Kirk Tousaw

Kirk Tousaw, a candidate for the NDP, was forced by the circumstances of a less credible candidate, Dana Larsen, to withdraw from the election campaign yesterday. Both had important connections to the B.C. Marijuana Party. Tousaw, a lawyer and chair of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association's drug policy committee, resigned from the race after a video of the Vancouver-Quadra candidate smoking marijuana surfaced.

Tousaw's resignation follows on the heels of Dana Larsen being ejected from the NDP campaign team due to his very public use of pot, LSD and DMT not to mention a lack of what most Canadians would see as common sense.

Earlier this week I'd argued that the NDP running candidates like Larsen demeans the efforts of its other candidates and hard working MPs. While I wasn't thinking of Tousaw specifically, the situation is a case in point. It seems unlikely that he would have had to withdraw if not for Larsen's very public on-screen antics.

If the NDP or any party wishes to be taken seriously by the electorate, nominating candidates that have been and are willing to remain on the side of the current law has to be one of their guiding principles. Activists need to consider this before they wander down roads that will inevitably lead to dead ends.

I'm a fairly socially progressive person yet I do not fully agree with the case most pro-legalization forces put forward as the question of what to do with black market drugs is not resolved. A relevant precedent exists: there is a huge illegal market in tobacco, a product which is legal and licensed for sale in the manner most marijuana activists foresee as a model. A "legal" consumption legislative framework would only further encourage unregulated "illegal" production along with tax evasion and other criminal endeavours. This I see as a significant problem which may overshadow any good that might come of a personal use legal regime.

But whether or not I agree with legalization is not the point. Regardless of my perspective on the matter I remain convinced that if one wants to act within the political system to drive change, then one has to generally meet societal norms and that today means we don't want to elect folks stupid enough to do LSD and drive while under the influence of drugs be it marijuana or alcohol.

Canadians are a tolerant people that tend to shy away from the extremes. Larsen is an extreme. Tousaw may or may not be. (Video) Assuming Tousaw doesn't have his own collection of Larsen-like videos, I believe Tousaw, a lawyer who is trying to change attitudes and laws through political and legal activism, might have remained in the race. Then again, maybe not.

Should the national party machinery have a veto over local candidates? That's a tough question. I'm a democrat and believe the riding certainly has every right to nominate a candidate of their choice. But the principal function of a national political party is to seek balance and that means pulling in the fringe elements for the betterment of all, even the fringe. Ideally a local riding association would reason all this out on their own before putting forward any candidate.

This real issue at hand is bigger than Larsen or Tousaw. Nominating and then dumping two very prominent "cannabis culture" activists underscores the reality that the party has not yet fully come to grips with its image. The NDP has signalled it doesn't want to be viewed as only a party of protest but as a mainstream political organization. They can't be both without, quite correctly in my opinion, leaving Canadians wondering if they are ready for more responsibility.

Conservative jokester and possibly soon the former Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has ticked off not only the devastated families he insulted with a callous joke earlier this week but also the unionized scientists and inspectors who work for him, as well as doctors from the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Crisis requires real leadership and Mr. Ritz is clearly not fit to lead. Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada

In Learning from Listeria: the autonomy of the Public Health Agency of Canada the CMAJ suggests Canada's public health officer should report direct to parliament and be afforded other protections in order to ensure objective, not political, handling of crisis.

The union representing food safety scientists and inspectors are somewhat more direct. In a press release issued Friday:

“Minister Ritz has repeatedly disappointed the professional scientists and inspectors who work for him during the listeria crisis,” said Michèle Demers, President of the Institute. “The comments he apologized for yesterday are the last straw. Crisis requires real leadership and Mr. Ritz is clearly not fit to lead.”

The Professional Institute represents 1,800 professionals who work in food inspection and health protection. As professionals in these fields, Institute members are also shocked at Prime Minister Harper’s dismissive response to the considered opinion on the roots of listeriosis crisis put forward by the editorial board of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Canada’s foremost medical journal blamed government policy on food safety for contributing to the listeria crisis and called for “a full-scale public inquiry in to the major failings of Canada’s food inspection system”.

“Prime Minister Harper should immediately fire Minister Ritz and apologize to all Canadians for his trivializing response to informed critics of his government’s policies on food safety,” said Demers. “Only a full-fledged independent and transparent inquiry can re-establish Canadian’s trust in the safety of their food”. Demers added that the Harper government's plans for further cuts to food inspection and regulation must be stopped.

Another union has also weighed in to the growing controversy. The Public Service Alliance on Friday warned that if a Harper majority (or minority acting as majority?) were to be elected, federal meat inspectors would be off the job permanently in provincially licensed plants in three provinces including British Columbia.

WINNIPEG — The federal Conservatives are planning to pull out of meat inspection programs in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia if they are re-elected Oct. 14, a public sector union warned Thursday.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents 165,000 civil servants, says a secret Treasury Board of Canada report from May of this year proposes cutting federal delivery of provincial meat inspection programs to save about $3 million.

Patty Ducharme, the union’s national executive vice-president, said the federal government administers meat inspection programs that oversee sanitation and other safety regulations in the three provinces. More > (The Chronicle Herald)