RECORD LOSER FACES CLARK IN BY-ELECTION

NEW MINAS, N.S. -- Voters in the federal riding of Kings-Hants will have a
choice of five candidates in the Sept. 11 by-election, including a Marijuana
Party representative and an Independent listed as the biggest loser in
history.

Nominations closed Monday with five candidates filing nomination papers.
They include Tory Leader Joe Clark, New Democrat Kaye Johnson, Alliance
candidate Gerry Fulton and two relative unknowns.

They are Marijuana Party candidate Alex Neron, a Montreal filmmaker, and
John Turmel of Ottawa, a banking systems analyst who's running as an
Independent.

Turmel's name appeared in the 1997 Guinness Book of Records as the biggest
loser of all time. The 46-year-old, who claims to love gambling, has run in
50 elections in Canada, losing in every one.

Neron and Turmel, like Clark, have never lived in the riding, nor do they
have connections in Kings-Hants.

Former Kings-Hants MP Scott Brison resigned last month to let Clark run for
a federal seat.

Of the five candidates, only Fulton, a popular farmer, and Johnson, a race
relations worker, live and work in the area.

Turmel began his marathon of municipal, provincial and federal elections in
1979 to promote his cause - legalized gambling. He also campaigns for
interest-free loans, a bartering system of economics and various schemes to
help the poor. He was convicted in 1994 of keeping a common gaming house
after police raided and closed his Ottawa casino.

He was given a suspended sentence and ordered to do 200 hours of community
service.