MONTREAL | It is not just the PQ and the Liberal Party that will be looking for a leader this spring.
Even if article 1 of his program, the legalization of cannabis, has become reality, the illustrious Bloc Pot considers it more relevant than ever and is looking for the rare pearl to carry his new message.
The new leader of the small party will be appointed in May by the members, who are currently claimed to number 500, but who are likely to be more numerous on polling day. Since last week, the Bloc Pot has been very active on social networks to recruit new members.
“People think it’s a settled question, but on the contrary. Legalization is dysfunctional, “ardently defended Hugo St-Onge, an activist from the start who wore the colors – green as of course – of the party in the previous provincial elections.
Bold political agenda
The spokesman for the political party has it especially against the decisions of the Legault government, which raised the legal age to buy marijuana to 21 years and which generalized the prohibition of smoking on the street at all of Quebec. This is why, according to him, the fight is waged on the provincial political scene, even if legalization was decided in Ottawa.
“Since legalization, consumers are even more stigmatized than before. Consumers can more easily be evicted from their homes. The fines are even more severe if we are arrested, “denounced Mr. St-Onge, who believes rather that the police should sign an” armistice “with the dealers so that they can enter the legal market.
For this, the party’s program specifies that production licenses should be distributed by a Quebec board rather than by the federal government, allowing an artisanal culture, to the detriment of the big companies, which dominate the industry at present.
Resolutely camped on the left, the Bloc Pot sees with a good eye that the State, via the SQDC, is involved in the sale and profits from it. But the party still thinks that consumers should, at the same time, have the right to grow their own grass at home.
A serious party
Obviously, you really have to smoke some good to believe that the Bloc Pot can elect a single candidate in 2022, even Hugo St-Onge recognizes this. However, that was never the objective.
“Being a party allows us to be invited to debates, meet the candidates of other parties and advance our ideas without being registered as lobbyists”, he continued in a tone that could not be more serious, to get it wrong with that of a tie politician.
Because voters would be wrong to believe that the Bloc Pot is a fanciful party, like the legendary Rhinoceros Party.
“Twenty years ago, when the party was founded, people looked at us like extraterrestrials because we advocated legalization …” was pleased to recall Hugo St-Onge, who earns his living by making the accounting of a festival between two electoral campaigns.
