By Louise Hayes
Canada’s future prosperity depends on legal pot, yogic flying or communism — depending on who you ask.
Ottawa Centre voters will be able to choose from all this and more, with six smaller parties fielding candidates in the Nov. 27 election.
In the 1997 federal election, seven fringe candidates got 1,825 votes — 2.53 per cent — in Ottawa Centre. But while their electoral prospects are slim, they keep coming back.
Among the smaller parties in Ottawa Centre in this election are the Green, Communist, Natural Law, Marijuana, Canadian Action and Marxist-Leninist parties.
Chris Bradshaw, the Green Party candidate, says a Green vote will show other parties they miss the mark on environmental issues.
“Our party believes in bringing ecological principles into government and into the lives of Canadians through greater support for local community programs.”
The Green Party is concerned about issues such as the prevalence of asthma in children and genetically modified foods.
“We need to look at urban health and urban ecology so we can help local communities be healthier,” says Bradshaw, a retired regional planner who has lived in Ottawa Centre for 24 years.
Marvin Glass, a 57-year-old philosophy professor at Carleton University, is the Communist Party candidate. He has run in four federal and three provincial elections. He says the NDP has consistently moved to the centre and that his party is the only left-wing alternative.
“Corporate control is the principal problem for Canada,” says Glass. “Multinationals are destroying the country and destroying the environment.”
The Communist Party is concerned about the privatization of schools and universities and supports free tuition.
“Eventually, what this country needs is socialism,” says Glass.
But the Natural Law Party says the country needs transcendental meditation. Neil Paterson, who has a PhD in the science of creative intelligence, is the local candidate and party leader.
The party maintains that most people use only a small fraction of their potential. They say this can be changed through the use of transcendental meditation.
“The field of politics is torn apart,” says Miville Couture, national party secretary. “The leaders are fighting like wild dogs and are in no position to fulfil their promises because they are using so little of their potential.”
He says other politicians should use meditation.
But Brad Powers, the Marijuana Party candidate, hopes to use something else. Born and raised in Ottawa Centre, he says he decided to run because the issue of legalizing marijuana, the party’s only platform, needs attention.
“By controlling the sale of marijuana we can regain millions in lost tax dollars,” says Powers. “Those tax dollars can be diverted to the ailing health system as well as education. It will also stifle organized crime by removing money from their coffers.”
Powers says the party aims to promote and desensitize the issue by having the Marijuana Party on the ballot.
The party would change the law and then dissolve Parliament, calling another election.
Canadian Action Party candidate Carla Marie Dancey’s main issue is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“If elected, we would push for the abrogation of NAFTA,” says Dancey, who runs a small counselling business. “The best legal advice we can find says that we can’t have public health care and NAFTA because under NAFTA it is considered an unfair business subsidy.”
Dancey says the country currently borrows money from foreign creditors at high interest rates and should return to the previous practice of borrowing from the Bank of Canada at lower interest rates.
Mistahi Corkill, a local construction worker, is the Marxist-Leninist Party candidate. His party wants to renew faith in the electoral system by building citizens’ committees which would select candidates for Parliament based on the issues the community feels are most important.
Jon Pammett, a political science professor at Carleton University, says small parties do have an impact.
“They generally are considered to be there for the purpose of raising an issue agenda and to keep the big parties honest.”
Pammett says the electoral system works against such parties because the number of seats each party gets doesn’t reflect the popular vote.
“If we changed to a system of proportional representation, where seats are awarded based on percentage of vote across the country, voters might feel more inclined to vote for smaller parties,” he says.
But smaller parties have been successful in the past. The Communist Party elected two MPs in the ’40s and ’50s and has elected members to provincial legislatures as well.
Bradshaw says he hopes people won’t consider a vote for smaller parties, such as the Green Party, a waste.
“My slogan is don’t spend your vote, invest it. We’re saying in every case you should look at what the party platform is and vote your principles.”