Pubdate: Mon, 26 Aug 2013
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Joan Bryden

TRUDEAU'S CANNABIS CANDOUR PART OF PLAN TO BRAND GRITS AS PARTY OF TRANSPARENCY

OTTAWA - There is method to Justin Trudeau's reefer madness.

His willingness to confess his past proclivity for puffing pot is 
part of a deliberate strategy to brand the Liberal leader as a 
different kind of politician - one who's open and transparent to a 
fault, even when it might be more politic to dissemble.

It's a calculated risk that could pay big dividends or blow up in his 
face, Liberal insiders acknowledge.

But he's determined to make transparency a trademark of his leadership.

His voluntary admission last week that he took a pull on a joint at a 
dinner party three years ago - while he was an MP - wasn't the first 
example of Trudeau's potentially perilous frankness and it won't be the last.

During the leadership contest that crowned him last spring, Trudeau 
voluntarily disclosed all his sources of income, including his 
inheritance from his late father, former prime minister Pierre 
Trudeau, and more than $ 1 million earned on the public speaking circuit.

The fact that he continued to accept hefty speaking fees from 
charitable groups and educational institutions after being elected as 
an MP in 2008, sparked sufficient public backlash that he eventually 
offered to refund any group that felt it hadn't got its money's 
worth. In the end, none took him up on the offer.

As with the marijuana admission, the speaking-fee controversy handed 
Conservative and New Democrat rivals an opportunity to jab at what 
they consider Trudeau's Achilles heel: his judgment, or lack thereof.

But Liberals are gambling that the appeal of Trudeau's candour will 
outweigh any concerns about his behaviour.

"It's the type of leadership that ( Canadians) have been waiting 
for," Liberal House leader Dominic LeBlanc wrote last week in a blog 
on the party's website as the pot controversy raged. "Rather than 
duck and dodge, our leader gave straight answers to tough questions."

The commitment to transparency isn't going to be confined to the 
leader, however.

During a three-day caucus retreat in Prince Edward Island that begins 
Tuesday, Liberal MPs and senators are to be presented with a template 
for publicly disclosing their expenses online, starting this fall. 
That's in keeping with a promise made by Trudeau last spring amid the 
uproar over the Senate expenses scandal and it could potentially turn 
up some unwelcome surprises.

And insiders say he'll unveil yet more proposals later this fall for 
making politicians more open and accountable.

The emphasis on transparency is aimed at contrasting Trudeau's 
Liberals with what they claim are Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 
ethically challenged, tightly scripted Conservatives.

Trudeau's openness about smoking marijuana, along with his call to 
legalize and regulate weed, has the added benefit of appealing to the 
young and progressive voters who might otherwise support the NDP, 
Liberal strategists contend.
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