PT 3 - Do you support Hudak’s ‘work gang’ election plank?

Alex Hoyos of London thinks PC Leader Hudak’s plan to make 2,700 provincial inmates perform up to 40 hours of mandatory manual labour per week “is just another crazy idea from Hudak.”

And me? What do I think? Two things.

I think Hudak’s intentions might not be half-baked. I think his initiative, however, is.

Hudak’s intentions: No one can look inside the PC leader’s little round head to determine the full extent or purity of his intentions, but if he intends to make prisoners rake leaves or collect garbage instead of play cards in order to better prepare them to re-enter society with useful job skills and more education, then society as a whole will receive a benefit.

If Hudak intends to take any monetary savings connected to his work gangs and make some form of restitution to those who suffered losses as a result of certain crimes, then some citizens will receive a benefit.


["Yup. This outta learn ya."]

But can we attribute such intentions to his initiative to send prisoners to do mandatory work such as “raking leaves, collecting garbage and cleaning graffiti?”

I don’t think so. Though Hudak attributes ‘value’ to the manual labour (“He expects the value of the work... would cover the added cost of security and travel... but would also set aside a $20 million contingency fund in case it doesn’t”) I don’t think the value is in sound education or meaningful job skills that will help anyone in the future.

$20 million spent, in my opinion, on meaningful education and job skills is a sound investment in Ontario’s future. And Hudak’s plan has less to do with investing and more to do with inventing. Or, I should say, re-inventing, i.e., the chain gang.

I’ll let Michael Den Tandt have the last word:

“And of course there's the now obligatory crime wedge issue, whereby right-thinking, law-abiding folks are invited to get mad at the lousy, despicable felons and crooks.

“So the Conservatives would use public money to have convicts, presumably in striped jailhouse outfits or Guantanamo orange, paraded along the boulevards, picking up trash and cutting grass.

“As a campaign platform, it is truly pitiful. It throws the door open to Horwath and the NDP to do something interesting, if they can.” (May 31, London Free Press)

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If you feel Hudak’s plan has some merit, please let me know.

Please click here to read PT 2 - Do you support Hudak’s ‘work gang’ election plank?

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