If the Conservative Party of Canada really wants to form the next government (and, based upon their stumbles during the Liberal minority, that’s a big if) there’s one major untapped issue for them to tackle which, in my view, offers a near-certain hope of victory. That issue, simply, is crime.

If there’s one idea which unifies almost all Canadians, I think, it’s the idea that our justice system is fundamentally broken and requires mending. It’s the idea that criminals in this country are allowed to get away nearly scot-free and that honest and hard-working people are thereby forced to live in a country that it less safe than it ought to be.

Go to any Tim Hortons in the land and talk to the people. There is no single issue which causes more animated agreement than that of crime. Listen to any radio talk show in the land. There’s no subject which prompts a louder chorus of disgust and anger than crime.

Forget health care: forget whatever the polls say. If the Tories jump on the crime issue and stick with it, they’ll be the next government, possibly even with a majority. This is an issue which has the potential to devastate the Liberals, if only for a single election.

To begin: we need not even stake out an extreme position on the issue. For example, even though a majority of Canadians support the death penalty, I wouldn’t advise calling for it in the platform. I say that because, if it was in the platform, it would become the center of the argument and Canadians would quickly find themselves drowning in a river of Dead Man Walking-like mawkish sentimentality.

Instead, the Conservatives ought to embrace a common-sense platform on crime that virtually all Canadians could support. This platform should be the centerpiece of the Conservative campaign and could be used to counter Liberal cries about the Charter of Rights.

“Freedom from fear,” Harper should assert, “is the first right, and it is only with safety that we may enjoy our other rights.”

So, what should the Tories promise? A simple and moderate platform that looks something like the following should suffice:

1) Abolish mandatory release. Prisoners may be paroled only with good behavior.
2) Establish mandatory minimum sentences for all crimes of violence and various other crimes.
3) Mandate jail time (any amount of jail time, really) for a second offense other than a summary conviction offense.
4) Abolish the Gun Registry and use the money saved to hire 10,000 additional cops and put them on the streets.
5) Make a “life sentence” mean exactly what it sounds like it means.

The wonderful thing about this is that it casts the Liberals (and the NDP, and the Bloc) in the role of defending an unpopular group of people. Because many Liberals are actually liberal in fact, we can be certain that any number of Liberal MP’s and would-be MP’s will be more than happy going on the record in defense of rapists and murderers.