ndp leadership 2012

By: Mary Agnes Welch, Winnipeg Free Press

Manitoba’s NDP might support them, but federal leadership candidate Peggy Nash says she’d reconsider a batch of get-tough-on-crime bills now working its way through Parliament.

Nash, seen by many as a possible consensus candidate in the crowded race to lead the federal NDP, was in Winnipeg Tuesday drumming up votes.

Asked about her approach to Winnipeg’s crime problem, Nash said she favours prevention programs and reducing poverty and inequality as a root cause of crime. Read more »

By: Aaron Wherry, Macleans

Six of the eight NDP leadership candidates respond to a survey on drug policy. All six seem to support some kind of decriminalization around marijuana and three (Niki Ashton, Peggy Nash and Romeo Saganash) seem open to pursuing a regulatory approach. Here is how Mr. Saganash explains his position. Read more »

By Greg Vandermeulen, The Red River Valley Echo

It’s time to reassess the war on drugs in Canada. That’s a statement that at least two thirds of Canadians support. Talk of decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana has come to the forefront once again, first because the Liberal party adopted it as a campaign plank, and now because all the NDP leadership candidates agree.

There’s no doubt the drug war has failed, but what Canadians must decide is to what level we’re willing to give up the fight.

Finding real information about drugs like marijuana isn’t always easy. Harper’s Conservatives would call it a gateway drug, and point to the massive business it is for gangs. Read more »