In a Sun blog last week Kennedy Stewart described Bowen Island as the most democratic municipality in B.C., citing our high level of voter turnout (it has been declining over the past 15 years) and our information-rich and transparent website (Bowen is chock full of IT experts and communications strategists).

As a 30 year resident of Bowen Island and a former municipal councillor, what seems to me to be of greater relevance is how we have been handling the tough choices that have been placed on our plate. Bowen has grown significantly in the past 30 years. When we moved to the island in 1979 the full-time population was about 700, an interesting mix of hippies and rednecks. Today the full-time population is approaching 4,000 and is also a lot more affluent; the island only has single family homes for sale and the price tag for an entry level home is about $500,000.

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Back in the 1970s, when we all thought that a more progressive world was just around the corner, Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau told us that the state had no business in the bedrooms of the nation. His government also passed legislation to abolish capital punishment, even though most Canadians supported its retention. Trudeau was leading public opinion, not waiting for pollsters to tell him what Canadians wanted.

Some thirty years later it seems a very different world. The Harper Conservatives have found that getting tough on crime is one of the few issues on which they can actually move the dial of public support. They don’t mind taking such a stance, as it’s a comfortable fit with their own ideological leanings, and Canadians, more often than not, seem to applaud.

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In a Vancouver Sun blog entry last week I mistakenly indicated that Bill C-15, a recent Conservative initiative, will dictate a minimum term of six months imprisonment, upon conviction for the cultivation of a single marijuana plant.

The truth, brought to my attention by a local Conservative, is that you must grow at least five plants (and share them with at least one of your friends), before you qualify for a minimum term of six months in prison. It appears that prior to passage of the Bill in the House of Commons the guarantee of imprisonment for growing a single plant was viewed as too severe – hence the new floor of five cannabis plants.

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