Ottawa

The devil made me do it

Vic Toews explains why a four-year-old Liberal campaign ad (and our general notion of what democracy should mean and look like?) compelled to him spend more on security for the G8 and G20 meetings.

Toews said he would welcome any opportunity before the events to trim the budget without compromising security, but balked at the suggestion to use the army instead of the police to maintain security and perhaps save between $100 million and $200 million.

Toews said he was uncomfortable using the army in a civilian context unless under extreme conditions, and went so far as to blame the decision to not consider the measure on what he believed would be a negative reaction from the opposition. “You know of course what the opposition parties would say. The Liberals would say, ‘The army, in the streets, with guns?'” Toews said. “It’s exactly the kind of fear that Liberals want to invoke in terms of Canadians. Canadians understand that in a democracy, you have the police rather than the army in the streets. And so those are political decisions you make, but I think they’re from a perception point of view very, very important.”

The full interview is here.

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