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Without Members & a Candidate, Becoming a Marijuana Party Candidate enables you Nominating Federal Election Candidates.Nomination requirements are in the Canada Elections Act. Nomination papers to download from: Or, you can get papers from the local Elections Canada Returning Officer in your election district, after the general elections are called, and your local Returning Officer opens their local office during those elections. You can make a toll-free call to Elections Canada, Elections Canada: 1 800 463 6868 Elections Canada: 1 800 267 7360 More Elections Canada information Candidates’ rights and responsibilities are reciprocal. Candidates take a package deal that combines legal Eligible Candidates complete the following six steps:
The nomination period ends 21 days before voting day. Candidates can do everything, The letter endorsing that Candidate Candidates with their endorsing letter Unless specifically disqualified by the Elections Act, a Candidate only needs to be qualified as an “elector” (be at least 18 years old on election day and hold Canadian citizenship) to run. A Candidate does NOT have to live in the electoral district that they are officially nominated in. (To run in a riding that a person does not live in is called to "parachute" into that riding.) Only the electors that are living inside a Candidate’s electoral district can sign official nomination papers. Those individual electors are the “nominators” of that Candidate. Getting 100+ Electors to sign Official Nomination Papers THE MAIN THING REQUIRED TO BECOME NOMINATED! You can start anytime getting signatures on nomination papers from electors residing in the riding that you are going to run in. You can keep on getting new nominators to sign nomination papers until nominations close, which is 21 days before the general voting day, at 2:00 p.m.. In the majority of electoral districts in Canada, Candidates need 100 electors living in that district to sign their nomination papers. However, there are some huge rural ridings, those listed in Schedule 3 of the Canada Elections Act, which only require 50 nominators to sign. If you are running in a very large riding, check to see if it might be on Schedule 3. To find "Schedule 3" from the Elections Canada home page click on the line that says "Electoral Law, Policy and Research" then click on "Federal Electoral & Referendum Legislation" then click on "Federal Electoral Legislation" then under the heading "Schedules" click on "LIST OF ELECTORAL DISTRICTS FOR THE PURPOSES OF PARAGRAPHS 66(1)(e) AND (f) AND SECTION 539" Find out about your electoral district by going to the Elections Canada’s Web Site to use their search engines. Look for the drop down menu about "Candidates." (The nomination papers are a PDF form available there.) Also, while you are on the Elections Canada home page, click on the line that says "Downloadable Files" ... then click on "Candidates" and then click through the relevant things available there, including the "Optional Forms" to see what is there, and which ones might interest you, or be useful or necessary for you after you become officially nominated. Also, follow through the links available from clicking on the line saying: "Electoral Districts" It will help you to study the information there about about your electoral district. From the Elections Canada home page, click on the link to "Electoral Districts." Then, click on the link to "Voter Information Service" Then, enter the appropriate information, and/or click on the appropriate buttons, to take you to the page of informations about your particular electoral district. It may be useful to print out a copy of the MAP of your electoral district to show people who potentially might sign your nomination papers. On the Elections Canada Web site page that you have found that has the information about your particular electoral district, click on the "Map" button to see the map that you can download and print out. If you have that map, that shows the geographical boundaries of your particular electoral district, then that may help people you ask to sign to recognize and decide whether or not their address is within that electoral district. (It does you no good to have someone sign your nominations papers if their address is not inside your district.) Your nominators do not have to be on the voter’s list, but they must be electors, (i.e., 18 years old, and Canadian citizens) and their address must be inside the boundaries of the district. AFTER YOU HAVE FOUND YOUR ELECTORAL DISTRICT PAGE ON ELECTIONS CANADA’S WEB SITE, BY USING THE "VOTER INFORMATION SERVICE" CLICK ON THE "Returning Officer" BUTTON. There you can find out all of the contact information about the name and address of that particular Returning Officer in your electoral district. You will, of course, need to know that later, after you are ready to submit your completed package of nomination papers. Note that the official nomination papers requires a witness to all nomination signatures. On the nomination pages, at the end of each line, is a small space for the initials of the witness to the signing of the nominator who signed