In the lead-up to legalization, cannabis policies were the darling of nearly every elected official seeking to attach their names—positive or negative—to the headline-grabbing topic. From federal politicians to provincial and municipal, everyone suddenly had a lot to say about cannabis. 

But fast forward some six years later, and most politicians act like they’ve never heard of cannabis or the cannabis industry. It is not much of an issue on the federal stage. BC, New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan (October 19, 21, and 28, respectively) all have provincial elections this fall and cannabis is, essentially, not on the radar. 

Outside of the issue of impaired driving apparently being an election touchpoint in Saskatchewan—at least for the Saskatchewan NDP—cannabis hasn’t arisen as an election issue at all. 

In New Brunswick, the ruling Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick, which initially sought to dismantle the province-run retail system first established by the New Brunswick Liberal Party, has since taken the lead in preserving the existing retail framework, including adding new stores and allowing some private stores. The province also now boasts the most streamlined and affordable cannabis farmgate program in Canada. 

The New Brunswick Liberals apparently have not mentioned any provincial cannabis-related issue, and the provincial Progressive Conservatives are not campaigning on the issue either. 

In BC, despite an increasingly close election with the Conservative Party of BC surging in the polls in the past few months, neither party is touching the issue at all. Questions StratCann sent to BC’s Conservatives were met with a polite decline to comment. 

This shouldn’t be all that surprising. The concept of legalizing weed was a vote-getter back in 2015, as was opposition to it. The legislative lead-up to the historic policy shift in the years, months, and days leading up to October 17, 2018, was ripe for politicians at all levels of government to get some easy publicity for their various bases. 

But now that the fun and exciting stuff has been done, most voters—and therefore politicians—have moved on to newer and shinier (or at least more pressing) issues. While the industry might want to blame these politicians for its failures, I would argue this is also a failure of the industry to more effectively interest voters in the issues that are impacting the industry. 

In BC, the local industry has numerous complaints regarding various provincial rules. Many small producers are frustrated by the overbuilt cannabis farmgate and direct delivery programs, both of which look great on paper but have had very low buy-in because of high costs and regulatory burdens. 

However, the current government, the BC NDP, has little pressure on the issue from their opposition, the BC Conservatives, because the latter know these nuanced issues aren’t going to resonate with voters. In an election that will come down to a few key provincial ridings, the risk of alienating specific voters over something like the high fee charged in the cannabis direct delivery program is a non-starter. 

Saskatchewan and New Brunswick are no different. Beyond one Saskatchewan NDP opposition critic calling out the province’s heavy-handed crackdown on cannabis detection in drivers, the issues that might face the industry there—high taxes, market saturation—are not going to be important to the vast majority of voters. 

New Brunswick’s elections are focused on issues like immigration, the opioid crisis, and the cost of living, not the limits producers and retailers face with edibles’ THC limits. 

In a way, this is a normal evolution of this subject from activism around the general concept of legalization—an issue broad enough to rally people around—to the niche nuances of a boring old agriculture and consumer packaged goods sector. But it’s also an example of an industry that perhaps got used to enjoying all that easy attention from voters and politicians and didn’t have a plan for how to stay a part of the conversation.

As the next federal election approaches, likely sometime next fall, the industry would be wise to find ways to convey these issues to the general voting public that can grab their attention. Because without voters, politicians have little reason to listen either.