By Ashley Mussbacher (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: September 4, 2013
I don’t care if Harper has a sports fantasy league with his buddies. I wouldn’t care if Mulcair enjoys midnight skinny-dipping. So why would I care if Trudeau smoked pot at a party one night?
It’s not that surprising that a 41-year-old man smoked a joint with his friends, politician or not. He says he’s smoked pot five times in his life. Big deal. The Liberal leader claims he’s an open book, and so far he’s lived up to that expectation. I’m surprised he hasn’t admitted to worse.
Of course people rant about marijuana being illegal, going so far as to say that he should be removed from office. That if he cannot uphold the laws of Canada, why have an oath of office at all? Well, fine then. Remove him from office for breaking the law. And while you’re at it, you might as well clean house. The Parliament building will be awfully empty when you’re done.
So, the question right now is whether Trudeau has made a mistake. I would say not. He’s playing the game, and playing it well. The popular perception of a politician is someone who is cynical, and who puts on a façade. Trudeau’s openness is winning over many Canadians.
In an interview about Trudeau’s pot-smoking confession, George Takei tells Global News that such honesty and forthrightness can be Trudeau’s signature. He also says that “laws need to change to fit the times.”
It would be much different if Trudeau was caught drunk driving, but the act of having a drag of a joint doesn’t affect anyone but the user. And I highly doubt he was passing it around to underage youth.
I do care that Trudeau admitted to smoking pot. He respects individual choice, and I admire that. It gets tiring and frustrating when MPs claim they know what’s good for people, and resort to telling us how to behave. There’s only one person who can tell me what to do and get away with it – my grandmother.