that line on that page. A Candidate can act as their own witness to the nominators’ signature, or anyone else assisting the Candidate may be a witness. If someone else acts as a witness, it may be a good idea that they also attend at the meeting with the Elections Canada Returning Officer, when the nomination papers are filed. The law requires that Candidates only have to sign their consent to be Candidates in the nomination papers, and that someone else witness the fact that the Candidate has signed their consent to be a Candidate. That makes it theoretically possible for the Candidate to not have to be personally present when their nomination papers are filed with the Returning Officer, but only that the witness to the Candidate’s signing their consent be present before the Returning Officer, when the completed nomination papers are filed. However, usually, the Candidate is present when their nominations papers are filed before the Returning Officer, and then the Candidate acts as their own witness to the fact that they consent to be the Candidate. A motivated Candidate can act as the witness for all the nominators’ signatures, and act as the witness for their own consent to be the Candidate. Candidates with someone to help them do everything, can have other people solicit nominators signatures, and act as the witness of the nominators’ signing, as well as have someone else be the witness to the fact that the Candidate signed the page where it says that the Candidate consents to becoming a Candidate. Thus, there is a range of possibilities with respect to how many other persons are involved as witnesses. The Candidate can do everything for themselves, and act as their own witness to their consent and/or act as the witness to the signing of the nomination papers by all the individual nominators. Or the Candidate can have one or more other people act as witnesses during that process. It is recommended that every person who acted as a witness during the nomination process be personally present when the nomination papers are filed with the local Elections Canada Returning Officer. A Candidate, with a team to help him or her, would only have to sign their consent, and could be assisted to do everything else necessary by other people. However, in the case of Parti Marijuana Party, most Candidates usually do everything themselves, including act as their own witness to nominators’ signatures, and also witness their own consent to be a Candidate. Remember that the Candidates who are helped any others who solicited nominators signatures, must have those persons sign their initials in the little box at the end of the line on the nomination papers where they witnessed a nominator sign, and those witnesses should come to the meeting with the Returning Officer, when the completed nomination papers are submitted. (Some Elections Canada Returning Officers demand that those witnessing the nominators’ signatures may have to personally attend with the Candidate when presenting the completed nomination papers to that local Returning Officer. Sometimes, some Returning Officers do not demand that.) A Candidate must be nominated by at least 100 electors who are living in that electoral district. (Except in the huge rural ridings, where only 50 are needed.) The official nomination papers provide space for extra nominators to sign to make sure that enough are finally valid. It may be prudent to sign up to perhaps 110 or 120. The nomination papers leave enough space for 150. Additional copies of the pages of the nomination papers can be made to be used to gather even more signatures, if not enough of the original ones are validated by the Returning Officer. Various factors change how difficult it is It helps to have friends to go with Since few Candidates have 100 friends and family members, You may emphasize you are NOT demanding You are ONLY asking electors to agree to nominate you It usually takes persistence and pluck to keep on asking stranger after stranger, no matter how many sign or refuse to sign, until enough have finally agreed to. It is an opportunity to learn It may be difficult to start doing it at first, Talking to the public in these ways IS political and asking them to use their power to nominate an election Candidate initially takes some new Candidates outside of their normal comfort zone. Candidates for nomination could go When you are on the Elections Canada home page, and click on the drop down menu on "Candidates" the first line that appears on the next page you are taken to is: Letter regarding candidates’ access to public places On July 26, 2007, a number of changes to the Canada Elections Act came into force. Among these changes are measures aimed at improving the ability of candidates to communicate with electors. The legislation now gives Candidates and their representatives a right of access to buildings, land, streets or other places that are open without charge to the public. The new provisions make it an offence for persons in control of public places, such as shopping malls, to prevent Candidates and their representatives from campaigning when the premises are open without charge to members of the public. This right