Did Laureen Harper contradict Conservative party policy on pot?
Press Progress site spotlights video of leader's wife saying 'You don't put people in jail'
Did Laureen Harper go off-message?
When the Press Progress website posted video of the Conservative leader's wife talking about marijuana at a small campaign event in Brampton, Ont. recently, eyebrows raised.
While she didn't come out in favour of full legalization, she did suggest people shouldn't go to jail for smoking pot.
- Justin Trudeau doesn't want pot sold at corner stores
- Tom Mulcair says NDP will decriminalize pot 'the minute we take office'
- Conservatives push anti-pot message, vow funds to combat drug labs
That might appear to contradict the law-and-order, zero-tolerance, crackdown-on-drugs approach one associates with Conservatives.
After all, this is the party that hammered hard against Justin Trudeau's more liberal pot policy in the House of Commons, during byelection campaigns and, most recently, in radio attack ads.
Health Canada also kept running its partisan-tinged anti-drug ad campaign right up until this election campaign launched.
Power & Politics convened a panel of candidates to unpack the various party positions on pot, and to consider whether Laureen Harper strayed, or merely articulated a less-familiar aspect of the Conservative position.