POT PARTY ROLLS WITH PLATFORM

Legalization Only Issue

TORONTO -- The Marijuana Party is looking to spark up support in Ontario.

The soon-to-be registered federal party unveiled its national campaign
strategy for the anticipated fall election yesterday.

"Basically our main focus is ending marijuana prohibition," party leader
Marc-Boris St-Maurice said.

"And once we become fully registered that is what we will do." The party
needs a minimum of 50 candidates to be registered. Candidates need 100
signatures of support from their respective ridings and a $1,000 deposit
each to register.

Seeking Candidates

"We think Ontario is ours to discover," St-Maurice said. "It's where we
lack the most in terms of candidates in relation to the province's size."

Andrew Potter, a philosophy instructor at U of T, is the party's latest
Ontario candidate, bringing the total here to 12.

"I was trying to figure out who to vote for. There was no Green Party
candidate in my riding," Potter, 30, said. "In the end, I decided to run
and vote for myself."

His mandate is blunt: "The state has no business in the nation's
greenhouses."

St-Maurice smoked out the idea for a new party a decade ago. In the interim
he has made a living as a musician in a rock band in his native Montreal.
He started full-time efforts in the Marijuana Party. The party ran
provincially in Quebec in 1998.

5% Plan

"Our best candidate got 6.2% in his riding," St-Maurice said. "You have to
understand, because we're starting it would be naive for us to think we'll
win seats. There's no reason why we can't get 4 or 5% of the votes in every
riding, though. That's why we also support amendments to the elections act
to allow for proportional representation."

St-Maurice wants the percentage of votes each party gets to be reflected in
Parliament.

"Really winning for us isn't calculated in the number of seats we win, it's
calculated in policy changes," he said. "Even if we never win a seat, if we
can legalize marijuana then we'll succeed."