FRINGE PARTIES FIELD RECORD SLATES

82 Candidates In Total Running In Manitoba Ridings

SOME so-called fringe parties are fielding more candidates than ever this
election, giving Manitobans who are fed up with mainstream politics more
choice at the polls.

Yesterday, Elections Canada released a final list of all 82 nominated
candidates in Manitoba. The Communist Party, the Christian Heritage Party
and the Marijuana Party are running people in roughly half the province's
14 ridings, making them the biggest alternative choices.

The Green Party, which has long struggled for mainstream acceptance, could
elect one or two MPs in British Columbia this June 28, elevating it for the
first time above fringe status. For the first time, The Greens are running
candidates in every Manitoba riding.

Marijuana Party candidate Chris Buors said his party attracted six
candidates this election -- they had only one last time -- because the
legalization of marijuana has gained common currency.

"It's the popularity of the issue, and the number of people who believe in
the cause," said Buors, who is running in St. Boniface and was the only
Manitoba candidate for the party in the 2000 election.

Single issue But because the mainstream parties generally agree that
marijuana possession should be decriminalized, Buors thinks his party's
single issue will essentially be solved after the election.

The Communists are running eight candidates in Manitoba, the most since 1945.

The party's platform calls for an end to corporate dominance of the
economy, a 32-hour work week with a $12 minimum wage, public ownership of
CN Rail, Air Canada and the banking and insurance systems, and the
protection of medicare and the environment.

Many of the party's ideas, such as higher employment insurance payouts and
proportional representation, are almost mainstream, embraced as they are by
parties such as the NDP. But Manitoba party leader Darrell Rankin said the
party would never join forces with the NDP, nor would it change its name,
which still conjures up negative, Cold War stereotypes.

"We could be called the Potato Party and we'd still be called communists,"
laughed Rankin, who is running in Winnipeg North.

Smaller parties don't have the manpower or cash to launch poll-by-poll
door-knocking campaigns, hand out glossy leaflets or pound in many lawn
signs. But many fringe candidates say it's enough just to have their names
on the ballot.

Magnus Thompson is running a lonely campaign as the sole candidate for the
Canadian Action Party in Manitoba. In 2000, the party ran three people in
Manitoba.

Canadian Action stands for the abolishment of the North American Free Trade
Agreement, and for revamping the Canadian banking system to give control of
the Bank of Canada back to the people. Thompson called NAFTA "the worst
damn stupidest thing we could have done."

He said running a campaign from a non-mainstream party without a lot of
money is never easy. This is his second go-around. He is running in
Winnipeg South Centre.

The Christian Heritage Party is running nine candidates in the election.
The party's main message is family values and governing by Christian
principles that do not contravene biblical ethics.

The party's platform includes a $1,000 monthly tax credit for families with
school-age or younger children where one parent stays home and the
cancelling of all public funding for organizations that advocate for or
perform abortions. It is also against same-sex marriage.