Pubdate: Thu, 21 Feb 2013
Source: Langley Advance (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.langleyadvance.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248
Author: Matthew Claxton

POT, RIDINGS, ON MIND OF LOCAL MP

Langley's MP reported back from Ottawa to the chamber

Langley's Member of Parliament spoke about changing riding boundaries,
medical marijuana, and cross-border trade before local business people
Tuesday.

At the monthly meeting of the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce, MP
Mark Warawa gave an update on what he's been doing in Ottawa.

The Conservative MP talked about the reigning party's jobs plans, work
on ending skills shortages, and drive to encourage businesses to hire
Canadian Forces veterans.

He also mentioned the recent visit by Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
who spoke with Langley and Surrey businesspeople at a local clothing
store.

On criminal justice, he outlined the government's plan to end private
growing of marijuana by registered medical users, in favour of a
system of centralized production and distribution through pharmacies.

"We are approaching it as a pharmaceutical drug," Warawa
said.

There have been a number of recent incidents in which medical
marijuana growers were found to be growing much more than their
allowed limits.

There have also been targeted attacks on legal growers by
criminals.

"That puts all of us at risk," Warawa said.

The new rules will prevent people from growing marijuana in their own
homes.

On electoral boundaries, Warawa re-iterated for the chamber that he is
lobbying to tweak the proposed boundaries of new federal ridings.

The planned new ridings would include a riding dubbed
Cloverdale-Langley that includes portions of Surrey, Langley City, and
Willoughby west of 208th Street, along with a riding called Fort
Langley-Aldergrove that would include the rest of the Township and a
western sliver of Abbotsford.

Warawa would prefer Langley Township to remain one riding, if not all
of Langley staying together.

He also suggested renaming the new ridings if they are not amended,
dubbing them West Langley-Cloverdale and Langley-West Abbotsford.

He also spoke about his private member's bill in the House of Commons,
which would condemn the practice of sex-selective abortions.

In parts of China, India, and other countries, women seek early
ultrasounds and abort female fetuses due to a preference for sons. A
recent CBC report found that a number of Canadian ultrasound clinics
were also willing to tell mothers the sex of their children very early
in the pregnancy.

Warawa's motion has been criticized by the NDP as an attempt to
re-open the abortion debate, but he insists it is an issue of
discrimination and the rights of women and girls.

"I just really felt passionate that this is what I was supposed to
do," Warawa told the chamber.
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MAP posted-by: Matt