Pubdate: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 Source: Chilliwack Progress (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 The Chilliwack Progress Contact: http://www.theprogress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/562 Author: Robert Freeman, Staff Writer ALLIANCE RIDING PREZ GOES OVER TO POT PARTY An Alliance Party riding association president is running as a candidate for the B.C. Marijuana Party in the upcoming provincial election. Leonard Melman says he told his riding executive in Nanaimo on Thursday about his intentions to run as a B.C. Marijuana Party Candidate. His term as president expires on April 21 and he hasn't decided yet if he'll keep his membership in the Alliance Party although he believes he can "theoretically" remain a member of the federal party and take part in provincial politics. Mr. Melman says Alliance party officials may yet call him "a flaming traitor and want to have (his membership) revoked" but he is not "defecting" from the federal party. "I'm not saying to hell with the Canadian Alliance," he says, but the Marijuana Party's platform is closer to his Liberal beliefs. "I am an idealist by nature," he says, and "deeply committed" to the cause of individual liberty. "I would be less than candid if I didn't say some of the (Alliance) party's PR problems are getting disturbing," he adds. The Alliance has "deviated" from a philosophy of less government and more protection for individual rights that first attracted him to the federal party, he says. "It's not that I'm resigning from the Alliance," he says, but the B.C. Marijuana Party's platform is now "much more to what I believe in." Alliance MP Jim Lunny in the Nanaimo-Alberni riding could not be reached for comment yesterday. Local and national Alliance Party officials were also unavailable for comment. Norm Siefken, B.C. Marijuana Party candidate in Chilliwack-Sumas, says he believes Mr. Melman's candidacy will "show the public our platform is not just for people on the extreme left" and that there is room for "conservatives" in the party. "He certainly brings a new level of credibility to us," says Marijuana Party leader Brian Taylor. But he says there are already party candidates running in this provincial election who support the Canadian Alliance federally. "I don't think we're the bogey-man for the Alliance Party at all," he says, and both parties hold similar stands on issues like gun control and private schools that focus on individual rights. Mr. Melman says not only does he not smoke pot, but he doesn't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes either: "I have no use for marijuana in my personal life, but that doesn't give me the right to tell somebody else they can't." Although Mr. Taylor earlier claimed the party could form the next opposition given the NDP's poor re-election chances, now he's saying it might form a "moral opposition" but won't likely win a single seat. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk