After announcing plans this morning to toughen sentences for young offenders, it was put to Stephen Harper that 10 shooting incidents in the Toronto area just this past weekend could be evidence that his efforts on crime so far aren't any more effective than those of previous (Liberal) governments.

His response, including again accusing the opposition of stalling and weakening Conservative crime bills, is as follows: "Look, the situation that has been created in some of our communities and major cities through a couple of generations of ‘soft on crime’ policies. It is not going to be easy to reverse that in the course of a few months. "We will need tougher laws, we will need more sustained law enforcement, we will need programs to deal with the confluence of guns, gangs and drugs. And not just on the legislative side, but on the smuggling side in terms of drugs (and) on the gang recruitment side. And I announced some measures today specifically to try to deal with gang recruitment. "But we’ve been going in the wrong direction (for) 30, 40 years in this country. And it is going to take some time to get this turned around and get going in the other direction. And we should not be under any illusion about that. "But that is no excuse for a parliament taking two years — two years — to pass only the first and most minimal measures necessary. "And that’s why we need a strong mandate."

— Paul Hunter