Getting out of Ontario saved me from having to deal with Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne’s overbearing and condescending style of governance.
Wynne’s monopoly on the legal use of force contemplates every government intervention into civil society with an ambitious purpose.
Whether it’s the botched selling of hydroelectricity, implementing a provincial-based pyramid-pension scheme, or the desired acquisition of cannabis production, sales and distribution.
It’s that last one that really bugs me, for, as I no longer live in Ontario, I am constantly reminded that she is still the Premier because she keeps commenting on cannabis.
Wynne’s “encouraged” by Bill Blair as the federal point-man on cannabis, that selling the plant in state-owned liquor stores “makes a lot of sense.”
This woman is co-opting the national discussion on what legalization should look like.
Which leads to the title of this post — where is British Columbia Premier Christy Clark?
Cannabis is predominantly a British Columbia-based industry, and Ottawa, with a little help from their Ontario friends, should not be making these kinds of decisions.
Take it out of the criminal code, give the responsibility to the provinces. That’s all Ottawa needs to do. The premier should say something about this.
Clark said BC is “ready to endorse and allow” a federal legalization plan. She knows “lots of ideas about how we might regulate it.” Does this imply that the British Columbia Liberal government might demand their own provincial regulatory model?
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Clark is sprouting the new mantra: “We need to make sure that young people whose brains are growing, will not be allowed unfettered access to getting marijuana,” and, “I think, you know, as a society, if we’re going to—just like we have with alcohol, say you know, it’s something that government is prepared to endorse and allow, we should make sure that the rules are very clear that we don’t want young people to be using it.” [emphasis mine]
You know, reefer madness? Except not Harper’s “infinitely worse than tobacco” catchphrase but the same logical fallacy of appealing to emotion.
We’re going to need more than a few off-hand comments about kids and pot.
Thanks to a Freedom of Information request, we know the BC government wants no part in the cannabis debate.
Kash Heed, former B.C. minister of public safety and solicitor general, figured “no political win,” was the reason the government won’t “come out and support this.”
But that was under Harper. Aren’t things supposed to be different now?
Christy Clark’s silence means we’re subject to Kathleen Wynne’s nonsensical ravings about cannabis in liquor stores. It means zero opposition to Bill Blair’s appointment as Canada’s first cannabis drug czar.
Work with the provinces? How can we while Clark remains silent? Ontario’s politicians will surely present their model as the only logical way to keep it out of the hands of children.
Meanwhile, the BC Bud market economy suffers in a grey market while Ottawa’s licensed producers stockpile cannabis legally.