Don't Fire Up the Electric Chair Just Yet

Stephen Harper approves of the death penalty, but he doesn't actually approve of it, you know?

The National Post’s Chris Selley takes a long walk, via a parable about coexistence on the English countryside, to make the point that “for civilized people in civilized countries … politics is not a segregating social factor. People do not avoid contact with other people who hold different views.” He makes this point to remind the Liberals that Stephen Harper’s recent statements confirming that he is personally in favour of capital punishment is no reason to freak out. “Civilized people,” Selley writes, “ … have no trouble distinguishing between personal beliefs and political ones. They accept that there’s no imperative for one ever to become the other.”

The Mark Newsroom is divided on this one. Selley is perfectly correct that politicians’ personal views are separate from their policy goals, and for the Liberals to cart out Harper’s statement as proof of the Conservatives’ “hidden agenda” is a stretch. On the other hand, Harper is not your next-door neighbour spouting theories about crime prevention as the two of you shovel the driveway. He’s the prime minister, and everything he says has potential political implications. Surely there are some views that Selley wouldn’t want to hear from the PM’s lips? Add the fact that Harper’s current justice minister voted to reinstate the death penalty in 1987 and his party’s dogged pursuit of a “tough-on-crime” agenda, and you have, at minimum, a legitimate talking point.

Indeed, the Liberals aren’t the only ones discussing the possibility that the death penalty might one day be a policy proposal. The Post’s John Ivison points out that Harper said he had no plans to reintroduce the issue “in the next parliament,” implying that he left himself some wiggle room. Citing a 2009 poll that found 62 per cent of Canadians support the death penalty, Ivison says reintroducing capital punishment “would prove to be a vote winner.” He might be right, but the 62 per cent figure is far from authoritative. A 2010 poll found only 40 per cent of Canadians support the death penalty, so we probably won’t hear a serious proposal for its reinstitution any time soon.