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Prime Minister Stephen Harper fielded questions on hot topics ranging from legalizing marijuana and Afghanistan to aid for Africa and the deficit in his first YouTube interview Tuesday night.

Nearly 2,000 questions were submitted and the favourites by far concerned the legalization of marijuana.

Harper said drugs hurt society.

“We all need to make sure our kids know, not just that our kids … hopefully not just know the hurt drugs can do to them, but they know as well the wider social disaster they are contributing to if they, through use of their money, fund organizations that produce and deliver illicit narcotics.”

Harper gave mostly the same answers he does to mainstream media during the 40-minute interview hosted by Google Canada.

“We will be able to balance our budget over basically a five-year term without raising taxes,” the prime minister said in response to a question on the deficit.

Another question was whether the government will continue its current financial commitment to provide $2.1 billion a year in aid to Africa

“Over the next year, foreign aid will increase again and Canada will go up another eight per cent, very rapid growth. After that it will be flatlined,” Harper said.

On Afghan prisoners, the PM repeated what he has said in the House.

“I reckon our men and women in uniform and other public servants have been doing a, you know, a excellent job in Afghanistan under extremely hard conditions.”

A lot of questions concerned the environment. For example, “Is your government willing to take the strong measures necessary to deal with climate change,” and “When do you plot on getting serious about developing green energy solutions for Canadians?”

Harper answered: “That’s why we’re investing in things like carbon capture and storage. That’s why we have, you know, we have the green infrastructure fund in our economic stimulus program.”

Though the answers were not surprising, the format has worked for him in the past. A video of Harper belting out a Beatles tune went viral on YouTube last year, helping to soften his austere image and briefly boosting support for his ruling Conservatives.

The closing ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Paralympics have gone from a no-show to a live show on the official broadcast network for the Games.

CTV has announced it will air Sunday’s closing ceremonies live across the country in both English and French at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET).

Originally, the closing ceremonies weren’t even on the broadcast schedule for the Games. The network said it reversed that choice because it was pleased with the ratings from the opening ceremonies broadcast and felt airing the closing ceremonies was the right way to close out the Games.

The network was criticized for refusing to air last Friday’s opening ceremonies live, and announced a change of plans the morning of the event.

Viewers in B.C. were able to watch the two-hour show as it happened, while the rest of Canada had to wait for the rebroadcast on Saturday.

The compromise mollified International Paralympic Committee officials who had called the plotted tape-delay-only broadcast a “slap in the face.”

But the response to the choice to air the closing ceremonies was met with a round of applause.

“We are ecstatic,” Xavier Gonzalez, the executive director of the IPC, said in an interview.

Viviane Forest of Edmonton won a bronze medal in the women’s giant slalom for the visually impaired at the Paralympics on Tuesday.

Forest fought her way down the course through heavy rain with a sore leg to claim her second medal at the Games.

Forest was led by guide Lindsay Debou of Whistler, B.C., in Tuesday’s event as well as when she won silver in the women’s slalom Sunday.

After losing for the first time in Monday’s evening draw, Canada’s wheelchair curling team got back to its winning ways on Tuesday by thrashing Switzerland 15-1 in a game that only took six ends.

Thousands of local schoolchildren packed into the Vancouver Paralympic Centre and the noise they made whenever Canada place a shot into the house was just as loud as the curling competition at the Olympics last month.

Shot accuracy is crucial in wheelchair curling since sweeping isn’t permitted and Switzerland’s was off in the first end. A number of their rocks went right through the house but Canada, skipped by Jim Armstrong, was not able to take advantage and only picked up one.

Switzerland had an opportunity in the second to have a huge scoring end but also had to settle for one, tying the game.

Playing with the hammer in the third, Armstrong had a chance to blow the game open but he wrecked his final shot on a guard. Canada still pulled ahead by scoring two before stealing five points in the fourth to give the team a seven-point advantage heading into the break.

The break in wheelchair curling occurs after the fourth end since the game is played over eight instead of the 10 ends in able-bodied curling.