MARIJUANA PARTY SAYS SUCCESS AT POLLS ISN'T MERELY A PIPE DREAM

OTTAWA -- His party might have attracted only a half-percent of the popular
vote in Canada's Nov. 27 election, but for the leader of the Marijuana
Party, that's a great start.

"We're really excited," said Marc-Boris St. Maurice, the 31-year-old who
ran against Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe in the Montreal riding of
Laurier-Ste-Marie.

"We really came out of nowhere. I don't think anyone expected it."

The idea of creating a political party focusing on the issue of legalizing
marijuana moved into high gear last summer, said St. Maurice. By election
day, the party had rounded up 71 candidates for Parliament.

The party won 66,310 votes, lagging behind the Green Party, which almost
doubled its vote total to 104,260 from 55,583 in Canada's 1997 federal
election. By comparison, the Liberal Party won a majority government with
more than five million votes.

Why do people run for political office when it seems they don't have a
chance of winning?

Hugh Thorburn, professor of political science at Queen's University in
Kingston, Ontario, says the parties scattered on the edge of the campaign
all know perfectly well they're not going to be elected.

"They're there to teach us all lessons. In other words, to propagandize for
a point of view," said Thorburn.

Miguel Figueroa measures his Communist Party's success not by the number of
votes it receives, but by the fact that it regained the registered party
status it lost in 1997 when it fielded only 13 candidates. Parties must
endorse at least 50 candidates to be registered and have the party name
appear on ballots. This year, the Communists fielded 52 candidates.

For the Natural Law Party, victory comes when people steal their ideas,
such as making the health-care system revolve around preventive measures,
said the party's deputy leader, Ashley Deans.

"If [the] Liberals come out with a comprehensive, preventive program for
health, then we will have won," said Deans, 52, who ran in the
Trinity-Spadina riding in Toronto.

But Paul Hellyer, the 77-year-old leader and founder of the Canadian Action
Party, insists that getting elected is what it's all about.

Hellyer, a former federal Liberal cabinet minister and ardent nationalist,
campaigned on ending free-trade agreements with the United States.

"With time, [getting elected] might be done," he said. He pointed to the
Reform Party, precursor of the Canadian Alliance, as an example.

Alf Chaiton, of the University of Ottawa's Centre on Governance, says
people who vote for fringe parties do so as a form of protest or are
interested in a particular issue that they don't believe mainstream parties
can adequately address.

"People like to not just express their feelings, but they like to belong to
a group that expresses a common interest. Party status provides that format
for them," he said.

Thorburn said success for these parties comes in the recognition they win
for their platform. By that criterion, he said, the Marijuana Party succeeded.

"They were given a podium to preach their little lesson to the country," he
said. "I think it made a lot of people notice them who otherwise never
would have really been called to pay attention to this."