Editor, The News:
Re: ‘Opening new markets in Europe’ (Letters, Nov. 1).
MP Randy Kamp sings the praises of the new European Union deal, but he fails to define what the federal government had to give up to get it.
The Conservatives just threw the purchasing power of every municipal government, provincial government and marketing board under the bus.
Policy makers within the EU are now openly laughing up their sleeves as they brag about taking the rubes from Canada.
I believe there will be 80,000 new jobs created. Unfortunately, they won’t be in Canada. The altar of free trade will run with blood of the many jobs that will be lost because of this unnecessary and wasteful deal.
Their jobs, growth and prosperity mantra is turning into a nasty joke on the Canadian public.
Meanwhile, back in Canada, the Conservatives are doing their best to kill 200,000 jobs in B.C. as they refuse to face the issue of cannabis prohibition.
That’s $4 billion dollars worth of economic activity that benefits every community in B.C., as those 200,000 employees spend their money.
Other jurisdictions on our borders are busily normalizing and taxing the cannabis industry, while Canada continues wandering down the dead end of prohibition.
As we wander, we will lose our marketing edge in an emerging industry that promises to pay billions in tax revenue while creating thousands of new jobs, all this without going begging to the deficit-ridden governments of Europe.
I am still waiting for acknowledgement of the biggest Conservative job creation program to date – medical marijuana. Their latest attempt to regulate it will only make sick people sicker as they pay off their corporate masters.
The only way to make those politicians who support the failed prohibition model as a way of regulating and controlling cannabis is to force them to change. The only province that has a mechanism to do so is B.C.
Signing the SensibleBC petition will force the province and country to change direction by ending the war on cannabis, which is, in fact, a war on your fellow citizens.
Craig Speirs
Maple Ridge