Legal history of cannabis in Canada authority to issue an administrative monetary penalty of up to $1-million per violation to a licensed producer for a violation of the Act or its regulations." The Liberal Party of Canada supported the legalization and regulation of cannabis for recreational use. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supported ending the prohibition of marijuana, and defended his and the party's stance multiple times since announcing his candidacy for party leader. Since the Liberals won a majority of the seats in the House of Commons during the Canadian federal election, 2015, the Trudeau government had little difficulty passing legislation to make cannabis legal, but
Justin Trudeau André Ouellet, a senior minister under his father, had been in Liberal hands for 53 years before falling to the Bloc Québécois in 2006. Trudeau faced off against Mary Deros, a Montreal city councillor and Basilio Giordano, the publisher of a local Italian-language newspaper for the Liberal nomination. On April 29, 2007, he easily won the party's nomination, picking up 690 votes to 350 for Deros and 220 for Giordano. Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an election for 14 October 2008, by which time Trudeau had been campaigning for a year in Papineau. On election day Trudeau narrowly defeated Bloc