NDP Leader Tom Mulcair takes part in a Vice town hall meeting in Toronto on Tuesday, October 13, 2015.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Tom Mulcair, whose New Democrats are promising to decriminalize marijuana possession but not to make it legal, says he understands legalization will happen eventually.
The NDP Leader spent part of the late afternoon on Tuesday taking part in a town hall that was organized by VICE, an online news service that caters to a young demographic. The audience wanted to know why Mr. Mulcair was advocating that marijuana merely be decriminalized and not legalized.
He responded by saying decriminalization is something he could do immediately if his party is elected to form a government on Monday of next week.
"There are lots of promises that can be made but I only like talking about what that I can do," he told the crowd that appeared to be comprised mostly of people in their early 20s. "It is a long-held policy of the NDP, which is to decriminalize. It is something that we can do from one day to the next, it's to make sure that when we get elected on October 19, no one ever gets a criminal record for possession or use of marijuana. " But, when a questioner asked Mr. Mulcair if he is willing to send people to jail for the cultivation and distribution of the drug, he went a step further about legalization – pointing to other jurisdictions in the United States where pot can be consumed without breaking any laws.
"We're going to take our time to do it. But it's going to get done," said Mr. Mulcair. "I mean, that's the direction that it's going in. Look at Oregon, look at Colorado, we're getting more and more information. That's the type of thing that will be the way for the future."
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has said he would legalize marijuana immediately after being elected. He says he would work with the provinces to find appropriate ways to regulate it and argues that legalization and regulation would help to keep it out of the hands of children.
The Conservatives have introduced legislation to impose minimum sentences for possession of six or more pot plants and have been running election campaign ads attacking Mr. Trudeau for his policy in favour of legalization.
Full legalization is much more complicated than "snapping your fingers," said Mr. Mulcair. And "we're not going to have weed being sold at the LCBO tomorrow morning. That's not going to happen."
His party, he said, would sit down with the police and discuss how to proceed.
Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police said more than two years ago that it wants officers to have the ability to ticket people found with 30 grams of marijuana or less.
So "there's an openness there that didn't exist before and I think we are moving in the right direction and our society as a whole gets it so that's the way that we're going to do it," said Mr. Mulcair.