Law and Order

In Our Dear Party's Law and Order campaign announcement, Our Dear Premier announced:

Increasing funding for Crime Stoppers, which offers rewards for information leading to arrests and convictions in cases of unsolved crimes;

"Increased funding" implies that Crime Stoppers already receives provincial government funding. And, sure enough, a provincial government department is listed as one of the organization's sponsors.

Leading up to, and even during, the current writ period, Crime Stoppers has been running radio ads or PSAs with the following script, which goes, in part:

The salmon and trout stocks in NewfoundlandLabrador are very important to the future of NewfoundlandLabrador and its people... That's why government has increased its number of enforcement officers. If you see suspicious activities on the province's rivers, brooks and streams that threaten the valuable salmon and trout stocks, call CrimeStoppers... Help the Government of NewfoundlandLabrador, as well as the enforcement officers, in protecting the province.

Crime Stoppers, for no readily apparent reason, has adopted Our Dear Leader's lately-rebranded conjunctionless "name" for Our Dear Province. And, even without the glowing references to what "government" is doing in "NewfoundlandLabrador", the tenor of the ad or PSA makes an interesting comparison not only with recent NLIS releases on the subject...

In an effort to reduce poaching of the province’s inland fish, the Department of Justice is adding five enforcement officers to the Inland Fisheries Enforcement Program (IFEP)...

The Provincial Government’s continued participation in this program is not to replace the federal government’s responsibility, but to add to the enforcement effort intended for protecting the stock."...

"We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to organized poaching in the province. We will also continue to lobby the federal government to provide additional resources for the protection of inland fisheries," said the minister.

"It is quite evident that the program is working very effectively and is making significant progress in targeting poaching and protecting the overall health of our salmon and trout populations... Through this program, this government continues to clearly demonstrate its concern for this valuable resource and we will continue efforts to see additional enforcement resources directed toward the protection of inland fish."

... but both texts also bear a comparison to Our Dear Party's platform, in which Our Dear Party pledges to:

maintain the provincial Inland Fisheries Enforcement Program that we successfully implemented - even though fishery protection is a federal responsibility - in order to protect our valuable salmon resources for future generations to enjoy, and continue to lobby for additional federal funding for the protection of inland fisheries

And for the love of decency: governments don't "lobby"!