HIGH ON TORY LEADERSHIP

Church of Universe member running on marijuana issue

OTTAWA (CP) - Rev. Michael Baldasaro of the Church of the Universe says he
has a 21-point plan to lead the federal Tories out of the political
wilderness, including giving everyone convicted on marijuana charges a pardon.

"We think we have a chance just with the marijuana issue alone," Baldasaro
said yesterday from the abandoned steel mill he calls home in Cambridge,
Ont. Baldasaro, a failed mayoralty candidate in Hamilton and Guelph, Ont.,
describes marijuana as the tree of life. He plans to officially announce
that he wants to lead the Progressive Conservatives at a news conference
Thursday in Ottawa.

He would become the 11th person to do so and would be among former prime
minister Joe Clark and Hugh Segal, a Tory backroom strategist and TV pundit.
All potential candidates must ante up $30,000 by July 31 to be officially in
the campaign.

A new leader will be elected in October.

Baldasaro, 49, says he doesn't have a dime except for a small pension. "I
don't need the $30,000," he says.

"That's just another impediment that should be removed and I'm going to be
asking that it be waved from the rules."

He says that if the leadership selection committee doesn't change the rules
he will appeal to a higher authority.

"What they are saying is if you are not rich you can't be one of us."

Baldasaro's platform also includes rolling all government pensions back to
"what the least of us live on," holding plebiscites on issues of national
importance and changing the words to O Canada to drop the reference to `thy
sons' because it's sexist.

Baldasaro says he has spent a total of about two years in jail for various
marijuana convictions over the years. The Church of the Universe considers
marijuana a sacrament.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett