There are some parallels with US politics and Justin Trudeau’s “promise” to legalize cannabis.
For starters, your vote really doesn’t matter.
As we’re witnessing with the Democratic Party, despite Bernie Sander’s grassroots support (especially among young people), the super delegates will decide the outcome and they’re favouring Hilary Clinton.
Clinton, of course, is a neoconservative war criminal, a pathological liar, a sociopath (aren’t all high-ranking politicians?), and the FBI will likely indict her over some e-mails.
But voters be damned, because the Democratic establishment wants Hilary, not Bernie.
Likewise, mainstream media and the political establishment are shaking in their boots when it comes to Donald Trump and his populist support. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked a Donald Trump presidency as among the world’s top ten global risks.
But, considering that virtually every past president since George Washington has violated the civil liberties of Americans, waged wars of aggression overseas, and ran up the deficit so the total debt (including unfunded liabilities) sits at over $200 trillion — how much worse could Trump be?
How much of his antics are pure rhetoric to fire up the masses? And, while Trump is no libertarian, it’s refreshing to hear a US presidential candidate tell the truth about foreign policy: “Look at what we did in Iraq. It’s a mess. Look at what we did in Libya. It’s a mess there too. And we’re going to repeat our mistakes in Syria? Not on my watch.”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
But Trump is being compared to Hitler and the GOP is determined to keep him out by any means necessary.
Now what does this have to do with the Liberal promise to “legalize, regulate, and restrict” cannabis?
Canadian voters flocked to the Liberal Party for a variety of reasons, but certainly, ending the disastrous war on cannabis was a major plus compared to Stephen Harper’s outdated “infinitely worse than tobacco” propaganda.
A new Forum Research poll revealed that a majority of Canadians agree that growing your own cannabis on your own property for your own personal consumption is just fine and dandy.
Even an editorial in the National Post recommended the Liberals just legalize it and figure out the details later. After all, as the editorial pointed out, inquiries and consultations take up time, money, and resources, but produce zero results.
Does anyone think the former Toronto police chief — who has never smoked cannabis, but has sold it undercover and then busted the buyer — will recommend a free-and-fair market?
Would the cannabis culture have been supportive of Trudeau if they knew Bill Blair was going to be in charge?
And what about international treaties? Suggesting that Canada needs to go through the United Nations before we can change our domestic laws is a dangerous precedent — far more dangerous than a Trump presidency.
But Justin and the Liberals love the idea of the United Nations and the “global community.” Now that voters have put them in power, the Grits are free to disregard the wishes of their constituents and instead cling to international obligations.
Just like the Republican and Democrat party leaders trying to block Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, Canada’s Liberal government feels more comfortable with back-room deals and appeals to fallacious arguments than showing any willingness to listen to voters and embrace grassroots support.
On the bright side, perhaps all this will be a wake-up call for those who still adhere to the idea that democracy is a be-all and end-all solution that is immune from criticism.