The timing of the vote is not yet final, but it's likely to happen between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. ET.
Two Senate committees are currently on the road, meaning some Independent and Liberal senators who support the bill were scheduled to be out of town today.
Non-affiliated Alberta Sen. Grant Mitchell, the government's liaison — who works as a whip without some of the same coercive powers normally afforded to a partisan caucus — and Independent Quebec Sen. Marc Gold, the liaison for the Independent Senators Group, were busy working the phones Wednesday night, encouraging senators to show up in Ottawa Thursday.
Senate Energy 20130822
Non-affiliated Alberta Sen. Grant Mitchell, the government's liaison, was busy working the phones Wednesday night to ask Independent and Liberal senators to come back to Ottawa for a vote on the cannabis bill. (Patrick Doyle/Canadian Press)
An unknown number of senators flew back to vote in support of the legislation. Other senators were asked to cancel plans to travel back to their home provinces.
"They are making a special effort to fly back here if they need to, so they can be here and vote according to how they believe the vote should go," Sen. Yuen Pau Woo, the leader of the Independent Senators Group, told reporters Thursday.
"As soon as we heard that there was a possibility of a blocked vote on the part of the Conservatives and that there was the possibility that they, the Conservatives, might run the risk of defeating a bill at second reading — which would be extraordinary — we wanted to communicate that with our members so they could make their own decision about coming back and be part of this historic decision."
A government official, speaking on background, said the government is "cautiously optimistic" enough Independent and Liberal senators will be present to stop Tory efforts to vote the bill down.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged senators to pass the bill, saying illegal cannabis use — a $7 billion industry that funnels funds into the hands of organized crime, according to government figures — will continue unabated without the benefit of federal regulations.
"It does not protect our young people, and it sends billions per year to organized crime and street gangs. We need a new system," he said. "That's why we are pushing forward with legalization and control of marijuana and I'm confident that all Canadians, including the senators, will understand that."
The 33 Conservative senators generally vote in lockstep on government legislation, since they all still sit as members of a national party caucus.
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