The writ has dropped and the campaign for next month’s federal election is on. The cannabis industry of course wants to know: what does this mean for us? Former Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton responded: Don’t expect much.
CBC Politics, Yahoo Finance
- Saying he spoke with “a fellow named Andrew” and “some people who report directly to a guy named Justin,” Linton predicted political fears would prevent the leading Liberal party and second-place Conservative party from discussing cannabis much.
- Though the Liberals created a legal industry that now employs 9,200 Canadians at 175 companies (up from 1,438 people at 37 companies in the 2016/17 fiscal year), Linton predicted the Liberal Party would shy away from anything that made Justin Trudeau, a former drama teacher, “look light, not serious.”
Statistics Canada - Linton added, “I don’t think the Liberals want to look light and fun” as they face major challenges like Ethics Commisioner Mario Dion’s conclusion that Trudeau broke conflict of interest laws in the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
The Star - The Conservatives, meanwhile, aggressively opposed legalization. Linton said, “The Tories lost the last election in part because they tried to tell a majority of Canadian adults they are wrong. [Now they] don’t want to touch it.”
Cannabis insiders took to Twitter with the issues they hope to see represented on the campaign trail. Among them:
- Federal pharmacare funding for MED (Deepak Anand) and removal of excise taxes on MED products (Michael Verbora);
- And lowered barriers to entry for micro-cultivators. (Steph Ostrander)
Twitter
- Expungements (SheCann) and an end to overpackaging (Coffeetwomilk);
