Jodie Emery to keep fighting for Liberals despite being booted out of race for Vancouver East

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      Jodie Emery says she remains a supporter of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals after the party dropped her from its nomination race in Vancouver East.

      “This doesn’t change anything for me,” the advocate for marijuana reform told the Straight. “There are a lot of people who feel this is backtracking by the party, but most people understand that this is a high-stakes election and any sort of distraction could do a disservice.”

      In a telephone interview, Emery said she and her husband, Marc, who recently completed a five-year prison sentence for selling marijuana seeds to customers in the United States, will proceed with plans to campaign against the federal Conservatives. The couple remains committed to a cross-country tour tentatively scheduled to begin in the summer, Emery added.

      “I will continue to campaign politically, as always,” she said. “And this year’s focus will be to replace the Harper Conservatives with the Liberal government.”

      In June 2014, the Straight reported that the Liberals were floating the idea of Emery, an entrepreneur and former candidate for the B.C. Green Party, as a contender for Vancouver East as a means of proving the party is serious about legalizing marijuana.

      At the time, it was assumed the NDP would field Libby Davies, who has held the riding since 1997. With Vancouver East then all but certain to remain with Davies, the Liberals had little to lose by allying with Emery to see her use the election as a podium from which she could talk about marijuana reform.

      All of that changed on December 12 when Davies announced she would not be seeking re-election.

      “Libby Davies retiring was the number-one game changer,” Emery said. “With the riding going from no-hope to high-stakes…things changed quite a bit.”

      And so on January 16, Emery recounted, she received an email carrying a letter from the Liberals' so-called “green-light committee” informing her she would not be competing in the nomination race for Vancouver East.

      “Upon careful review, they’ve decided not to recommend me to be a contestant,” Emery said.

      The email was, however, more than an informative note letting Emery know she did not have the committee’s support. It also stated her name was removed from the ballot, and that her nomination deposit was already on its way back to her bank account.

      “It was a long shot for me to begin with,” Emery said. “Nobody was putting their name forward. And I thought it would be an honour to represent the party and the issues relevant to the riding.”

      Pressed on who she felt was responsible, Emery spoke with the sort of diplomatic caution one expects from a federal politician. She said she was disappointed, but quickly added that there was no one to whom she assigns blame.

      “A lot of attention and scrutiny was put on my application by the Conservatives and the NDP and the media,” she said. “It was just the pot activist thing.”

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      Comments

      10 Comments

      RUK

      Jan 19, 2015 at 9:41pm

      Well said, handled with class, which is not something that we need less of.

      Let's face it, the business party gets a head start in every election. If you want something different this year, it would be time to get behind the most viable alternative

      Ya right

      Jan 19, 2015 at 10:12pm

      "Pressed on who she felt was responsible, Emery spoke with the sort of diplomatic caution one expects from a federal politician."

      Yeah, heaven forbid we get people who speak their minds instead of being well-groomed cultists who only repeat what they learn at candidate schools, which are probably run by God-only-knows which intelligence agenc(y/ies).

      Pot Problem

      Jan 20, 2015 at 8:00am

      One of the major problems with this riding is drug abuse, especially pot, so why would they even consider running a candidate who's only known for her pro-pot policy? Sorry but it's difficult to help someone with a drug problem if they are always stoned and spending their meager income on pot.

      Also, did it not register that she's an entrepreneur who stands to make significant financial gains from the legalization of pot!!! Is everyone too wasted to think of questioning this?

      ARGH

      Jan 20, 2015 at 9:26am

      RUK
      "If you want something different this year, it would be time to get behind the most viable alternative"

      Tired Liberal talking points. Going to have to do better than that to pull me back into the fold.

      If you want something different, like Conservatism lite, vote Liberal, because that is all you will get.

      I am not going to spend the rest of my life falling for federal Liberal BS and fear mongering. Thirty years is enough, thanks.

      The dismantling of progressive Canada started under the Liberals, and a new coat of paint and a familiar last name for Boomers drowning under the Liberal guilt of their generational failure should not be enough to fool anyone, anymore. Except aging Boomers who are all probably freaking out about the stock market right now, anyway.

      The Liberal Party of Canada is almost as much of a joke as Justin "no plan, no platform, no experience, no skills, just hair" Trudeau.

      They started the trend of increasing income equality in Canada when they balanced the budget on the backs of the middle and working class in the 90's.

      They did nothing about climate change except give Rick Mercer some money for some CBC commercials, and signed an agreement we did nothing to implement.

      They talked about gay marriage, and then fell in line once the Supreme Court gave us no choice.

      They talked about drug reform, but our current pro-pot leader voted for the Conservative mandatory minimum sentences. Forty years to act on the Le Dain recommendations, and nothing. Nothing.

      They have been promising a national child care plan since the late 1980's. Anyone see it?

