MARIJUANA PARTY TARGETS DAY, CLARK

The Canadian Marijuana Party has high hopes of bringing down Stockwell Day
and Joe Clark in their Sept.11 federal byelections.

The four-year-old Quebec-based party is running candidates in British
Columbia and Nova Scotia against the leaders of the Canadian Alliance and
federal Progressive Conservative parties with a platform centered on
legalizing cannabis and softening hemp regulations.

"We believe that the only way to end cannabis prohibition and liberalize
hemp regulations is by forcing a minority government." says party strategist
Sotos Petrides.

"We are going to lead the charge with the seniors who know what a strong
hold the pharmaceutical companies have on them and the young who grew up
watching their parents smoke cannabis and aren't afraid of it."

Marc-Boris St. Maurice, 31, of the Quebec punk band Grim Skunk will take on
Day in the Okanagan, Petrides said.

Vince Gorman, 66, also known as "manifold chef" for refining the fine art of
cooking on an automobile manifold while driving, will battle Clark in
Kings-Hants.

Both will run as independents representing the Canadian Marijuana Party,
which applied for but has yet to receive official party status.

Petrides, former publisher of the industry magazine Commercial Hemp, says
both candidates have been arrested for using cannabis and feel strongly that
its use is not a matter of morality but of human rights,

Boris St. Maurice expects Day to "stick to true political form and ignore my
very existence," but he intends to force Day to address the recent Ontario
court decision that indicated a rewriting of Canada's cannabis laws is in
order.

"My first question to him would be: As prime minister, how exactly would you
rewrite that law and what it would mean for me and the people I represent."

Petrides, meanwhile, sees Clark as much less of a threat.

"Joe Clark needs to take everyone into consideration right about now."

Calgary Southeast Alliance MP Jason Kenney, speaking for Day, said
laughingly: "That's the majesty of the democratic process - it's open to one
and all."

"It's totally legitimate, if a single-interest group wants to pursue its
policy in the public forum - that's what the Green Party does."