MARIJUANA PARTY CANDIDATE SEEKS GRASSROOTS SUPPORT

Montrealer In Kings Byelection To Raise Awareness

Alexandre Neron will likely be the only candidate in the Kings-Hants byelection driving a campaign car decorated with paper marijuana leaves.

The 21-year-old Montreal resident doesn't plan to stick the controversial emblems on his four-door Volvo until he completes the road trip from Quebec.

"We don't want any troubles with police before I'm in Nova Scotia," Neron said in an cellphone interview yesterday while driving past Riviere-du-Loup, Que., on his way to the Annapolis Valley.

Neron has paid his $1,000 deposit and gathered 100 signatures from local voters to register as a candidate for the Marijuana party in the Sept. 11 byelection. His posters already cover light poles in Kentville and Windsor.

"Naturally, upon winning his seat, Alex will be readily available to all citizens of the riding," says a Marijuana party press release, also decorated with a ganga leaf.

Neron will take part in a candidates' debate today in Windsor, sponsored by the West Hants Chamber of Commerce.

"I suppose it is harvest season in the Valley," joked chamber president Terry Daniels.

Neron is running against Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark, hoping to attract national attention. "We just want to change some laws," he said. "So every chance that we have to educate people and to educate the other candidates ... we're doing it."

Neron - a filmaker who also works as an assistant for a university student who has the federal government's permission to smoke marijuana for medical reasons - has run for Bloc Pot, a Quebec provincial political party that wants to legalize recreational drugs. In December 1998, he pulled in 296 votes in the Rosemont riding.

Clark's campaign office wouldn't comment on Neron's decision to run in Kings-Hants. But others welcomed the pot politician to the fray.

"Just because you're a longshot, doesn't mean that you shouldn't have your voice heard," said Rick Janson, a spokesman for NDP candidate Kaye Johnson's campaign.

The Canadian Alliance doesn't have a position on marijuana prohibition, said Gerry Fulton's campaign manager, John Morrison.

"We don't consider it a big issue for Canadians," said Morrison, adding that the party supports Neron's right to run in the byelection.

Montreal police shut down a centre last February that supplies marijuana to chronically ill patients, and arrested Neron and another pot crusader, Marc Saint-Maurice.

Saint-Maurice is running against Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day in next month's Okanagan-Coquihalla byelection.