of access exists equally for all Candidates, irrespective of their political affiliation or the views that they promote. The only exceptions are if the campaigning activities would be incompatible with the function and purpose of the place or inconsistent with public safety. These are narrow exceptions that I expect will find application only in rare circumstances. Having rights to campaign in this context Suppose you were a musical performer, etc., and presume you have similar friends. Consider that, if you become an officially nominated Candidate, then you will have a legal right to set up in public places, like shopping malls. The Candidate and Candidate’s representatives They would have the right to perform in public spaces, where otherwise the managers and security guards would immediately kick them out. The free publicity alone may seem to be worth, if you are an artistic person, who ordinarily enjoyed performing your art in public. You are legally able to "campaign" during the elections, in places where otherwise you would never be allowed to. To "campaign" during an election is to directly oppose or promote any party or Candidate. Campaigning can be done through any medium, by means of any message, that opposes or promotes any party or any Candidate. That includes things like drawing picture, or dancing, or anything else that expresses a meaning. You could give speeches, or sing songs, or dance and carry on many various ways, presenting shows, etc., since anything goes as far as opposing or promoting any Candidate or Party, as part of your campaigning, as a manifestation of your freedom of expression while campaigning. Your group could travel around to all the public spaces, like shopping malls, etc., and put on any public performances in any of them. The security guards and management would not be allowed to stop you, during the election period. The only limit stated in the law is that the campaigning must not be incompatible with the function and purpose of the place or inconsistent with public safety. As long as the campaign does not excessively disrupt the normal, safe operation of the public place being campaigned in or on, then that campaigning would be legal, and the Candidate and the Candidate’s representatives have a legal right to be in that place or public space, and be promoting or opposing any political party or any Candidate, in any manner that expresses those messages, through any media. This right only would exist for several weeks, and ends when the election period ends. It was a significant victory for the principles of democracy over the supremacy of private property that this legal right was enacted in the elections law. Most of the apparently public places in our society are actually privately owned and controlled, and ordinarily are only open to the public subject to the terms and conditions of the owners of that place or space. As a Candidate, you and your representatives would have the legal right to set up in any public place, and campaign in creative and entertaining ways, that informed and educated citizens. Given that about 80% of the mass media in Canada are owned by 5 corporations, and they tend to deliberately exclude alternative Candidates from participating in the events that they sponsor, at least being able to campaign directly in spaces open to the public is a significant benefit and improvement over the way it was before. Another interesting use of this new right of access, and the Elections Canada letter that clearly states it, might be in the context where Radical Marijuana Candidates are denied permission to participate in events with other Candidates. It has often happened that Marijuana Party Candidates are not allowed to attend public events for other Candidates, since the sponsors of those events exclude Marijuana Party Candidates from participating. It might be an interesting test of the new right to be present in places open to the public, and campaign therein, in those circumstances where the sponsors of an election related event have decided they want to exclude the Marijuana Party Candidate from participating. Another legal right that Candidates have is to a leave of absence from their employment, set out in section 80 of the Canada Elections Act: "80. Every employer of employees to whom Part III of the Canada Labour Code applies shall, on application, grant any such employee leave of absence, with or without pay, to seek nomination as a candidate and to be a candidate for the period during the election period that may be requested." After all requirements have been fulfilled, From the day after nominations close, the nomination is IRREVOCABLE. After the nomination have been completed and closed, the Candidate’s name, along with the short-form of the registered party name, MUST be printed on the election ballots in that particular electoral district. CANDIDATE ENDORSEMENT PROTOCOL Anyone with an endorsement letter signed by the party leader could then complete all the other steps to become an officially nominated election Candidate endorsed by Parti Marijuana Party. The only "nomination race" will be that the first person to submit their completed nomination papers to the