Pubdate: Fri, 20 Apr 2001
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2001 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Jonathon Gatehouse

'GRASSROOTS' PARTNERSHIP SEEKS HIGH VOTE
 
Former Jaffer Aide Onside

The B.C. Marijuana Party has embarked on a surprising joint venture with the
deputy national director of Stockwell Day's federal leadership campaign and
several Canadian Alliance parliamentary assistants to help smoke out the
right wing vote in the upcoming provincial election.

The fledgling pro-cannabis party, which plans to run a full slate of
candidates in the May 16 vote, is hoping to convince Alliance supporters
that its less-government, heavy-on-personal-freedom platform is a more
comfortable fit than the policies of the favoured B.C. Liberals. And to get
the message out, it has hired Sean McKinsley, a former aide to MP Jason
Kenney and advisor to Mr. Day, to run its high-tech computerized phone bank.

"I personally believe in free enterprise and limited government and we're
willing to help anyone who shares that philosophy," Mr. McKinsley said
yesterday.

"Our goal is to liberate British Columbia from a socialist regime."

Mr. McKinsley, who now runs a Calgary-based political consulting firm, said
he was recruited by his friend and business partner, Matthew Johnston, who
is running the BCMP's campaign.

Mr. Johnston, the former executive assistant to Alliance MP Rahim Jaffer,
made headlines last month after he was caught impersonating his then boss on
a Vancouver radio show. But his ties to the federal party run deep, and he
has apparently convinced former colleagues to follow him into uncharted
political territory.

"I know there are other [Alliance parliamentary] assistants in Ottawa who
are also helping in their spare time," Mr. McKinsley said.

Reached in Vancouver, Mr. Johnston refused to identify the other Alliance
staffers working on the campaign, but said most are providing research
assistance and canvassing B.C.-based members of the federal party for their
support.

"There's a number of people working in a volunteer capacity. They've asked
that they be able to work quietly for us. Politics are at play here, so they
are keeping quiet about it," he said.

Marc Emery, the president and founder of the BCMP, said people should not be
surprised by his party's attempts to establish itself as the right-wing
alternative in the province. The publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, who
has made millions of dollars selling hemp seeds over the Internet, said
freedom is the common issue.

"Marijuana is a symbol for all of us who are oppressed by state control," he
said.

The BCMP's platform is essentially libertarian, he said. This week, Mr.
Emery sent an open letter to Alliance supporters, telling voters how much
the two parties have in common. "We're reminding Alliance members that we're
not a big jump for you, and a lot of people are responding positively," he
said.

The BCMP has already attracted one Alliance activist, Leonard Melman,
president of the party's Nanaimo-Alberni constituency association, as a
candidate.

Ezra Levant, the Alliance's director of communications, said the federal
party is not endorsing any party. Staffers and party members are free to
support whomever they wish, he added. "But I'm not sure that that's what we
mean when we say we're a grassroots party."

A COMPARISON OF PARTY MANIFESTOS:

CANADIAN ALLIANCE

1. Committed to "providing deep, broad-based tax relief."

2. "Greatest freedom possible" for Canadians to choose "natural health
products."

3. Rights of crime victims must take precedence over rights of criminals.

4. Parents have "right and duty" to raise children according to their own
conscience and beliefs.

5. Aboriginal Canadians should manage their own affairs.

6. Opposed to gun legislation.

7. Proposal to make marijuana possession punishable by a fine rather than a
criminal sentence, voted down at party's inaugural convention.

MARIJUANA PARTY

1. Pledged to no new taxes.

2. No complementary or alternative medicine to be banned.

3. Empower victims of crime with "Restorative Justice."

4. Stop seizing children from parents who are charged with growing
marijuana.

5. First Nations have a right to self-determination.

6. Opposed to gun legislation.

7. Wants to end "enforcement of marijuana laws" and lobby Ottawa to
decriminalize cannabis.
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MAP posted-by: Andrew