In a display of support that could have repercussions in Canada’s next federal election, hundreds of cheering supporters turned out in Vancouver Sunday to greet Canada’s so-called “Prince of Pot.”
Marc Emery, 56, is back home after spending four years in U.S. prisons.
He immediately jumped into Canada’s upcoming political fray, urging the crowd to vote for Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in the 2015 federal election, likely to be held in October.
Mr. Trudeau supports the legalization of marijuana, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party opposes legalization, Thomas Mulcair’s official opposition New Democrats support decriminalization.
Emery was extradited to the US in 2010 and pleaded guilty to selling marijuana seeds to American customers.
He was sentenced to five years but was released early for good behaviour. He returned to Canada last Tuesday.
Mr. Emery has vowed to seek political revenge against the Conservative government for its role in his extradition and has a university tour booked across Canada beginning in January and a 30-city tour set to take place in the lead-up to the 2015 vote.
Mr. Emery’s wife, Jodie, has indicated she wants to be a Liberal candidate in the next election.
A recent public opinion poll conducted for the federal Department of Justice found than two-thirds of Canadians want marijuana laws to be softened.
According to the Ispos Reid survey, just over 37 per cent of Canadians said marijuana should be legalized, just over 33 per cent said possession of small amounts of marijuana should be decriminalized with a fine rather than a criminal record, just under 14 per cent per cent said the country’s marijuana laws should stay the same and 12 per cent said marijuana penalties should be increased.
The poll found that many Canadians don’t think legalization would increase pot-smoking in this country: 52.6 per cent believe marijuana use would “stay about the same” if legalized, 38.4 per cent say it would increase, and 6.3 per cent say it would decrease.
Meanwhile, three leading doctors’ groups announced this weekend they will not participate in a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign against marijuana.
The Canadian Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada said they were declining an invitation from Health Canada to endorse a campaign on the dangers of marijuana use by young people, saying the ads had become a “political football” in the debate over legal status of the drug.
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