Elections Canada Returning Officer in a particular electoral district will become the one and only Radical Marijuana Candidate in that particular electoral district. We will continue to try to co-ordinate campaigns by using our Web site as our virtual political office, and try to inform members about other members, who say that they are already committed to attempting to become officially nominated Candidates in a particular electoral district. Publication or participation in our Web site is optional, not necessary for Candidates. This Web site may serve as virtual office for Parti Marijuana Party, but it does not and can not control what happens during general elections. There is no nomination contest to be the Candidate. It has always tended to be "first come, first served." To become a Candidate, an individual who qualifies to become officially nominated adds to their nomination papers package a letter signed by the party leader, with the name of the Candidate and electoral district written in, that is the official endorsement of a registered political party leader. The party leader mails the Candidate In the past, on principle, we tried to endorse Candidates in all possible ridings. However, changes in the elections laws beyond our control, and the overall Canadian context, have changed to the point where there is no need for us to endorse more than ONE CANDIDATE. Every year, the party leader must sign the following Declaration, and mail it to Elections Canada: I have considered all factors relevant to determining the party’s purposes, including those described in subsection 521.1(5) of the Canada Elections Act, and hereby declare that one of the party’s fundamental purposes is to participate in public affairs by endorsing one or more of its members as candidates and supporting their election. A plain reading of the elections law indicates that the party leader MUST publicly support the election of Candidates which he endorsed. However, voting is by secret ballot, and no party member, officer or agent can be required to vote for Candidates endorsed by the party leader. Candidates appoint their own Official Agent & Auditor. Candidates MAY ask the Marijuana Party Chief Agent, and/or the Marijuana Party Auditor, to sign consent letters to accept appointment to act as the Candidate’s 0fficial Agent or Official Auditor. Candidates MAY ask them both, or only ask one of them. A Candidate MAY appoint the party’s auditor Appointing a Candidate’s Auditor. Parti Marijuana Party’s Auditor is recommended to Candidates. Our Party’s Auditor is Gary Rozon CMA 156 Redpath Drive Ottawa, ON K2G 6K5 Gary’s Web site:http://www.garyrozon.com email: Gary Rozon Tel: 613-823-7922 Cell: 613-866-2299 The government pays the auditing fees to the Auditor. That fee begins at $250 paid by the government to the auditor, even if the Candidate spent no money campaigning, and thus there is nothing to audit. Therefore, an auditor has a financial interest in agreeing to act as a Candidate’s auditor. A Candidate may be able to find their own local auditor, however, it has been very common for Marijuana Party Candidates to find that the vast majority of qualified auditors refuse to associate themselves with the Marijuana Party. Candidates may directly contact the Party’s Auditor to ask that Auditor to send a consent letter to act as the Candidate’s Auditor for that election. That letter signed by the Auditor which consents to the appointment to act for a Candidate can be mailed either to the Candidate, or to the Elections Canada Returning Officer in the particular electoral district that Candidate is running in. The Candidate’s Auditor can not sign the Auditor’s letter of consent until the Auditor knows the actual date of the elections. Therefore, that final step can not be taken until during the elections, after the voting day has been formally declared. However, a Candidate may contact and inform the Auditor before the elections are called, to prepare for that. A Candidate may email or mail a letter to the Party Auditor to ask that Auditor to send the Auditor’s consent letter back to the Candidate, to be included with the Candidate’s nomination papers. Your Auditor may fax their letter to consent to be your Auditor to the Returning Officer, but then the original of that consent letter must be delivered to the Returning Officer within 48 hours after the nominations close. Appointing a Candidate’s Official Agent Candidates MAY appoint their own local Official Agent. Candidates who appoint their own local Official Agent, can make a financial contribution to their own campaign and receive an official receipt, for which, if they are a tax payer, they can receive the political contribution tax credit. If you appoint your own local Official Agent, and are going to raise and spend any money, then your Agent should also examine more material available on Elections Canada’s Web site, including, perhaps, the downloadable "EFR software" which is excellent to use, if your campaign is going to actually raise and spend some money. Candidates MAY ask Parti Marijuana Party’s Chief Agent, to consent to be appointed to act as the Candidate’s Agent. Ms. Jan Redekop is Parti