It’s Just a Little High: Testing the Effect of the Legalization of Marijuana on Voters’ Behaviour in Canada

A fundamental question about voting behaviour is whether voters lead parties and politicians by judging them on the ground of their issue stands, or whether they instead align their views to match those of the party and politicians they favour. The recent legalization of marijuana in Canada offers an opportunity to untangle this causal knot. This paper makes use of panel data collected during the 2011 and 2015 Canadian elections to test whether voters direct their support towards parties and politicians in line with their prior issue preferences or whether, on the opposite, voters bend their issue preferences to match their partisan affiliation. Results provide evidence for the independent effect of the legalization of marijuana on voters’ behaviour towards the Liberal Party. More generally, this makes for a striking case of the effect of an easy, positional issue and contributes to the longstanding debate on issue voting in Canadian politics.