Statistics Vs. Ideology

Mr. Prime Minister,

I was struck this morning with comments from your Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson as reported in the Toronto Star. He stated that you don’t “…govern by statistics...” but by “…what we told and promised Canadians.”

This ideological point of view shows to me the ignorance with which your government makes decisions. That you decide major courses of action based on what you predetermined to be the best answer rather than basing it on sound evidence and rational thought shows to me a reckless modality in your decision making.

To ignore the declining crime rate and play on peoples fear rather than trying to actually fix the problem seems like a lazy way to govern. Selling new directions to the citizenry is difficult; I understand this but this does not preclude choosing the irresponsible course of shoring up poorly reasoned ideas with more poorly reasoned ideas. It may be the easy way but certainly did not vote for politicians because they choose the path of least resistance.

I challenge your government to re-think your position and give some serious thought to ways in which we can reduce the crime rate further by supporting those vulnerable to the allure of crime as a quick fix to their problems.

If not, the criminals will not be the only ones looking for quick fixes.

Yours respectively,

Michael Kruse