Marijuana Party Chief Agent. Candidates MAY ask her to become their Official Agent. The period when nominations are open, before the deadline, 21 days before voting day, usually only last a little more than 2 weeks. A Candidate may ask Jan to mail them the page she must sign before the elections are called. Candidates that are going to ask Jan to act as their Official Agent must act PROMPTLY to ask her to do that, because there is only little more than a week to ask her to do so, and for the mail to deliver her letter with the page she signs to the Candidate. $ZERO Campaigns As was defined to be, by the elections law, We refer to campaigns in which nobody spends more than $200 of their own money campaigning as being $ZERO campaigns, which are reported as being "NIL" or $ZERO in the reports after the elections are over. As long as a Candidate, or any of the volunteers working for that Candidate, spends less than $200 each of their own money on goods and services used during the campaign, then the law considers that to be the same as $0, and the final Elections Expenses Campaign Report is a $ZERO Report, which makes it relatively simple to complete, get audited, and submit to Elections Canada within the four month deadline after the elections are over. Candidates who ask Jan Redekop to act as their Official Agent MUST run a $ZERO campaign, and file their report after the elections to declare that they have run a $ZERO campaign. Jan will not open and close bank accounts for Candidates that are going to run $ZERO Report campaigns. Jan will ONLY act as the Official Agent of Candidates that are going to run $ZERO campaigns. Ms. Jan Redekop Home telephone:(250) 477-6143 email: Jan Redekop Whenever Jan Redekop acts as the Official Agent of a Candidate, she will only be helping by fulfilling the formal requirements of the law. She will not open a bank account, because, as a Candidate’s Official Agent she will not accept any financial contributions, and she will not authorize any campaign expenses. Although the law seems to require all Candidates Official Agents to open a bank account, in the past, Parti Marijuana Party Candidates running NIL or $ZERO Report campaigns have not opened any bank account at all. We have told Elections Canada about that in the past. We will continue to do that in the future. It is an absurd waste of time to open a bank account, and later close it, when no money will ever go through it. Therefore, our Candidates that receive and spend no money do not bother to open and close $zero in and $zero out bank accounts, merely to comply with the formality of the apparent wording of the election law. Parti Marijuana Party has always been doing that since 2000, and we have repeatedly pointed that out to Elections Canada’s officials, without them ever taking any action against us when we ran $ZERO Report campaigns without opening any bank account. If a Candidate decides to ask the Party Chief Agent to act as Official Agent for their campaign, then Jan will need to know the name of the Candidate, and the name of that Candidate’s electoral district, in order to sign and mail to that Candidate page 6, Part 3 of the Candidate’s Nomination Papers package, which is submitted to the Elections Canada Returning Officer in the electoral district. That copy of this Part 3, page 6, stating the Candidate’s name and electoral district, and signed by Jan Redekop, is mailed to the Candidate by Jan, in order that the Candidate can insert that page 6 into their Nomination Papers package in order to submit it to their local Elections Canada Returning Officer. Candidates must act to ask an Auditor and Agent to consent, either before the elections are called, or within the brief window of opportunity when the nomination period is open, which only usually lasts for a little more than 2 weeks. Candidates who ask Jan to become their Agent, SHOULD NOT accept any official receipts from their local Elections Canada Returning Officer, as part of a package of information they will be offered, after becoming officially nominated. Candidates who do not appoint their own local Official Agent can NOT accept any financial contributions to their own election campaign and are NOT allowed to accept or issue official receipts. $ZERO Report Candidates can NOT spend more than $200 of their own money campaigning, and any volunteers that help that Candidate can NOT spend more than $200 of their own money buying goods or services that they use when helping the Candidate’s campaign. Any Candidate that plans on raising and spending money must have their Official Agent open a bank account. They have to appoint their own local Official Agent in order to do that. Candidates who intend to raise and spend money campaigning must appoint their own local Official Agent who is willing and able to do that. A Candidate with a local Official Agent will be able to accept or issue official receipts and spend money directly. Candidates that appoint their own local Official Agent empower that Agent to open a campaign bank account, issue the official receipts forms that are available from their local Elections Canada Returning Officer, and that Agent may spend their money on election