Article content continued

Meanwhile, and as if the Trudeau Liberals weren’t doing a good enough job on their own falling behind on the marijuana legalization isssue,a federal judge ruled this week that users of medical marijuana have the right to grow their own weed, sparking even more speculation in the private sector as to just how and when it will be time to get in on the ground floor of an industry clearly about to go boom big time.

All of which brings us to the rather uncomfortable question that wonders if this government is unable to belt a no-brainer like marijuana legalization out of the park (while drawing in billions in tax revenue), what other parts of its Throne speech agenda is it poised to swing at and miss?

As the Liberals’ wheel spinning over weed legalization proceeded this week, the government’s achievement de jour seemed to consist of announcing it would repeal a Harper government law that called for convicted terrorists’ with dual citizenship be stripped of their right to be called a Canadian. From a symbolic standpoint, this may have been a big deal, if only because this Liberal government seems unable to be fueled by anything other than symbolic gestures, particularly those that differentiate it from the previous regime. But in the end, demolishing the works of the Harper government (no matter how universally those works may have been loathed) is no substitute for building a legislative legacy of one’s own. Inevitably, it will be time for the Trudeau Liberals to ante up and actually get to work – not by obsessively dynamiting the legacy of the Tories, but by building their own.

Legalizing marijuana in a coherent, demonstrably profitable manner may not exactly be how this government wants to be remembered.

But like it or not, it might be a really great way to start.

Montreal Gazette news columnist James Mennie can be heard weekdays at 4:35 p.m. on the Aaron Rand Show on CJAD 800.