Ross Rebagliati, the former Olympic snowboarder who is now the Liberal Party's candidate in the federal riding of Okanagan Coquihalla, gave a rather wobbly interview to Maclean's magazine. I blogged about my favourite out-takes here, especially his priceless answer to what he does to earn a living these days: "being Ross".

Since then, the man has obviously been attending his candidate media training: here's an absolutely brilliant interview he gave to the Telegraph of London. In the course of a few weeks, with the careful help of party spin-doctors, he has gone from a ditzy layabout to:

an ambitious, eloquent young politician, a veritable pillar of his vast, scattered British Columbia community; all-round nice guy, businessman, photogenic celebrity, assiduous charity fund-raiser and respected family man.

Wow, what a makeover! Too bad they can't vote for him over there in London. But London is too small a place for such an ambitious, eloquent young man. As he boasts,

The electioneering is going to be demanding in a constituency which, even though it has only about 100,000 voters, covers “roughly the size of England”.

Hang on. The size of England? Okanagan Coquihalla is 10,638 square km. England is a dozen times larger, at 130,410 square km., and the UK as a whole is 245,000 square km., almost 25 times bigger.

How could someone who is -- what's the phrase? -- a veritable pillar of the community not have a clue about its size? A newspaper of the calibre of the Telegraph can be counted on for an answer as to how Rebagliati's mind might be a little bit fuzzy:

He will not hide his support for the legalisation of cannabis. “It’s going out on a limb for sure but I don’t have anything to lose,” he says. After all, he adds, surely winning the Olympics “proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it can be part of a healthy lifestyle”.

And so does he still smoke pot? There is a pause before he says: “There are things, like not having been allowed into the US, which scare me about answering that question. But I think anyone with half a brain could probably answer that question without asking.”

Dude. Whoa. Like, after you get some doritos, maybe check the fourteen voice mails you haven't answered yet. I'm guessing they're all from Michael Ignatieff's office.

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Post script: let me be clearer. I don't care if Rebagliati smokes pot, which he obviously does. And I don't even care if it inhibits him from thinking clearly or getting anything done in his life, which seems to be the case. That's his problem (and, regrettably, a problem for his wife and his newborn son). I don't think being a doped-up layabout should be a crime any more than being an alcoholic is a crime. (I don't want to ban booze, either.) I just wouldn't want an alcoholic MP, especially one who boasted about it and called it a "healthy lifestyle". Same goes for an obvious pot-head.

That's the difference between being a libertarian conservative, and just being a libertine. The first calls for maximum freedom under law, but relies on individuals to use personal discipline and morality to constrain themselves. Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's right. Each of us has to exercise personal responsibility.

Rebagliati seems to be of the second variety: a hedonist who does whatever he can under law (and, in the case of marijuana, even the law won't stop him).

Hedonism isn't against the law, either -- let it be put on the ballot in the Okanagan and tested. But Rebagliati isn't even being honest about his "beliefs". Like in his Maclean's interview, he refuses to give a straightforward answer to whether or not he still uses pot. Why the shyness? He clearly favours its legalization, and he clearly believes it's part of a healthy lifestyle. Why won't he go the distance and just tell us what he's hinting at? Does he lack the courage of his convictions?

That's not particularly forthcoming for a would-be politician. It's too tricky by half. He should either disown his habit, or own it. Either he doesn't think it's wrong, or he does. Is he really trying to have it both ways -- to straddle the fence on this one?

© 2010 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana