If you were hankering for a summer of legalized marijuana in Canada, you can forget it.And you can thank Canada’s newly independent — but unelected — Senate for delays.There is now a firm deadline for passage, but it wasn’t the deadline the Trudeau government, and some provinces, wanted.If this was a strictly political gambit, there are those who would finger the culprit, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, as the man who directed his Senate caucus to put the brakes on government legislation, choosing partisan battles over sober second thought.Under a deal brokered in the Senate on Thursday, Government Leader Peter Harder dropped a threat to choke off debate in return for a promise that the Senate would vote on final passage of marijuana legislation June 7, the same day Ontarians go to the polls.The bill has been sitting in the Senate awaiting approval since Nov. 28.Ontario was one province that had actually appeared ready to implement the new legislation by its original target, July 1, a target federal Liberals had been inching away from even before the Senate deal was struck.The government has already signalled it would need up to three months to get regulations in place to actually open pot outlets, likely pushing implementation past Labour Day. But the Senate is expected to pass the legislation with amendments, meaning they would have to go back to the Commons, further confusing the time line.Conservatives were not alone in slowing the bill. Independent senators also raised questions.It is not a question of recreational marijuana becoming law. For Conservatives, the question is “when.”The further down the road the Conservatives can push legalized pot, the more they could take advantage of the inevitable problems that will accompany rollout, pushing some of the hiccups into a federal election year when Scheer can highlight problems with the program.There will be outlets that are not ready. There will be policing concerns. In ...
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