POT PARTY ELECTION SIGNS UP IN SMOKE

Byelection Candidate Says Party Can't Keep Up With People Who Are
Taking Signs Almost As Fast As They Go Up.

An election sign is an election - unless it has a metre-high marijuana
leaf on it.

The usual fate of signs has been turned on its head in the
Okanagan-Coquihalla byelection. Typically, opponents trash them at
every opportunity, leaving a trail of bad feelings.

But supporters and the merely curious are taking a shime to the
Marijuana Party placards.

The party had only 40 of them to begin with. But the signs are
disappearing as fast as campaign workers can erect them, said
candidate Boris St-Maurice, a 31-year-old musician who founded the
national party in Montreal.

Under the banner Bloc Pot, the party received 10 000 votes in the 1998
Quebec provincial election.

This past month, it took 10 minutes for one sign planted in downtown
Penticton to disappear. Another, prominent at a recent all-candidates
forum, didn't last the meeting.

"None of them have lasted very long," St-Maurice said Tuesday. "We've
been unable to keep up the election sign souvenir-seekers. They aren't
being taken by those opposed to us.

Due to the obvious heart of these thieves, we won't be pressing
charges, but we won't be putting up any more."

The signs can, however, be ordered from Marijuana Party head office at
www.marijuanaparty.org, or by phoning 514-528-1768.

St-Maurice called a press conference Tuesday in Gyro Park to talk
about the signs and an election party he is hosting there from 2pm to
11pm this Saturday.

Candidates and the general public are invited to drop by to compare
elction notes with friends, listen to music and speakers, and to
express their own opinion in an open soapbox format.

The gathering, he explained, is to encourage people to both vote and
celebrate the opportunity.

"We urge people to vote and not give up on democracy. That makes me
very sad."

Confirmed guest speakers are B.C. marijuana activist and publisher
Marc Emery, Cannabis Culture editor Dana Larson and former Grand Forks
"marijuana mayor" Brian Taylor.

Taylor, who held office for five years, is chairman of the Cannabis
Research Institute in Grand Forks.

The other candidates have been contacted. An all-candidates meeting
takes place 4-6 pm the same day in Merritt.

But St-Maurice is hopefull many will drop by on their way home. Green
party candidate Joan Russow will be there.

Alliance party organisers declined on behalf of their leader,
Stockwell Day.

"I think it's wonderful that all these people can step forward and ask
the people to support them. I'm very grateful to live in a country
where we have this. We've all had our chance and everyone has seen who
is out there."

At the media conference, St-Maurice sang a song written by Taylor,
with a chorus extolling marijuana's medicinal properties and decrying
it's current status as an illegal drug.

"I like marijuana, 'cause I can and 'cause I wanna. It alleviates a
lot of chronic pain. Believe it or not, if you adnit to smoking pot,
your life will never be the same."

An estimated 7.5 million Canadians are purported to have smoked
marijuana at some point in their lives.