Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jan 2016 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2016 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: Chris Selley Page: A11 AN AMBITIOUS AGENDA So alarming is the federal Liberals' unfolding record of broken promises, my colleague Michael Den Tandt argued this week, that they have brought the whole notion of promises into disrepute ('Promise not to make promises,' Jan 6). "Trudeau and his ministers rush headlong into the concrete pylon of reality on file after file - the discarded commitment to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of 2015 being only the most obvious example," he wrote. He even suggested Canadian politicians should take this opportunity to swear off promises for good. The Trudeaumetre website identifies four definitive reneges so far: that the tax hike for the richest Canadians would pay for the tax cut for the middle class, instead of leaving a reported $ 1.2- billion shortfall; that 25,000 Syrian refugees would arrive in Canada by the end of last year; and that, per the Liberal platform, "we will end Canada's combat mission in Iraq" ( it didn't say when, mind you). Judging by this list, it seems we can safely add, as Den Tandt did, a whopper: the Liberals' promise of budget deficits no larger than $ 10 billion. And there will almost certainly be more to come. But when I think about this new government, I think less about broken promises than about the ones I'm rather surprised they're still pursuing with such unapologetic gusto. Electoral reform and legalizing marijuana are just two, but they've dug in their heels on others, as well. Considering the Liberals' habit of settling into power like a Jacuzzi after a tough day, I am hesitant to criticize too harshly. This level of ambition is a rare thing in Canadian politics, after all. The Liberals imagine themselves warriors of Canadian progressivism, but when the courts are unable or unwilling to take matters out of politicians' hands, the forces arrayed against change in this country are daunting. The civil service, for one, seems to be busy providing the Liberals with ample justification for preserving statuses quo. According to Bloomberg News, in the matter of Bombardier's troubled CSeries jet program, officials have advised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that, "in an increasingly competitive global economy with significant levels of government support for strategic sectors, aerospace is often seen as a 'pay to play' industry." This is certainly true, but it's precisely the sort of advice that keeps Canada mired in the corporate welfare game. True fact: we don't actually need passenger jets to call our own. Plenty of high- functioning countries get by without. We also learned this week that Trudeau has been advised of potential pitfalls in his pledge to legalize and regulate marijuana - among them, supposedly, three international treaties that will require "substantial work on the international stage before ( he) can follow through," the Canadian Press reported. Are your eyes rolling? Not without cause. One of the treaties, "The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol," simply requires governments to manage the trade in any drug they wish to deem legal and "adopt such measures as may be necessary to prevent the misuse of, and illicit traffic in, the leaves of the cannabis plant." That is probably what Trudeau has in mind, and exactly what he has proposed, respectively. The other two are expressly prohibitionist, but the United States is a signatory to each and U. S. President Barack Obama seems to have escaped international condemnation for letting various states get away with outright legalization. The logical course of action for a prime minister who doesn't think marijuana should be illegal would be to pull out of any international agreements that say it must be. If that might sound like too much trouble for former prime ministers Jean Chretien or Paul Martin, it's somewhat easier to imagine Trudeau shrugging it off. And we could finally be rid of a stupid law that doesn't work and isn't applied remotely fairly. ("Don't ' woo!' if you're white," comedian John Mulaney quips in a bit about legalization in the U.S. "It's always been legal for us.") As for achieving electoral reform, it remains extremely challenging to imagine the Liberals finding an avenue that they don't consider too politically risky without holding a referendum, which would almost certainly fail. But the cavalcade of pundits telling them it would be unconscionable, if not undemocratic, to pursue this matter without a referendum almost makes me want to see them try. That 2015 would be Canada's last first-past-the-post election was a very odd election promise - like promising unspecified Senate reform, or to abolish the monarchy. Tell us what comes next, for heaven's sake! But it was right there in their platform, in black and white. It's not the Liberals' fault nobody brought it up. Instead of resolving never again to include in an election platform such a bold and risky promise, perhaps we should resolve never again to have an election campaign in which such a bold and risky promise goes all but completely undiscussed. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom