PRO-POT PARTY PLANS YUKON CANDIDATE

One Yukon candidate in the upcoming federal election wants to bring a higher profile to his lesser-known party.

Sean Davey, 22, will enter the federal election as a the candidate in the Yukon riding for the Marijuana Party of Canada.  It's the first time the pro-pot party has sparked up a candidate in the Yukon.

Davey is running to get the word out in the Yukon about the Marijuana Party, which will be entering its second federal election.

"Through me, people ( here ) are able to vote Marijuana Party," Davey said in an interview.  Yukoners did not have a chance to vote for the pro-grass party in 2000 because it didn't field a candidate.

"I'm just going to be ruffling a few feathers and make people aware there's a different option," said Davey.

He started working with the party on a byelection in Nova Scotia four years ago.

He then moved to the Yukon shortly after that and has been living here since then.

From his time working on the byelection, Marijuana Party Leader Marc-Boris St.  Maurice knew about Davey.

"This year, Boris asked me to run in the Yukon," Davey said about the Quebec-based party's leader.

Davey believes an "underdog" party like his will give average people who don't have a lot of money a chance to voice their opinions.  He believes the larger parties are mainly made up of rich people.

"They're just in there for themselves.  They don't care about the people.  But we do."

Most of the party's policies pertain to legalizing pot and making medical marijuana available to people who need it.

This is the major issue for Davey, who believes everyone over 18 should be free to smoke pot if they want to.

"( People ) shouldn't be scared to walk down the street and light up a joint," said Davey.  "It should be a human right."

He said a major problem is police "bugging" marijuana users and not spending more time and money on users of hard drugs like crack.  "Leave the average pot smoker alone."

The party also wants Canada to change its electoral system to ensure the percentage of seats for each party is equal to the percentage of the vote each group scored.  That system would help smaller groups like the Marijuana Party.

The Marijuana Party ran 73 candidates in the 2000 federal election.  The party had 66,258 votes in his first election, the second-highest total of the six lesser-known parties.

Davey hopes to find plenty of support in the Yukon.

"There's a lot of marijuana users in this territory," he said.

The Marijuana Party is not the only of the lesser known groups to field a candidate in the next federal election.

Geoff Capp of the Christian Heritage Party ( CHP ) will carry that party's banner for the fourth consecutive election.

Capp ran in 2000 as a CHP candidate but since the party didn't run the requisite 50 candidates, he was listed as non-affiliated on the ballot.  That law has since been struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada.

While Capp has scored a total of 250 votes in those three elections, he still wants to run again.

"The need is still out there.  The government's still stealing our money," Capp said in an interview.

He added that criminals are still being permitted to walk the street before serving their full sentences, which he sees as a problem.

Capp said that if a judge sentences someone to four years, that person should serve four years.

The Christian Heritage Party is a pro-life party with Christian values.

Capp said he won't be running a big campaign.

"It'll probably be a fairly bare bones campaign, as usual," he said.  "( But ) the message stays the same."

The Green Party of Canada also wants to see its name on the Yukon ballot whenever the election is held.

Andy Shadrack, the B.C.-based organizer in charge of the Yukon riding, confirmed recently the party wants to run a candidate here, for the first time, but didn't have any names at the time.