      Sure am happy they got rid of that GST in the early 90's. Oh, never mind. The Liberals lied about that too.

      How many failures does one have to list before "golly gee, I guess I have to vote Liberal to get rid of those Tories" becomes as ridiculous an argument for die hard Liberals as it does for so many progressives who want nothing to do with you?

      Replacing Tories with Liberals is tantamount to rearranging the Titanic deck chairs and calling it a plan.

      xnexus

      Jan 20, 2015 at 11:20am

      "They have been promising a national child care plan since the late 1980's. Anyone see it?"

      Yeah, I have. Money was allocated to it in the 2005 Liberal budget. You know, the one that Jack Layton decided to kill by defeating the government. But I'm sure you'll have some argle bargle about the purity of NDP ideals.

      Kelowna accord. National child care. Kyoto (another thing that had money allocated to it in the 2005 budget). All sacrificed to NDP ambition. But please, tell me again how there's no difference between Cons and Libs.

      @Pot Problem

      Jan 20, 2015 at 11:35am

      Income assistance doesn't provide enough for a healthy diet---all the people on income assistance can get is a bunch of pro-inflammatory carbohydrates. taking a powerful anti-inflammatory like cannabis is actually sort of rational.

      I know a couple of people on income assistance who eat poorly, because they (a) were never taught to eat properly and (b) even if they were, they wouldn't have the money to do it. Since starting to spend a lot of their income on pot, less on cheap shitty food, they have reduced the number of medications they take, with their physicians' consent.

      The problem with cannabis in Vancouver is that it is unregulated---because many of the participants are economically marginal, we have no idea how these "dab bars", etc. are contributing to the spread of contagious disease, etc.

      LIbs = Cons

      Jan 20, 2015 at 11:55am

      "Replacing Tories with Liberals is tantamount to rearranging the Titanic deck chairs and calling it a plan", could not agree more.

      Anyone who disagrees has a very short memory and inability to understand corporate connections and lobbying and are biased by Trudeau and his good looks , but can't see the waste of time and no real change he represents .

      @@Pot Problem

      Jan 20, 2015 at 1:06pm

      You're grasping at straws and a single anecdote is poor evidence at best. Whenever I've smoked pot I've gotten ravenously hungry and crave junk food, or any food for that matter. It's a well-known side effect of smoking pot.

      East Van suffers terribly from drug abuse of all sorts, but pot is the major one and it's been shown to be emotionally and physically addictive. It's incredibly irresponsible to encourage it's use, especially to those who are being badly effected by it.

      @@@Pot Problem

      Jan 20, 2015 at 3:09pm

      Why, then, are there studies suggesting that marihuana users have lower BMI, waist circumference? You're telling me that a single anecdote is poor evidence, than you go on to provide your own anecdote about whenever you've smoked pot and that your anecdote amounts to a "well-known side effect"?

      East Van, if you mean the poor on income assistance, suffers from a rate of income assistance that is incompatible with a reasonably normal existence. Disability assistance is not supposed to be a 'stepping stone' to part-time employment, it is supposed to be an income that allows a disabled person to live in community, participate in cultural events, enjoy a "reasonably normal quality of life."

      If you seriously think that marihuana is a serious factor in the DTES or in Vancouver's poverty problem, you are pretty much right out of it.

      I've known a number of addicts who cannot feed and take care of themselves in the community, given the current level of support they can expect. If you put them in an inpatient 'detox' program, they respond quite well, eating three somewhat balanced meals a day. Of course, the detox industry doesn't attribute their improvement to the inclusion of food; they unscientifically attribute it to the lack of drugs, to the "counselling" and all sorts of nonsense that does nothing without the bedrock of a sound diet to lean on.

      Someone on disability gets $906 a month. Let's pretend it is possible to find shelter for the shelter portion, $375 a month. That leaves $17 a day or so for everything else. Minimum wage would leave the individual with, presuming the same shelter cost, about $42/day, or about 250% of what someone on disability gets, let alone someone on welfare.

      I bet you would accept that you could never survive on minimum wage, not in a dignified way. How do you expect a disabled person to survive on 40% of minimum wage? Even if he puts every penny into eating right, he won't be able to eat right. So taking some of those pennies and acquiring a drug that will take away some of the pain of being neglected by society to the point of malnutrition, it is perhaps not the best choice, but it can hardly be condemned too harshly, not without assigning some guilt to the society that defaults in its responsibility to care for the poor.

      Massvocals

      Jan 20, 2015 at 6:42pm

      speaking form the US (Boston ), Miss Emery is just if not more qualified to run for officer , she listen , she speaks , and she votes , she is very good at articulating and reasoning issue then making measure she has major quality ,however that perpetrates her she has feelings !!!
      If she decides to run she will make a diffidence , for all but , Jodi listen to your heart stay close to your love , you have lost much time Time can only be measure by present moment ,
      massvocals