Marijuana Party (Canada)
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Template:Infobox Canada Political Party The Marijuana Party of Canada (French: Parti Marijuana du Canada) is a Canadian federal political party whose short-form name that appears on the voting ballots as Radical Marijuana. It lobbies to end prohibition of cannabis. With the exception of this one issue, the party does not have "official policy" in any other area. Thus, party Candidates are free to express their own personal views on all other political issues - even if such views contradict the personal opinions of other party Candidates or the party leader.
HISTORY
The party was founded by Marc-Boris St-Maurice, an activist and member of the punk group GrimSkunk. After a 1991 arrest for possession of marijuana, he vowed to legalize cannabis. He started by creating the Bloc pot, a Quebec political party and eventually, as the current law prohibiting the possession of cannabis is a federal law, founded the federal Marijuana Party. On February 28, 2005, St-Maurice announced his intention to join the Liberal Party in order to work for liberalized marijuana laws from within the governing party.
Blair T. Longley became the new party leader following St-Maurice's resignation.
In the November 2000 federal election, the party nominated candidates in 73 ridings in seven provinces and won 66,419 votes (0.52% of national popular vote). In the June 2004 federal election, the party nominated almost the same number of candidates (71), but won only 33,590 votes (0.25% of the national popular vote). In the January 2006 federal election, the party ran candidates in only 23 ridings and received 9,275 votes (0.06% of the national popular vote). In Nunavut riding, however, the party's candidate won 7.88% of all ballots cast and finished in fourth place, ahead of the Greens.
The decline in the party's fortunes may be linked to several factors.
In January and May, 2004, changes were made to Canada's electoral laws which significantly reduced the fund raising abilities of the Marijuana Party of Canada. The elections law was changed to make the Marijuana Party Tax Credit scheme become a crime, and a vote for the bigger parties became worth money to the bigger parties, but was worth nothing to the smaller parties. These changes in the elections laws wiped out 95% of the party's previous legal abilities to raise funds, while providing nothing with which to replace that.
In the context of a vote for the party being worth nothing, while a vote for bigger parties was worth something, a large number of the previous members of the Marijuana Party decided to switch to join the bigger political parties. A number of currently-elected federal political parties, including the Liberal Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois (Bloc) and the New Democratic Party (NDP), have been making small moves toward decriminalization of the drug. Additionally, the currently-unelected but larger Green Party of Canada also endorses the legalization of cannabis (in a manner similar to alcohol) as one part of their platform. About 90% of the original members of the Marijuana Party, during the 2004 and 2006 elections, switched to support bigger political parties. What was left of the Marijuana Party was the radical rump of marijuana militants that did not want to go mainstream, and one expression of this was that the short-form of the party name was changed to Radical Marijuana. The Radical Marijuana position is that marijuana is good, while the government is evil, and that it is the real reason why marijuana is illegal.
The Marijuana Party of Canada could not exist without past victories in court.
One such victory made each federal candidate's $1,000 nomination deposit fully refundable. Another reduced the number of candidates required for official party status from 50 to only 1. This has made it possible for the party to barely survive. This political party is in a similar position to marijuana in civilization. Since 2006, about one third of all its Candidates and Agents have been going through the revolving doors of prison. It is thus common and reasonable for many people to be afraid of associating with this party.
Radical Marijuana has little left in common with the mainstream marijuana movements. This party has radically different attitudes towards all political issues: marijuana is the salient symbol and most extreme example of the general pattern of social facts that society is controlled by huge lies and lots of coercion.
Since a vote for Radical Marijuana continues to be worth nothing, while votes for bigger political parties are a significant source of funding for those bigger parties, the Marijuana Party has no realistic chance of ever growing or competing against the bigger parties. Radical Marijuana is only a radical protest party.
Radical Marijuana is very different than the original Parti Marijuana Party, but currently has no practical way to communicate that to voters, other than through some articles on its Web site. This party continues to operate in a totally decentralized way. Its Candidates are practically in the same position as Independent Candidates, and its Electoral District Associations are autonomous clones of the party as whole. Radical Marijuana is governed by nothing but the Canada Elections Act, and it has no other by-laws, charter or constitution to govern its operations. It runs on a broken budget, and its goal is to try to survive as a registered party.
Party platform
"Legalize marijuana and legalize a revolution."
Election results
| Election | # of candidates nominated | # of seats won | # of total votes | % of popular vote | % in ridings run in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | |||||
| 2004 | |||||
| 2006 | |||||
| 2008 |
Provincial parties
In addition to the Bloc Pot party in Quebec, Marijuana Parties have several separate provincial counterparts, most notably, the British Columbia Marijuana Party which received over 3% of the vote in the 2001 provincial election, and the Marijuana Party of Nova Scotia. The Bloc Pot and the Federal Marijuana Party work together, however, the B.C. Marijuana Party and the Federal Marijuana Party do not work together.
See also
- Marijuana Party candidates, 2008 Canadian federal election
- Marijuana Party candidates, 2006 Canadian federal election
- Legal issues of cannabis
- Marijuana parties