Conservatives in Canada won a decisive victory with a full majority for the next four years under Stephen Harper.
Harper has not been a friend to drug policy reform and, in fact, has been an advocate for a U.S.-style drug war.
I don’t really know enough about Canadian government to speculate as to how things are likely to move over the next four years.
What do our Canadian readers have to say?
on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “I strongly disagree with Servetus’ statement about Dave Weldon. His views on marijuana are not only outdated but also harmful…” Dec 17, 07:40
on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “Brain volume changes seen in opioid users: 10-Dec-2024 — OAK BROOK, Ill. – Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine…” Dec 12, 22:14 on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “Doctors and medical professionals working on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic found significant relief from psilocybin while participating in…” Dec 7, 14:24 on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “Ayahuasca (DMT) effects on the brain in reducing fear and anxiety are modulated by cross-talk between two serotonin receptor sites:…” Dec 7, 13:38
on Anti-marijuana quack Dave Weldon to take over CDC: “If you thought Bondi and Weldon are bad, I know plenty of Louisiana politicians in both parties who are even…” Dec 6, 11:26 on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “An evaluation prepared in Germany demonstrates that severe tobacco addiction can be medically treated using nicotine or the drug varenicline:…” Dec 1, 09:19 on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “Cannabidiol (CBD) is investigated as a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): 25-Nov-2024 – Current medical guidelines for ADHD…” Nov 26, 18:55
A majority government here is a defacto dictatorship essentially. Constrained by the constitution, they can pass any laws they want with little or no public debate. I expect mandatory minimums for cannabis offenses, all out assault on the medical cannabis program, and continued and renewed assualt on Insite (supervised injection facility)and any other harm reduction measures currently existing. As Harper has been manipulating parliament for years, I expect they will do their best to get around such limitations.
They will spend billions on jets and more especially, prisons for all the new non-violent offenders they plan to incarcerate. We are going down a dark road in my opinion. The only hope remaining is that after 4 years of worsening conditions for average Canadians as the treasury gets looted for the rich, and to pay for it public services get slashed, they finally get wise to the failure of the first past the post electoral system and demand change.
A conservative majority is the absolute worse thing that could happen to drug law reform in Canada.
A lot of people are going to suffer more before that happens… 🙁
The courts will force a MMJ law reform. Everything else is f*cked.
The only hope remaining is that after 4 years of worsening conditions…
Sorry, that’s what a lot of us thought after 4 years of Boosh junior and he got reselected. Harper is a puppet of Wall Street the same as the Neocons here. If the ordinary people don’t stop him, no one will.
Yes, when we came out of the bush era the problem was that 1) the bar on justice and rights had been dramatically lowered and 2) you had an a gigantic faction of people dumb enough to defend the lowering. Its great we have no more bush but the bar will be a long time raising, if ever honestly.
Those with a weak stomach should seriously avoid Canada’s Future
Have the weak stomach malcolm but watched it anyway. It doesn’t bother me because like everyone else I’ve been brainwashed and programmed to believe violence is the answer to all opposition. While I resist their death trap of violence it does not escape the attention.
Really feel for the people of Canada over this. Dammit to hell, TGN.
Cujo has the car keys OMG The fingers of sanity chewed off. Gonna be a big crack up amazing it has’nt happened yet. Psychopath ConBORG bound to make some huge stupid mistaKe. Tory cancer metastasizing the only cure the death of the patient. Holy water simmers in its flask. Checkmate Sandcastleland.
They had only 36 or 37% of the popular vote, but won because the two major opposition parties split the vote. Before the next election, it is necessary for those parties to merge. If they had been one party this time, they would have won massively.
During those four years, the rest of us have to fight incessantly with all our strength in the public opinion and judicial playing fields. The legislative playing field is hopeless, as explained above.
“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. ….the 63% of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much too divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, HOWEVER TEMPORARY, to stamp it out.”
-William L. Shirer, author;
“The rise and fall of the Third Reich” **p.259**
I recently obtained Canadian citizenship (born and raised in the U.S.) in hopes I could escape the draconian drug laws (among other things) we have in the states. Guess I’m fucked now along with the majority of Canadians. Too bad it will soon resemble Amerika. I find it unbelievable that over a third of those that voted chose such a lying, deceitful dictator in Harper. Are people really that blind to the truth?
