Nathaniel B. Erskine-Smith, MP ("Nate") is a Canadian politician and member of the Liberal Party, he is a Member of Parliament, representing Beaches-East York.

Nate became the youngest MP to be elected in the Greater Toronto Area on October 19, 2015, after a successful grassroots open nomination in December 2014. He successfully retained his seat both in the 2019 federal election and in the 2021 federal election.

Prior to entering politics, Nate was a lawyer at a Toronto commercial litigation firm,  and volunteered to do legal work for a range of clients and causes, which included fighting public interest matters in court, and research for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Nate hosts a weekly podcast series, Uncommons: Canadian Politics with Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, in which he seeks out experts from his work and travels in Ottawa and Toronto to discuss on topics in the news and general matters of interest to the public.

Nate is the co-chair of the federal government's All-Party Cannabis Caucus, and has introduced Private Member Bills regarding the decriminalization of all illicit drugs, including the former Bill C-22, which created an evidence-based diversion framework to ensure that police and prosecutors only proceed with criminal charges if it is inadequate to issue a warning or to refer individuals in need to health care services, which came out of his views that problematic substance use should be treated as a health issue, not a criminal justice one.

In 2019, Nate seconded a bill introduced by NDP MP Murray Rankin for national cannabis record expungement, writing an op-ed for NOW Magazine to discuss his support for MP Rankin's bill, stating that only expungements would address the injustice of cannabis criminalization. We talk about his efforts in this recording.

I hope you enjoy!

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, head to cannabislaw.ca.
For the latest on Canadian cannabis law, buy and read Canada's Cannabis Act.

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca