Canada's Liberals Sweep to Victory -- With a Legalization Platform

Led by Justin Trudeau, Canada's Liberal Party swept to a strong victory in Monday's elections.

While results were still being tallied Monday night, it looks as if the party has won enough seats to form a majority government by itself. The Liberals won 184 seats in the lower house of parliament. They only need 170 seats to form a majority in the 338-seat lower chamber.

The Liberal platform included, among other things, marijuana legalization [13]:

"We will legalize, regulate, and restrict access to marijuana," the platform states. Marijuana prohibition doesn't prevent youth use, causes socially disruptive and expensive arrests, and supports organized crime, the statement adds. "We will remove marijuana consumption and incidental possession from the Criminal Code, and create new, stronger laws to punish more severely those who provide it to minors, those who operate a motor vehicle while under its influence, and those who sell it outside of the new regulatory framework."

But don't expect it to happen overnight. The Liberals said they would create a task force with input from experts in public health, substance use, and law enforcement to design a new system of taxed and regulated marijuana sales. Once the task force has done its work, a bill will have to be crafted and then passed in Ottawa.

While marijuana was not the issue in the campaign, it was an issue. The Conservatives, who have resisted liberalizing drug laws throughout their nine-year run in power, attempted drug war-style scare ads, and outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper said marijuana was "infinitely worse than tobacco [14]."

But the Tories' anti-pot stance didn't fare too well in a country that is ready to leave marijuana prohibition behind. In a CBC Vote Compass poll last month [15], 56% of respondents wanted legalization, another 30% wanted decriminalization, and only 14% wanted the prohibitionist status quo.

Now, the voters should be about to get their wish.

Tom Angell of Marijuana Majority [16] reacted from south of the border:

"While US states led the way by becoming the first places in the world to legalize and regulate marijuana in 2012, it looks like Canada could soon leapfrog ahead of us and become the first country in North America to legalize cannabis nationwide," he said. "If that happens, it's not only good news for Canadians who will be able to purchase marijuana from legal and regulated storefronts instead of being treated like criminals. It's also likely to give reform efforts in the US a bit of a boost -- not that we really needed it, but a little friendly competition is always a good motivator."