I strongly object to the Conservative government putting our hard-earned tax dollars into building more prisons.
These dollars need to go into providing support for the less-privileged, better educating our citizens and providing decent living conditions and health care.
We have democracy so everyone pays a little so we can all enjoy a lot.
Only this will curb crime in the future, and studies show that our crime rate is dropping. This begs the question – who does the Conservative government foresee occupying these prisons? If you know something we don’t, then you’d better let us know.
It was stated on American television that America has always educated to the current technology and Canada has always followed suit.
When America was an agricultural community, it provided free primary education (never really free – paid for by it’s citizens and funded through tax dollars) to its citizens.
When the industrial revolution came, it provided “free” secondary education to its citizens.
We are now in the midst of the technological/information revolution, and most students can’t afford a post-secondary education and those who can are graduating so far in debt that they might never get ahead.
The next step is to educate our citizens fully to understand, and cope with this new challenge, and to not fall behind. We must increase spending for education (see Germany which provides free college and university education to its citizens already. It is one of the strongest countries in the European economic union).
There is a strong correlation with lower crime rates and higher levels of education.
This Canadian Conservative government is going against what even the most conservative government in the U.S. (Texas) has discovered. It has been tried there and your plan doesn’t work.
They are now closing prisons in Texas and putting their money into supporting their citizens, rather than kicking them when they are down.
The continued survival of our economy depends upon the proper education our citizens and taking care of them, not throwing them into jails because we, as a society, failed to support our own citizens when they needed it most.
Susan Brandoli
Vernon
