking yoga classes.

The Progressive Conservative leader said Thursday that if a Tory government is elected Oct. 6, about 2,700 inmates serving sentences in provincial jails will be forced to work up to 40 hours a week, replacing the voluntary program that exists now.

“It makes a lot of sense to ask prisoners who have taken from society to give something back: to clean up that graffiti, to start picking up the trash, raking leaves, cutting grass,” Hudak told reporters, pegging the cost at $20 million a year.

Critics say such bumper sticker politics sound great but in reality it would be an unwieldy and costly program that would need a large number of extra guards."

Full article here: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/997331



So, as we get closer to election season, this promise has been made. It was originally going to be implemented under the last PC government of Mike "Slash and Burn" Harris, but they never got around to it.

I know the article is some months old but it's the most recent I can find. I'm curious as to what people think about the whole "chain-gang" concept, not just for Ontario, but for the USA and other parts of the world.

[Denninmi]

1. Reprehensible and regressive.

So the American Tea Party would love it. Goes along with the rest of their agenda of turning the clock back to the 1850s.

Also, don't forget that one big push in the whole "privatization" process in American prisons is to allow for-profit exploitation of prisoners. Basically legalized slavery, IMHO.

[socialshockwave]

2. It's funny. Mr. Hudak just got in trouble

for ties to the Tea Party; one of his staffers, Michael Prell, was a member of the Tea Party Patriots.

[socialshockwave]

3. Also, in order to understand why this is odd, have to look at PC history:

For the longest time, the PC Party was more left-wing then the Liberal Party here. They supported public health care, education, and generally were centre-right - not extreme.

This all changed in 1995. The NDP(very left wing) government here basically crippled the economy with very unpopular measures and Mike Harris came to power under the American-conservative style of the Common Sense Revolution; he made poor people his enemy, slashing welfare rates by 22%, cut education funding, health care funding, etc - all so he could get his tax cuts.

Since then the PC's have been a mix of American conservatives and so called "Red Tories"; liberal to centrist Conservatives.

[DonCoquixote]

4. Hey Canada

WHY are some people buying the sort of right wing crap that you used to make fun of Yanks for?

[socialshockwave]

5. I personally blame the Canadian Alliance - Progressive Conservative merger in 03

Caused all the old Reform Party(they were more extreme then your Tea Party I'd say - they were openly racist instead of covertly) to migrate into federal politics and gain power.