A young man smokes a marijuana joint during a rally in downtown Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday April 20, 2011.The Canadian Press
The Liberal Party policy conference last weekend suggested the party is serious about rebuilding and is open to new faces and new ideas. The election of Mike Crawley as party president and the adoption of a more open leadership selection format are welcome signs of renewal.
One goal must be to better differentiate the party from the ruling Conservatives, and in that respect, a new policy on cannabis legalization represents a start.
There has been no public clamour for a war on drugs in Canada, yet the Tories are pursuing one as part of their costly crime agenda, with measures such as legislating mandatory minimum prison terms for people caught growing a handful of pot plants.
Even in the U.S., some conservatives are disowning the Reaganite policy, as the crackdown has had little impact on actual use, has proved enormously costly in fiscal and human terms and created fertile ground for drug gangs.
Whether legalization is the best solution is open to debate. This newspaper has previously favoured decriminalization. But the Liberals are right to make it a political issue.
In 2009, police reported 48,981 incidents of cannabis possession. A 2002 Senate report placed the cost of enforcing cannabis laws at $300-million annually – a figure that has surely risen. Given the fiscal restraint being preached by the Tories, it is reasonable to ask whether this country can afford laws, toughened laws, for a substance generally considered to be safer than alcohol.
A robust Liberal Party is in the best interest of the country, to provide an effective, centrist opposition, and a credible alternative to the ruling Conservatives.
But the Liberals need to go beyond a single, attention-grabbing issue. They need to determinedly stake out positions on issues where they offer a clear alternative to the Conservatives, and not only issues that will appeal to the political left.