Pubdate: Thu, 10 Oct 2002
Source: Aldergrove Star (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Central Fraser Valley Star Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.aldergrovestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/989
Author: Russ Akins, Metro Valley News

POT PARTY CANDIDATE SIGNS GET HIM IN HOT WATER

Tim Felger's Marijuana Party has started its civic campaign early - much to 
the dismay of parents at an Abbotsford elementary school.
Leslie Bowling has two children attending Abbotsford elementary. Monday 
morning, she was shocked to see one of Tim Felger's campaign signs 
promoting the Marijuana Party posted on the school's fence. School District 
34 policy forbids election signs posted on school property.
"We're fighting for safe schools, for drug free schools," Bowling said. 
"There have been drug busts in the neighbourhood, grow-ops."
The sign was removed and given to the principal.
Bradner resident, Felger, who will run against George Ferguson as mayor, 
told the Abbotsford News: "I don't give a s--t about the bylaw. I have a 
Charter of Rights - go ahead and arrest me."
This is the second time there have been problems with his signs put up too 
early. He said those opposing his signs are "ignorant and uneducated" on 
drug war and prohibition issues. If his signs come down, he vows to put 
them up again.
"I have two crews working six hours a day, Saturday and Sunday, for the 
next eight weeks. They're putting up signs and passing out flyers,"
Felger said, "I plan to be as loud and as boisterous as I can. This could 
be the most important election of the millennium," he said, adding as mayor 
he would promise to stop SE2, and establish legal brothels and free heroin 
injection sites. As well, he would scrap a controversial bylaw that 
empowers the city to charge landlords for the costs of removing marijuana 
grow ops.
"George Ferguson has let this town degenerate into a prohibition-style 
ghetto," he said.
Mary Beth MacKenzie, city manager of legislative services, said signs such 
as Felger's, posted more than 30 days before the date of the elections, 
will be removed under city signs bylaws. Signs can be posted on private 
property with the permission of the owner, and on public property as long 
as they don1t interfere with traffic or pedestrian visibility, or 
regulatory signs.
School District 34 policy as posted in its Web site says political 
advertising materials may not be distributed in schools or on school 
grounds. Board chairman John Smith said that campaign signs are "absolutely 
prohibited" from school property, and there are no exceptions to that rule.
"Principals will ensure that," he said. "We want our schools to be 
absolutely apolitical."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom