COUNTDOWN TO LEGALIZATION
TRUDEAU SAYS MARIJUANA WILL BE LEGAL AS OF OCTOBER 17
• Mark your calendars: after 95 years, Canada’s prohibition on recreational cannabis will come to an end on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018.
But how many storefront retailers will actually open for business that day is just one of the many questions that remain, and over the next four months it will be largely up to the provinces and territories to produce the answers.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the date in the House of Commons Wednesday, the day after the Cannabis Act passed its final vote in parliament. While the government had previously estimated eight to 12 weeks would be needed between passage of the bill and legalization, Trudeau said that timeline was too aggressive.
“We heard from provinces and territories who told us they needed more time to transition to this new framework,” he said.
It would be no surprise if the Liberals prorogue Parliament when it returns in the fall, pressing the reset button and allowing the government to look forward in a new throne speech. Given this is already the fourthlongest session in Canadian parliamentary history, there would be no question of the Liberals having abused the prorogation option.
The past session was a productive one for the government — it passed 19 bills in the spring, taking the total since it came to power to 64.
As well as the Cannabis Act, Parliament passed the accompanying impaireddriving bill, legislation against harassment in the workplace, the national security bill and omnibus transportation legislation that includes new consumer protections for air travellers.
TrudeauMeter, the independent promise-tracking website, estimates the government has now achieved around a third of its campaign commitments, with roughly another third listed as being in progress. But it also lists one-in-five as not having been started and a further one-in-five as having been abandoned.
The legalization of pot is at least a visible manifestation that the government is trying to keep its side of the bargain. It will prove popular among younger and more progressive Liberal supporters. But there is a feeling among many Liberal MPs that the government needs to reconnect with the centrist middle-class voters that elected it in the first place.
Ottawa veterans complain that Trudeau’s inexperience has left him as the focal point of the government in all things — which works when things are going well, but is a problem when the bad news starts to accumulate.
The initial wave of enthusiasm for the Liberals has passed and the government has to start enthusing voters with a vision of what a second term might look like.
Whatever the leader decides to put in the shop window, it has to talk more about the economic issues that make a difference to the lives of the people who are struggling with the cost of living.
“What I get at the front doors is: ‘I don’t want to hear any more apologies. I don’t want to see any more payouts. I don’t want any more political correctness. Talk about what you’re doing on the economy,’” said one Liberal MP.
The flagship policy in 2019 is likely to be a national pharmacare plan.
On Wednesday, the Liberals bolstered their claim to ownership of an idea that has been long pioneered by the NDP when they unveiled the members of an advisory council that will make recommendations next spring on design and implementation.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor said there are no preconceived notions of what the system might look like, but she is the health minister and Bill Morneau is the finance minister. He appeared to have a very clear preconceived notion of how a national drug plan might look when he said this spring that it would likely fill the gaps in the existing system — that is, cover the 3.5 million people who are either not covered by workplace drug plans or who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions.
The option of covering everyone would cost a net $19.3 billion, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer; the more limited option favoured by Morneau would cost $3.6 billion.
At a time of economic uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, skinny pharmacare is likely the way the Liberals will go.
Even then, it is a compelling idea that will enable Trudeau to claim he is helping with the cost of everyday life.
The government will also attempt to take steps to persuade skeptics that cabinet is not one prolonged genderanalysis seminar.
After false dawns on the government’s vaunted 12-year, $180-billion infrastructure plan, the months leading up to the election are likely to see the completion of a number of very visible federally-funded transit, water and recreational infrastructure projects. Expect a Liberal MP with a giant cheque to appear some time soon in a town near you.
In the opinion of a good number of its own MPs, it’s not before time.
Their sense is that the party leadership is on a different wavelength from voters who are making their own way in life and want to keep more of their income.
We’ll see in the fall if Trudeau agrees with some of his more pragmatic colleagues and is prepared to coursecorrect.
(BILL) C-45 MARKS A WHOLESALE SHIFT IN HOW OUR COUNTRY APPROACHES CANNABIS. IT LEAVES BEHIND A FAILED MODEL OF PROHIBITION, A MODEL THAT HAS MADE ORGANIZED CRIME RICH AND YOUNG PEOPLE VULNERABLE. - JUSTICE MINISTER JODY WILSON-RAYBOULD