The day of legalized cannabis is slowly arriving.

Believe it or not, the federal Liberals have been struggling with the idea ever since it was proposed by then-Attorney-General and Justice Minister Allan Rock in 1993.

But it was vetoed by then-Health Minister Anne McClellan, who ironically became one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pot legalization lieutenant, along with former Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair after the 2015 election. Both were odd choices given their backgrounds but it’s little wonder it took us so long to get where we are.

Trudeau made pot legalization a key promise in the 2015 federal election campaign.

Some were suggesting it was to buy the vote of young electors. But the official line was to legalize it and allow the provinces to regulate the industry the way they saw fit.

Nevertheless, the federal Liberals struggled to meet timelines and kept pushing back the date of legalization. Less than a year ago, it was set to be July 1, 2018. It was later pushed back again to Oct. 17, 2018.

The federal and provincial Liberals’ ultimate goal, they’ve kept reminding us, was not to push the recreational use of pot. Rather, it was to crack down on the black market. Government wanted part of the action not as a source of revenue either, but to make sure there were guidelines and regulations, in part, to keep pot out of the hands of the bad guys.

When the Ontario Liberals announced their vision for selling pot, you had a feeling that they were at a wake. They weren’t doing this because they wanted to but because their federal big brother told them to do so.

It was so typical of the nanny-state that so defined Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne’s 15 years of power.

Sombre-faced former Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, flanked by former Finance Minister Charles Sousa and former Health Minister Eric Hoskins were all dressed in dark suits, looking grim and as though they were ready to head to a funeral to bury the issue once and forever.

Instead of taking a positive attitude that this is progress, it was a downright negative affair. Sousa declared “we will not permit products to be visible.” Not to be outdone, Naqvi said: “We’ve heard people across Ontario are anxious about the federal legalization of cannabis.”

The provincial Liberals’ plans made no sense whatsoever. It was as puritanical as you could imagine. Marijuana was to be sold online and in up to 150 LCBO-run unionized stores by 2020.

There were to be 40 weed outlets in the months after legalization, 80 by 2019 and 150 in 2020. It was a plan set to fail. Four pot locations were identified from the outset, but Ottawa, Ontario’s second largest city, was out of luck for weed. Anyone from Ottawa would have had to travel to Guelph, Kingston, Toronto or Thunder Bay.

Based on a recent Statistics Canada report, there’s a potential 2.5 million pot customers in Ontario. The Liberals’ plan wouldn’t even have put a dent on the black-market sales. It was all smoke-and-mirrors.

Last week, Premier Doug Ford’s government announced a much more practical solution. It was a breath of fresh air.

Let private competitive businesses run the shops as of April 2019 and make pot available online the date of legalization. The extra time for private sales would allow for the development of proper regulations to govern their operations.

The foot-dragging by the federal and Ontario Liberals on the legalization of pot has been shameful. No one forced the federal government to legalize pot. It was their idea. But if they were going to do it, it should have been done a long time ago.

As for the provincial Liberals, they were going to do their best to pander to the LCBO union and give the appearance that Ontario was ready to loosen the pot strings.

It’s a good thing that their plan, set to fail, was put to rest once and for all.