MARIJUANA PARTY RIGHT TO RUN

To the editor:

I should like to suggest a few ideas to Janice Campbell, the anxious mother
who wrote to complain she would have a hard time explaining to her daughter
why "convicted drug offenders" are allowed to run for office.

First, it would be patently unfair to ban all those who have been convicted
of a criminal offence from ever from running for office. After all, Nelson
Mandela was a jailbird once.

Second, many people, myself included, feel strongly that Canada's drug laws
are unjust and that principled citizens, such as those running for the
Marijuana party, have a responsibility to fight them, just as their
forebears fought against laws that disallowed women's suffrage and allowed
racial discrimination.

Should the woman jailed for attempting to vote or the black person punished
for sitting in the whites-only section of the bus be banned from politics?
Of course not.

Alan Randell
Victoria, B.C.