My son and I are now investigating other places in the world to move to–permanently.
As will I. If I can become part of the EU, then back to Amsterdam for me.
What is your present global position?
The fact that you even ask such a question implies you are either a troll or the ‘pilot’ of an attack drone seeking coordinates for a strike. Momma raised no fools. Answer not forthcoming.
Damnit, with all the stuff regarding cannabis and safe injection sites in Canada you’d think they’d be an ally on this.
Can we all miss Jimmy Carter and Pierre Trudeau yet? The last true Democrat and Liberal leaders we may have had.
CEOs and federal spin doctors are guiding us all to their new frontier. Everyone is a criminal these days. The new administrations will inform us each as to the severity of our delinquency.
Sad. But a multi-party democracy has it’s drawbacks. I would venture a guess that very much like the Tea Party, you may find in coming years a conservative move away from corporate fascism and police statism. The upshot of this coming fragmentation will be a split conservative vote in the upcoming cycles. That will match the fragmented liberal vote on the left, making for a more level field.
As it stands a minority of voters now have elected a ruling government…. that will be hard on everyone in Canada, not just the left. Too bad things will have to get worse before they get better.
I think you mean much like the tea party started out as. Much of the tea party these days could care less about personal freedoms and the out of control police state we have going on here. They only want to lower taxes by cutting social programs they leave the corporatists alone. The neocon/michelle bachmann faction that inserted itself in to the tea party ruined it. Since the Tories use the neocon playbook they would just do the same.
That’s what I meant, libertarian conservatives are already disgruntled with the Kockfunded Tea Party.
The new administrations will inform us each as to the severity of our delinquency. Would you kindly elaborate?
Yeah there Fucked and so are we until we get Ron Paul’s or Gary johnson’s mutilplied by thousands in office who sincerely believe in Marijuana reform.
Just need 1 at the top and then the bandwagoners will hop on.
What are the chances… now this is just an idear popped into my balding pate after a small pipe… but can the cannabis movement unify as a bloc of voters (sorry, taking this off to the US for just a bit) w/ the specific agenda of if there is no shift in drug policy, no votes from us for a Prez candidate? I mean if there are 50 to 100 million ganja consumers in the US could we get 1 out of 10 of those to form a solid multi-million voter bloc that refuses to vote for any non-reform embracing candidate.
And you lads and lasses to the north… sorry for your pain. I suspect the next decade will be… ummm… interesting, for everyone.
I sort of suggested a similar thing, allan, if EVERY cannabis user were to call or email his/her two Senators and one Representative (you have to visit their official congressional page to email them nowdays) informing them all that if they refuse to bring cannabis re-legalization to a vote on the floor and/or refuse to vote to pass it then we each will work very hard to make certain those members of congress will NOT be re-elected. Re-election is really all they care about and if every cannabis user in their district were to actively work against their campaign, I’m certain the vast majority of those slimy politicians would lose in spite of the corporate money they have in their campaign chests.
It’d be a great lesson to the corporations and the politicians that they are not going to deny us our freedom any longer. A virtual tsunami of calls and emails would scare the hell out of them, especially since they know very well that if one person calls or emails about some issue there are at least ten more constituents who feel the same way, and if they are receiving several hundreds (maybe thousands) of calls and emails daily, I bet they’ll pay attention.
Some of them will, no doubt, do what my Rep did over the bailouts he said “My calls were 50% no, and 50% HELL NO!” but he voted for the bailouts, anyway. (Why he was re-elected, I’ll never understand, but he was.) But if your rep does ignore your demand, really take part in getting him/her unseated next election. If we don’t do these things, we are left with either submitting to the anti-cannabis police state, or revolution. Let’s try the non-violent, freedom, method first, ok?
In 2001 the B.C provincial election included the Marijuana Party.
For some reason they felt the need to ally with the gun lobby.
In B.C.!?
They garnered approximately 2% of the vote.
Reads like bad news. I may speculate that the Tories got in because of foreign policy issues which motivated the vote more than other issues. A symptom of the dearth of intellectual and political freedom.
