Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jan 2012
Source: London Community News (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.londoncommunitynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5319
Author: Jonathon Brodie

TALKING POT WITH BOB RAE IN LONDON

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae made a stop at the BMO Centre, located 
at Rectory Street, Friday (Jan. 20) to tell a room full of supporters 
that there's still life in the party and a need for it in Canada.

"Liberalism is at it's best when it's a fighting philosophy because 
of the things we believe in," Rae said to a room of about 250 people. 
"Because we know there are some things we have to fight for."

The Toronto Centre MP went over points covered during last week's 
Liberal convention in Ottawa that he believes will start the steps to 
get the party back into the hearts of Canadians.

In May 2011 during the last federal election, the Liberals were only 
elected to 34 seats in the House of Commons, losing 43.

Rae admitted the party needed to make changes. The quickest way to 
those changes, Rae said, is getting a conversation started about what 
Canadians want to see done with their country.

"We would come away from that conversation feeling that liberalism, 
Canadian liberal ideas, have a lot to offer when it comes to all of 
those things that are very strong and keen on people's minds," Rae said.

The former NDP member didn't directly comment about a recent motion 
passed by Liberal's allowing people to join the party as a supporter 
without having a membership, but Rae did say he wanted to open the 
forum to all Canadians.

"We have to be opening up the doors to our party. It's not about two 
or three people controlling the agenda, it's not about one person 
saying here's the policies," Rae said. "It's got to be based on a 
real conversation with people who are actively involved in the 
political process and supporting the political party and that's what 
we have to do."

Liberal delegates voting to support the legalization of marijuana is 
one particular issue that has garnered attention from last week's 
convention and Rae made sure to address it with his Forest City 
supporters, telling them legalizing pot needs to be put into context.

"Does it really make sense to keep locking up kids and you know 
adults smoke pot too," Rae said. "Does it really make sense to spend 
billions of dollars trying to deal with this question anymore than it 
makes sense to spend billions of dollars as we did 100 years ago 
stopping people from drinking?"

Looking into the future of Liberal's, one young supporter asked Rae 
what the youth can look forward to growing up in this country. His 
question was met with cheers from everyone in the audience.

"Looking around and judging by the crowd here, I can definitely say I 
feel like a minority as coming from the youth point of view," the 
young supporter said, amongst a crowd of people mostly over 40.

Rae was quick to point out that over 1,000 youth delegates attended 
the recent Liberal conference. Issues that matter to all ages, he 
added, like the environment or education need to be a focus of Canadians.

"The people who are benefiting from the current pollution are the 
people in this room and the people who will pay the price as global 
warming goes up, it's not even you," Rae said, pointing to the young 
supporter. "It's your children and your grandchildren."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom