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London politicians’ overwhelming support for cannabis retailers helped influence the world’s largest marijuana company to strike a partnership to open a store in the city, a company official says.

Canopy Growth, a Smith Falls-based marijuana producer, is teaming up with Quebec’s Couche-Tard, the operator of 15,000 variety stores worldwide under the Circle K and other banners, to enter a licence agreement with an Ontario pot lottery winner planning to open an outlet near White Oaks Mall.

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“The council there voted overwhelmingly in favour of retail cannabis locations,” Shega Youngson, Canopy’s community engagement manager, said of council’s 13-1 vote Dec. 18 to allow brick-and-mortar stores.

“It’s exciting to be starting our retail footprint in a community that has been open and welcoming to our new industry.”

Seventy-seven of Ontario’s 444 municipalities opted out of allowing marijuana retailers in their communities ahead of a Jan. 22 deadline imposed by the province. But London politicians argued that doing so would cost the city provincial funding – $1 million over the next two years – and snuff out an industry that will create jobs and fill vacant retail space.