British Columbia Marijuana Party
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The British Columbia Marijuana Party (BCMP) is a minor political party in the Canadian province of British Columbia that advocates the legalisation of cannabis.
The BCMP was formed following the 2000 federal election. Marc Emery, the founder and current president of the party, formed the party the day after the 2000 vote and the organization fielded candidates in all of the province's 79 ridings in the 2001 provincial election that came six months later.
To gain credibility, the Marijuana Party named Brian Taylor (British Columbia politician) as its leader. Taylor had been the mayor of Grand Forks. Despite being from a small town, having a leader with some political experience, they hoped, would dispel dismissal as a bunch of "pot heads".
Despite attempts to gain credibility, the Marijuana Party was excluded from the leaders' debate, while the Green Party and Unity Party were included. The Marijuana Party argued that this was unfair as they were running a full slate of candidates, a feat matched only by the leading Liberals and governing New Democrats, and were ahead of, or tied with, Unity in most polls.
The party won 51,206 votes, 3.22% of the popular vote.
The party's current leader is Emery, who ran in the 2001 election, Emery remains as president and chief organizer despite having just been released from a federal prison for violation of marijuana laws.
In the 2005 election, the party fielded 43 candidates, who won a total of 10,750 votes, or 0.64% of the province-wide total.
[edit] See also
- List of British Columbia political parties
- Legal issues of cannabis
- Marijuana parties
- Marijuana Party of Canada
