Pubdate: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: John Ivison HIGH HOPES MEET OLD HANDS Calculating Rae Doesn't Match New Energy The endorsement of Liberal members on the floor of the party's convention to legalize marijuana put a temporary crimp in Bob Rae's plans to become permanent leader. He has publicly opposed the resolution to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana production, distribution and use as flawed. But after 77% of the delegates in Ottawa voted to pass the motion, he picked himself up, dusted himself down, and tweaked his position to fit the new reality. In a post-convention press conference, he said he supports the spirit of the resolution but has to look at the practical implications. He can console himself that a hardy rump of delegates voted late Saturday night to retain the leader's right to veto policy he doesn=92t like. Despite a warning from Young Liberal President, Samuel Lavoie, that =93it will be difficult for any leader to ignore the will of the members=94, one suspects that is exactly what this leader will do (let's dispense with the pretense of =93interim=94 =AD after all, Mr. Rae did in the speaking notes to his closing remarks). This has been the strange dichotomy of what has been a very successful convention for the not-dead-yet Liberal Party. On the one hand, was the burst of energy and artlessness from the majority of members, who want a clean break from the political artifice and brokerage politics of the past. Delegates were not asking what their party could do for them, but what they could do for their party. On the other, was the crass cynicism displayed by the leader and the old hands around him, who seem determined to string out his interim status as long as possible for maximum political advantage. The marijuana issue was a good example of a party grasping for ideas that, if not new, are not in vogue. One delegate from British Columbia won wild applause when he said the Liberals =93need to show leadership, courage and creativity.=94 This proposal was pushed by the young Liberals, as was a resolution to sever links with the monarchy that went down to defeat. While passage of the resolution may open the Grits to =93soft on crime=94 attacks from the Conservatives, it may yet prove to be a political winner. It is, of course, not a new suggestion. In the early 1970s, the Le Dain Commission concluded that Canada's prohibition laws have created a sub-culture with little respect for the law, diverted law enforcement capability, clogged the judicial system and provided a base of funding for organized crime. In 1972, Pierre Trudeau was elected on a platform of easing up on marijuana prohibition, which he then failed to implement. Even the Progressive Conservatives talked in their 1979 Throne Speech of changing the Criminal Code. But the war on drugs in the U.S. has sapped the enthusiasm for reform of every government since then. Bob Rae's Damascan conversion is, then, to be welcomed, despite its jaw-dropping audacity. In his closing speech, the Liberal leader identified a number of other areas where the Liberals will have to improve, if they are once again to become a serious force in the land. Amid the hocum of a typically blustery Bob Rae performance =AD =93We need an Ottawa winter to be followed by a Canadian spring=94 =AD he paid lip service to the need to embrace change, do better in Quebec and build stronger riding associations. =93We Liberals do not resent success and we do not punish failure,=94 he said. Young delegates heading out into Ottawa's sub-Arctic weather could do so well satisfied that their party is on course to make a full recovery. But it's my bet that many left with the slightly disconcerting feeling that their enthusiasm for doing politics differently is at odds with the cold, calculating nature of their 63-year-old leader. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom