PARLIAMENT HILL – A substantial majority of Canadian electors are on the same page as Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau when it comes to legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana, a new Forum Research poll suggests.
The Forum Research survey earlier this week found 66 per cent of voting-age Canadians who responded either support the legalization of marijuana and taxing legal marijuana sales or taking marijuana possession out of the Criminal Code.
The results could help explain Justice Minister Peter MacKay’s recent musings that even the Conservative government might be open to more lenient police treatment of possession.
As well, Conservative party fundraising emails through the summer ignored the topic and concentrated on economic and other legal and criminal justice matters—including an appeal to long-gun owners who were alienated by RCMP firearms seizures in Alberta last year.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), using a partisan appearance this week to criticize other comments Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) made over the past few months, did not include his position supporting marijuana legalization.
The survey of 1,798 voting-age Canadians from Aug. 18 to Aug. 19 found 35 per cent of respondents supported legalization of marijuana and taxation of sales, while another 31 per cent supported decriminalization for possession of small amounts.
Only 16 per cent said marijuana laws should remain as they are, after a series of controversial Conservative bills that have made penalties stiffer with mandatory minimum prison sentences for possessing even small amounts of marijuana cigarettes for the purpose of trafficking.
The survey found support for legalization is highest among males, with 40 per cent favouring the idea, and voters between the ages of 35 and 64, with 38 per cent supporting legalization.
By region, support for legalization is highest in British Columbia, at 45 per cent, and in Alberta and Manitoba, where 40 per cent backed the policy.
Among respondents who identified themselves as likely NDP voters, 47 per cent said they favoured legalization.
Only 24 per cent of Conservative voters supported legalization.
Overall, 34 per cent of women favoured legalization, but 39 per cent of mothers with children under the age of 18 supported decriminalization.
The interactive voice response telephone survey had a margin of error of two per cent 19 times out of 20, slightly higher in the regional and demographic breakdowns.
The Conservative Party has attacked Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) on virtually every front over the Liberal stand on legalization: in MP newsletters, web videos and broadcast ads. The ads and newsletters suggest Mr. Trudeau’s policy would make it easier to sell marijuana to school children—even though the Liberal plan calls for regulation of sales in the way tobacco and alcohol are currently controlled, with strict prohibitions and penalties for sales to minors.
The government sent two messages over the summer regarding new government marijuana policy—the one from Mr. MacKay speculating about more lenient laws and another from Health Minister Rona Ambrose (Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Alta.) revealing the government is also focusing on a new advertising campaign aimed at youth.
Mr. MacKay raised the possibility that the Conservatives might amend the law to allow police to ticket individuals caught with small amounts of marijuana rather than prosecuting them through the Criminal Code.
“With some eight justice bills right now in the queue to come before Parliament, we’re running out of runway as far as bringing legislation forward, but that [ticketing possession] is one I do view as important. So if we are going to introduce it, it would have to happen in the next six months,” Mr. MacKay said on Tuesday.
He said, however, he does not believe that “the position of others, to normalize marijuana, to make it more available to young people, is the direction you will ever see coming from our government.”
A government attempt to convince Canadian medical doctors to take part in its anti-marijuana ad campaign aimed at young Canadians flopped.
The Canadian Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada declined to take part in the educational campaign because it had become “a political football.”
“We did not, and do not, support any political messaging or political advertising on this issue,” the medical groups said in a joint statement last weekend.
Ms. Ambrose responded by saying that “telling kids not to smoke marijuana is not politics.”
She accused Mr. Trudeau of making the issue a political one, even though the Conservative Party has used it to attack him and drive up financial contributions.
Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said the survey suggests it is the Conservative Party that is offside with most Canadians on the topic.
“There is actually more support among New Democrats for this step,” Mr. Bozinoff said. “In fact, it is only in Alberta and among Conservative voters that opposition to legalization or decriminalization approaches majority levels.”
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