Canada’s
future prosperity depends on legal pot, yogic flying or communism
— depending on who you ask.
Ottawa Centre voters will be able to choose from all this and
more, with six smaller parties fielding candidates in the Nov.
27 election.
In the 1997 federal election, seven fringe candidates got 1,825
votes — 2.53 per cent — in Ottawa Centre. But while
their electoral prospects are slim, they keep coming back.
Among the smaller parties in Ottawa Centre in this election are
the Green, Communist, Natural Law, Marijuana, Canadian Action
and Marxist-Leninist parties.
Chris Bradshaw, the Green Party candidate, says a Green vote
will show other parties they miss the mark on environmental issues.
“Our party believes in bringing ecological principles into
government and into the lives of Canadians through greater support
for local community programs.”
The Green Party is concerned about issues such as the prevalence
of asthma in children and genetically modified foods.
“We need to look at urban health and urban ecology so we
can help local communities be healthier,” says Bradshaw,
a retired regional planner who has lived in Ottawa Centre for
24 years.
Marvin Glass, a 57-year-old philosophy professor at Carleton
University, is the Communist Party candidate. He has run in four
federal and three provincial elections. He says the NDP has consistently
moved to the centre and that his party is the only left-wing
alternative.
“Corporate control is the principal problem for Canada,”
says Glass. “Multinationals are destroying the country and
destroying the environment.”
The Communist Party is concerned about the privatization of schools
and universities and supports free tuition.
“Eventually, what this country needs is socialism,”
says Glass.
But the Natural Law Party says the country needs transcendental
meditation. Neil Paterson, who has a PhD in the science of creative
intelligence, is the local candidate and party leader.
The party maintains that most people use only a small fraction
of their potential. They say this can be changed through the
use of transcendental meditation.
“The field of politics is torn apart,” says Miville
Couture, national party secretary. “The leaders are fighting
like wild dogs and are in no position to fulfil their promises
because they are using so little of their potential.”
He says other politicians should use meditation.
But Brad Powers, the Marijuana Party candidate, hopes to use
something else. Born and raised in Ottawa Centre, he says he
decided to run because the issue of legalizing marijuana, the
party’s only platform, needs attention.
“By controlling the sale of marijuana we can regain millions
in lost tax dollars,” says Powers. “Those tax dollars
can be diverted to the ailing health system as well as education.
It will also stifle organized crime by removing money from their
coffers.”
Powers says the party aims to promote and desensitize the issue
by having the Marijuana Party on the ballot.
The party would change the law and then dissolve Parliament,
calling another election.
Canadian Action Party candidate Carla Marie Dancey’s main
issue is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“If elected, we would push for the abrogation of NAFTA,”
says Dancey, who runs a small counselling business. “The
best legal advice we can find says that we can’t have public
health care and NAFTA because under NAFTA it is considered an
unfair business subsidy.”
Dancey says the country currently borrows money from foreign
creditors at high interest rates and should return to the previous
practice of borrowing from the Bank of Canada at lower interest
rates.
Mistahi Corkill, a local construction worker, is the Marxist-Leninist
Party candidate. His party wants to renew faith in the electoral
system by building citizens’ committees which would select
candidates for Parliament based on the issues the community feels
are most important.
Jon Pammett, a political science professor at Carleton University,
says small parties do have an impact.
“They generally are considered to be there for the purpose
of raising an issue agenda and to keep the big parties honest.”
Pammett says the electoral system works against such parties
because the number of seats each party gets doesn’t reflect
the popular vote.
“If we changed to a system
of proportional representation, where seats are awarded based
on percentage of vote across the country, voters might feel more
inclined to vote for smaller parties,” he says.
But smaller parties have been successful in the past. The Communist
Party elected two MPs in the ’40s and ’50s and has
elected members to provincial legislatures as well.
Bradshaw says he hopes people won’t consider a vote for
smaller parties, such as the Green Party, a waste.
“My slogan is don’t spend your vote, invest it. We’re
saying in every case you should look at what the party platform
is and vote your principles.” |