Good comment on this subject from a Canadian citizen:
http://bumpyroads.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=politics&thread=113&page=20#32356
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Well, this is a sad day for Canadians. If for no other reason, then that we’ll have to seriously reconsider all those snide comments we’ve made about those bone-heads to the South re-electing George Dubs….Harper 3? Seriously?
ryan hazel 09:28
“WOW!” Canadian Election Results U2b
This is another reason why we should work to place a strong emphasis on converting conservatives through concisely explaining why the war on some drugs violates their principles.
American conservatives can never escape that such a war is:
1. illegally ruled constitutional solely by way of the liberal agenda (i.e. redefining — not interpreting — the Commerce Clause to authorize full government interference in the private sector).
2. expanding government against the conservative principle of smaller government.
3. the opposite of promoting individual responsibility.
That said, whether a conservative or liberal (or anyone else) gets into power, our strategy should be the same, because our message is the same.
The whole truth (and nothing but) is firmly on our side, and we need to continue expressing that to our target audience as prominently as we can.
I have found my target audience (the Republican party), and have consolidated that message into a form embraceable by that audience.
Though there is still hope that the war on some drugs can be stopped initially by pressure applied from outside of our nation, I still believe the war will first be stopped within, but that will not happen without dominant support across the political spectrum (which we are working towards slowly, but surely).
Our movement is dominated by liberal based groups (e.g. NORML has blogroll links to the extremely, politically-left-leaning AlterNet and Huffington Post).
My role is to help ensure balance across the political spectrum, so Harper and his ilk never faze us.
It was the GOP Neocon Fascists side of the Supremest ruling on the commerce clause. Nixon’s Lies started the modern version of the Ganjawar. Rayguns Boosh and Junior you simply wish away? They’re not Liberals. Social liberals have always been against the Ganjawar. Clinton was a Neocon in every act he did. From bombing Kosovo to using ditchweed as eradication statistics. Intervening with the Supremes or busting truckloads of bird seed. He arrested more Liberals than Nexxon, Rayguns and Boosh combined. Blaming alternet or HuffPost when they are the only media giving truth a chance is ludicrous. You have a real hangup with liberals but that doesn’t mean shifting blame is how it will end. Usually people who shoot the wrong targets get eaten. I don’t see how neglecting the profiteers of the Ganjawar and blaming stoners is going to do anything. Or calling the Psychic hotline to see how the delicate little bastards will take it. Truth stands alone. If they choose to believe gutter science then they are basically retarded. Shouldn’t give them power in the first place. Bashing liberals is a ploy to divert attention from the profits. Regardless. Liberals just don’t invade without CYA. GOPerverts have shown us for 40 years what their agenda is and you blame stoners?
It’s not Conservatives, It’s Neocons. Big difference. Neocons serve profit, words are simple means to an end. The game is to win elections and legislate profit. Without winning there is no agenda. Winning at all cost provides their future. Integrity, Tradition, Liberty, Honesty are all self addressed labels but not a word of truth. Most teabags started out as gun rights Conservatives, but the Dick Armey and the infestation of Kochroaches morphed that BMovement. Now its lesser evils with no clout or the status quo fascists. Nothing conservative about Boosh Cheney. Biggest government intrusion, largest debt. Ron Paul and Gary Johnson are small r republicans more akin to Libertarians. The GOP is the old southern democrats who converted after johnson signed the Civil Rights act. Not conservative. If no one calls them on their lies and stops them from lying. Or enforcing laws in Congress about lies. We will just continue spinning our wheels. Begging for crumbs to trickle down. That is all that will trickle down. If we take the profit out, or clearly point out why they fight this war, is for profits. Then maybe, big maybe the citizens will see through the BS and really act like Americans and vote their conscience. As long as reformers disregard the profits and invest in the same corporations lobbying for the Ganjawar. Seriously does anyone believe they will roll over? Stop making profits and leave their crude in the ground because its the healthiest thing for the people? Humans can not be trusted, period, end of story. Without checks and balances we would f.u.a.w.d.
The Conservative Argument for Legalization – 12/23/10
Conservative Addiction Good, Liberal Addiction Bad! – 12/02/03
Fellow Conservatives: Our Position Is Hypocritical – 04/21/01
Nixon lied to schedule Ganja #1
Please tell me the title to this post is a take on the Monty Python episode “Whither Canada?”