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MARK BONOKOSKI, Postmedia Network Apr 13, 2017

, Last Updated: 10:22 PM ET

It was a brilliant if not cynical move on the part of the Trudeau Liberals to table their marijuana legislation during the same week they thumped down a 294-page omnibus budget document like those contemptible Harperites were so prone to doing.

After all, if a smokescreen was ever needed for a touchy topic, such as the Liberals breaking a promise to never table the kind of all-encompassing omnibus bill that riled them up during the Conservatives years, then what better way than to hot-box it in the progressive hipsterism of legalizing pot?

The flak over the Liberals omnibus bill, most of it delivered in the low-ratings setting of the Commons Question Period, lasted all of a nanosecond.

Perhaps that was all it deserved. Compared to the 880-page tome the government of Stephen Harper dropped in 2010, Trudeaus budget implementation bill was downright skeletal.

But it was a broken promise nonetheless.

Buried in its pages, for example, were items far removed from financial and economic considerations, including changes to the Judges Act, the Veterans Affairs Act, among others, as well as proposals to limit the reach of the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer in holding government to account.

For all intents and purposes, it met the definition of an omnibus bill, even if less than half the weight of Harpers weightiest.

The public, however, had its attention quickly distracted by the Liberals much-anticipated and long-touted pot legislation.

In other words, rightful criticism of the Liberals omnibus legislation got quickly overrun by weed.

The legislation tabled Thursday, however, is still in diapers. It has to be widely consulted, make its way through the Senate, and see negotiations with the provinces at many levels, and with the U.S. government over border security.

The Trudeau Liberals may lay claim to the baby but it will be the provinces who will be left with the bath water to do the down-and-dirty work of regulation and distribution, pricing and packaging, as well as the policing and enforcement of a nascent pot industry.

The idea that the Liberals can have everything in place for its preferred launch date of Canada Day 2018 Cannabis Day from that day onward? is a long shot at best.

There are still obstacles aplenty.

Earlier this month, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police urged the Liberals to back off a recommendation from the governments task force on legalization to allow home grows of marijuana of up to four plants, arguing it would run counter to the stated goal of a highly-regulated and controlled system.

The association also raised the issue of the challenges police will face in enforcing impaired driving under the influence of marijuana, saying limits thus far are neither defined nor supported by science.

The chiefs, however, were ignored. And it is still early days.

Yesterday, as an example of more and more critical eyes on the process, the chair of the government task force cited by the chiefs, former Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan, was questioned in a Globe and Mail article for being a senior adviser for Bennett Jones LLP, which promotes itself as the go-to advisory firm in the burgeoning marijuana sector.

Health Canada, which struck the task force, responded to the Globe that McLellan, as well as the other eight panellists, declared their interests before assuming their duties and signed confidentiality agreements limiting their use of government documents.

As for the omnibus bill, and the Trudeau Liberals pulling a move more reminiscent of the Harper Conservatives?

It was there one minute, and then it was gone hot-boxed and lost in a marijuana smokescreen.

It was brilliant strategy, cynical but brilliant.

markbonokoski@gmail.com

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BONOKOSKI: Liberals' hot-boxing of a marijuana smokescreen - Canoe