Canada is safe.
The last time crime rates were this low the Post-It hadn't been invented and The Beatles were together.
So why are the Conservatives spearheading a multi-billion dollar prison expansion?
The Tories seem determined to convince Canadians they don't feel safe and facts be damned.
Besides the obligatory opposition from the NDP and Liberals, the idea of prisons solving problems got a scathing review in Texas.
Not too long ago, Texas was locking up more criminals than Canada ever could - approximately five per cent of the adult population - but it was never enough.
Eventually, the Lone Star state took money earmarked for even more prisons and invested in mental health and drug treatment. A budget crisis was averted, the incarceration rate fell and the crime rate plunged.
The union representing Canadian prison guards has also dug in its heels against the expansion.
Prisons have become more crowded and dangerous, for both prisoners and guards, despite a decade of declining crime rates.
Part of the reason is that rather than focusing on rehabilitation or prevention, the ruling Conservatives favour longer sentences while chopping pay for working prisoners and reducing access to libraries.
Longer sentences have only ever resulted in higher recidivism rates.
Surely, the way to combat that trend is not to put more poor and poorly educated excons on the street.
Every Canadian should feel safe these days - except maybe the ones in prison.
