Pubdate: Fri, 09 Jun 2006
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2006 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: James Wood, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

MARIJUANA PARTY JOINS POLITICAL LANDSCAPE IN SASK.

The proverbial "smoke-filled rooms" where political deals are cut may 
take on a whole new meaning in Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan Marijuana Party has joined six other parties as an 
officially registered provincial political party with Elections Saskatchewan.

Like other marijuana parties in the country, it is expected to 
advocate the legalization of possession and cultivation of cannabis.

But Saskatchewan Marijuana Party leaders aren't talking right now.

Party president Ethan Erkiletian said the party won't make an 
official statement until June 20.

The timing is related to the June 19 Weyburn-Big Muddy byelection, 
although the party does not and cannot have a candidate in that race.

"We're trying not to step on anybody's toes right now," Erkiletian 
said without elaborating further.

The party's leader is Nathan Holowaty, a Saskatoon pot activist who 
formerly was president of the NDP campus club at the University of 
Saskatchewan.

A December 2004 article in the Sheaf campus newspaper said the 
Saskatchewan Marijuana Party was being formed in part because the 
provincial justice system took a punitive approach towards marijuana.

It says the party's formation was given impetus by the March 2004 
arrest and incarceration of British Columbia marijuana activist Marc 
Emery in Saskatoon for passing a joint in Kiwanis Park.

Emery, the leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party, said upon his release 
from jail in October of 2004 that a marijuana party would be 
established in Saskatchewan that would field a full slate of 
candidates in the next provincial election.

Provincial Chief Electoral Officer Jean Ouellet said registering 
means the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party can field candidates under the 
party name, raise and spend money and issue tax receipts for donations.

To register, the party needed 2,500 signatures on a petition. Of that 
amount, 1,000 had to come from 10 different constituencies.

The Marijuana Party joins the NDP, Saskatchewan Party, Liberals, 
Progressive Conservatives, Green Party and Western Independence Party 
on the provincial registry.

The NDP government and Opposition Saskatchewan Party did not respond 
to requests for comment.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom