Canadian conservatives who have launched a new billboard campaign in Ottawa are urging Tories to embrace their libertarian roots and legalize marijuana.
A group called Canadian Conservatives for Legal Marijuana put up the billboards, which parody the familiar federal Conservative party branding but feature a few more hints of green. One is at the corner of Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue, and the second has gone up near King Edward Avenue and York Street.
Former Conservative MP Inky Mark has lent his name to the campaign. He says it makes perfect sense for someone with conservative leanings to be in favour of legalizing marijuana because that would be in line with a policy that provides less government intrusion into the lives of people.
“If you legalize it, tax it, control it, it just makes sense. You’ll keep people out of jail and make a lot of money,” he said in an interview Friday.
He said many prominent members of the Conservative party privately support his cause but they don’t want to run afoul of their leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“I don’t even consider Harper a conservative. He’s just Harper. The man basically wanted to jail 40,000 people who were using medical marijuana and growing it themselves. That should tell you a lot about him right there,” Mark said.
Local marijuana activists Russell Barth and his wife Christine Lowe were surprised by the billboard but not by its message when they stopped by to have a look.
“Conservatives seem to have a cognitive dissonance when it comes to marijuana. They’re like ‘yeah, smaller government, less regulation, get out of my bedroom and get out of my life,’ unless it’s marijuana. Then you’ve gotta just crack down on that,” Barth said.
Barth said that while ideally he’d like to see pot legalized “and sold just like tomatoes,” it’s much more important to clarify the situation around medical marijuana and the ability of users to grow their own pot.
Former Tory MP urges Harper to legalize pot | Ottawa Citizen