Inmates use advance polls to air views on law-and-order platforms

Last Updated: Friday, January 13, 2006 | 8:01 PM ET

CBC News

Advance polls opened across the country Friday, including at the Stony Mountain Institution, north of Winnipeg, where inmates cast their ballots in the federal election.

A few inmates at a time were allowed into an open area of the prison where a polling station was set up. Officials at the institution expect voter turnout to exceed 50 per cent.

Many inmates said they had a strong interest in the parties' crime and justice platforms.

Leslie Henry, who was incarcerated for killing his wife, would not say how he voted, but he said the mandatory minimum sentences proposed by all three major parties would not work.

"I don't really believe that minimum sentences are really going to change anything when it comes down to the actual numbers of crime," he told CBC News.

"People who commit crimes – even myself – we don't think back and think, 'Well, I might get five years if I do this.' It just happens, a lot of times."

Concerned about parole rules

Fellow inmate Jeff Power had a red "L" for "Liberal" painted on the side of his head. He was jailed for drug trafficking and robbing two pharmacies.

He said he would not vote for the Conservatives because they've talked about tightening up parole rules.

"My dad was sentenced to double life, way before when there was no eligibility for early parole," Power said. "He killed himself. He couldn't live with it. It was like there was no hope for him."

Power said there's another reason he cannot vote Conservative: party leader Stephen Harper has said he would seek a constitutional amendment to strip prisoners of the right to vote.

Power said that's just one more way of isolating inmates, and it would make it even more difficult for them to integrate back into society once they're released from prison.

In 2002, the Supreme Court struck down an earlier law that denied inmates the right to vote, ending an 18-year battle over the issue. Inmates have a choice voting for candidates in the riding they lived in before they were arrested, or the riding in which they were convicted.

Outside prisons, advance polls also opened Friday for people who want to cast a ballot before election day on Jan. 23.

Locations of advance polls are listed on the voter information cards sent out earlier this month, or citizens can call Elections Canada for poll locations or any other information about voting.

Advance polling stations are open until 8 p.m. Friday evening, and from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday and Monday.