Who’s to blame for rising auto thefts? | Power Play with Vassy Kapelos

The Tories have come out swinging at the government over what they say is a lack of action on auto thefts both today and yesterday Pierre PF held press conferences to announce that if the conservatives form government they’ll increase jail time for repeat Auto thieves their accusations the Liberals

Are light on this crime in particular also dominated question period for a second day just a few days ahead of a national Summit on auto thefts here in Ottawa what’s behind the Tory strategy and who are they hoping it resonates with let’s bring back the front bench

Brian Gant Lisa rate Tom care and Rob benzy I’ll just put that exact question to you Lisa what is behind it and who are they hoping it resonates with well what’s behind it is that the places in which you’re seeing the highest increase in car thefts happen to be the places

Where the conservatives would like to pick up seats that’s Toronto and Montreal and showing that you have a concern about it and people have stories that they tell each other and they everybody knows somebody whose car has been stolen maybe once maybe twice in some cases so it’s important for them to

Be part of this discuss discussion and conversation around auto theft as well and coming out with real concrete ideas but basy I got to say when I heard that the big announcement coming out a cabinet retreat was that they were going to do this Summit on auto theft I

Laughed I thought it was a joke I really did and I’m not trying to poooo the work being put into this but I got to say there’s been enough studies we know what the problem is it’s organized crime and they need to make sure that the RCMP and

All the police officers across the country have the right tools and have the right revenues to be able to deal with this kind of thing a summit of politicians yaking on trying to get any kind of point that they can that they can tell their con their constituents

That they’re working hard on this issue I think it’s a waste of everybody’s time let’s just get to action and start dealing with this Rob you’re in Toronto and I know that it’s it’s Toronto Montreal it’s also the Sur like the suburbs of those places right like I live in a suburb of

Ottawa my neighborhood Facebook group as much as I can’t stand to me on it it’s all about whose truck got stolen from you know what I mean like I do feel that there is like when Lisa talks about the the type of Voters that that the Tories

Are looking to expand in especially in the next election like this feels like something that they care about no Leisa say bang on Herald riding of Milton is the exact type of place the Tories can win if they stop the crime and when they talk about stop the crime in in Mr pf’s

Talking point it’s it’s a lot about car theft carjackings um I me here in Toronto or sorry here in Ontario 14 every 14 minutes a car gets stolen bashy so that means to the course of of power play today four uh four uh four cars will have been stolen in Ontario alone

And that’s four families that have have a huge headache to deal with and what often happens is you get your car stolen and then uh the replacement vehicle is then stolen because the thieves know they stole a car and they’ll get a brand new Toyota Highlander or Lexus or

Whatever they stole first thing I mean they really do narrow in on on certain types of vehicles too they don’t seem to steal electric cars so there’s something there I guess I don’t know but it’s just it’s it’s a really a frustrating thing for for uh for homeowners for motorists

And I think it’s a very smart uh and popular thing that that the Tores are talking about and and the Lisa is right the Liberals are having this Summit Doug Ford’s government is participating in that on Thursday in Ottawa but again governments here here at Queens Park have been wrestling with this this

Problem for a long time as well it’s really hard to do without a cohesive strategy of local police forces provinces and the federal government keeping an eye on the ports better I think that from a strategic point of view what I thought was really interesting Tom and we’ve talked about

This in other areas not specific to crime or Auto thefts but we knew the auto the summit was coming up the criticism had Arisen that it was kind of a light announcement given the severity of of the problem and lo and behold like three days or four days before it starts

The 9:00 a. on a Monday morning uh Pier PV has a press conference scheduled um in an area that is affected by this to making like a policy announcement of sort it’s like strategically it feels to me again like the Tores are trying to set the agenda on a topic that the

Liberals were trying to do the exact thing same thing with yeah and he was in Montreal today giving a very effective press conference in the port saying he wants to buy 24 machines to be able to scan containers and he had all his facts and figures

Before him and to help him out there were tapes all over the news there were videos of two car thefts and in one car theft that they don’t have a video of but that we learned about a police officer was upended by somebody stealing a car so all that plays into the

Narrative this is also a reflection of the very deep pockets of the conservative party because they’re very good at polling they’re very good at understanding what’s the psyche of Canadians what is worrying them what is bugging them they have deep data much much more than liberals and don’t even

Talk about the NDP or the block so they they’re taking full advantage of this they’re playing this directly to an audience that is very receptive to it and it happens to be an audience in the places where they would like to win seats so it is first and foremost about

Politics I disagree a little bit though with the analysis that says that the Liberals are late to the game and they shouldn’t be doing anything they should just be acting by having something and having an event you can come out of the event with a series of five or six

Things that you’re promising to do where I think FV is scoring the most on this is that he has a very valid point that our court system is singularly ineffective in dealing with this type of issue The Catch and Release line is an image that stays with people and you

Know what it’s not untrue and I think that there are very organized groups that come from countries with much rougher Justice systems and jail systems than ours and they’re saying basically if you get caught nothing happens and that word has gotten out and that’s why we’re going through this really serious problem right

Now last word to you Brian my guess is um the Liberals will aim to make a specific announcement out of the summit to try and counter the criticism leading up to it that it’s kind of fluff well let let me just first start by saying I agree totally with the

Regional aspect of of the conservatives focusing on this on this the second thing though I would say um I read a poll years ago uh so I feel bad that I can’t mention who did it but I just remember the the sort of outcome of of their poll and essentially it looked at

Things that people cared about and it kind of cross-pollinated with data that people actually thought that government could have an impact on those things so for an example people care deeply in Canada about Healthcare but they’re pretty skeptical toward government’s ability to actually improve Healthcare

So just give you that as an example and I remember from that poll that crime was something that was sort of lower on the list because we live I think in a wonderful country that that we we can say is safe um but obviously we have

Pockets and time you know times that it does increase and it becomes more important in certain communities so so on top of that I remember the poll saying that people felt at that time that conservatives were better at fighting crime and they felt felt that governments could actually do something

To improve crime so all that to say that if you have these regions that are going to be crucial in the next election uh worried about crime that can lend itself better to conservatives and people actually believe that governments can take action to improve it now on the

Summit maybe this is this is the liberal in me here I I think it’s a great idea because when it comes to Justice I’m always I want to hear from experts I want to hear from people that are on the ground I want to hear exactly how we

Should go about it and I’m just not sure sort of a bunch of politicians and advisers in the room can kind of come up with with something that would be the best approach I kind of like the summit if I’m being if I’m being honest showing

My colors I guess on this one um and and I would worry a little bit that there might not be something right out of a summit to announce uh I think we have to sort of put our expectations where it’s going to be uh but Minister Leblon who

Certainly a friend is is a great communicator and I have no doubt will do the best he can to ensure that he shows the Canadians that the summit was worth it we shall see I will leave it there thank you very much I appreciate the discussion Brian Gant Lisa R Tom Mare

And Rob benzy our front bench

The Front Bench breaks down just who should be taking the blame for the spike in vehicle thefts.

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