Having spent some time on business excursions to Toronto and Vancouver, my experiences left me with an extremely warm impression of Canadians. They tended to be friendly, courteous and highly civilised. Also smart and quietly independent of thought, which probably comes from having a boisterous neighbour like the USA.
So there was the proverbial pricking of ears in this week’s Rational Radio interview on the Cannabis sector with local entrepreneur Pierre van der Hoven. He explained how Canadians rejected a United Nations’ directive of dagga as a worthless pest. And how the country has profited hugely as a result.
Canada today dominates the mushrooming Cannabis sector, with two dozen Marijuana-focused companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Van der Hoven says many of these companies realise SA has everything to make it the world leader in dagga production and have planted their stakes on SA ground.
He reckons the industry has the potential to slash SA’s unemployment. And judging by his tweets this week, finance minister Tito Mboweni regards its commercial exploitation as an answer to his tax collection woes. Surely it’s time to give Eskom a break and start agitating the politicos to do something positive.
