Yep, we're very far from that.
Given the outcomes document and Philpott's speech it's likely the whole UN treaty thing is now gone, so the next step is progression on the task force. The head (now former) of Health Canada's marijuana office has stepped down and will be on the task force, but that's about it as far as who's on it (that I know of).
Once that's named and in progress, then the LPC will have to contend with the leadership of each province, the problem ones will be Manitoba (newly elected majority PC government), BC (Christy Clark's basically a conservative) and Saskatchewan (Brad Wall's a crazy conservative). It may work out that different provinces have different regulations, but it's more likely there will be a unified act federally. So this is opportunity #1 for the legislation to be diluted.
Once all the consultations are done, then Raybould will proceed to drafting the legislation and tabling it in the house (I'd bet on May or June). Not really any issue here with a LPC majority, but I'm hoping the NDP will hold the LPC to account if they try any shenanigans. I don't know how long it takes the average bill to be debated but I'd bet on 1-2 months.
Then the final bit through the Senate, and here's where opportunity #2 is for the legislation to be diluted, or killed completely. The best case scenario is JT has filled all Senate vacancies by then, but there' s no guarantee the independents will all vote in favour, but it's at least more likely than a CPC dominated Senate. Recently both LPC and CPC Senators have given up a spot each so independents can sit on committees so there's at least a hope of non-partisanship.
The usual loons like Linda Frum will kick and scream but that's to be expected, the CPC leadership vote will also play a role here given how the party is split on legalization. I see them going along with it since they're trying to at least appear like they're not assholes anymore.
So it's great they have a definitive timeline (in theory), the next milestone will be the MMPR changes in response to Allard. The home growing details, if allowed, will likely be very similar if not the same, and we may even get a preview of what the LPC is thinking on retail distribution, it wouldn't make any sense for medical users to have to mail order or grow when rec users have more accessible cannabis.
It's a good sign, but it is far, far from party time. There's a good chance the CPC will demand unreasonable concessions to get it passed in the Senate, so we'll see what happens during the debate in the House. As far as the middle ground argument though :
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/middle-ground.html