expenses, or non-election expenses, during that campaign. Candidates who appoint their own local Official Agent are NOT limited to running a $ZERO report campaign. The Agent the Candidate appoints, and the Candidate, are directly responsible for getting their campaign accounts audited and reported upon to Elections Canada within four months after voting day. Doing that requires having their election report audited by their Official Auditor. All those official steps are NECESSARY, despite having run a $ZERO Campaign, where all the auditing reports only say "NIL," because no contributions were received above $200, and no money was spent campaigning by anyone involved that was above $200. A $ZER0 Campaign MUST still have Candidate and Official Agent sign reports, and they must obtain a signed audited statement, despite that those reports and audit statement only confirm that there was a $ZERO Campaign with "NIL" in and "NIL" out. If you appoint your own Official Agent, then they should also spend some time on Elections Canada’s Web site, by clicking through the drop down menu about "Candidates" including the "Optional Forms" as well as clicking through the "Downloadable Files" available that are relevant to running Candidates, and being Official Agent both during the elections, and for completing the necessary reports, after the elections are over. Even if your campaign does not raise and spend any money during the elections, the Candidate and Official Agent must still go through the process of completing the reports necessary after the elections are over, in order to get the $1,000 deposit refunded. Even if the campaign raised and spent no money, the auditor must still be informed of that, and the auditor must confirm that you have told the auditor that your campaign was a $ZERO. If you did raise and spend any money campaigning, then it is vital that your official Auditor be able to do their job, and write their letter stating that your Auditor has reviewed your report. The $1,000 deposit will NOT be refunded by Elections Canada unless the reports after the elections are over and completed and submitted on time. Those reports, even if there was a $ZERO campaign, must be signed by the Candidate, and the Official Agent, and be accompanied by a letter from the Official Auditor. If your campaign was a $ZERO, then all the reports are simply 0 written in all the relevant spots, then signed by the Candidate and Agent, then forwarded to the Auditor, who sends those reports back to the Agent with the auditor’s letter ... then the reports and auditor’s letter are finally sent to Elections Canada. That report and audit statement must nevertheless be completed, and signed, and submitted to Elections Canada, even if the only thing they all say is $ZERO. If your campaign did raise and spend any money, then there are many sources of information and forms that you need to study and use, in order to complete your report after the elections are over. A campaign that is greater than $ZERO requires more knowledge to complete the reports. Elections Canada provides workbooks http://www.elections.ca/pol/can/ec20130_e.pdf Campaigns raising and spending little money will Candidates that go above $ZERO Candidates are free to change Auditors and/or to change Official Agents at any time during or after the election campaigns. (Note that Elections Canada gives a five digit code number to every electoral district. The first two digits are the code number for the particular province or territory, and the last three digits identify the particular electoral district within that province or territory. It might help to know that number when communicating with Elections Canada.) The Candidate’s Official Auditor makes money, by being paid at least $250 by the government for acting as the Auditor, (even in the case of a $ZERO campaign, where the audit statement merely confirms that the Candidate’s report says $ZERO). Therefore, the party Auditor is willing to act as a Candidate’s auditor, and is able and willing to send priority post letters and/or faxes to the Candidate, or to the Returning Officer, with the paper letter to follow within 48 hours of the passing of the nomination period deadline. However, Parti Marijuana Party makes no money whatsoever from running Candidates, and thus we can not afford to spend any more than the minimum necessary money to assist Candidates. We need only 1 Candidate to be nominated for the party as a whole to complete that requirement as a registered party. After that, it makes no difference to us if we get more Candidates or more votes. We would need a prodigious political miracle to get enough Candidates, to get enough votes, to cross over the threshold of receiving more than 2% of the total national votes. IF we could, then the party would become eligible for the quarterly allowance that the bigger parties get. If we could get slightly more than 2% of the total national vote, then we would receive about $500,000 per year paid by the government. However, if we received less than 2%, then we get zero funding from the government. Since it is practically impossible for us to run enough Candidates, to get enough votes, to go over 2% of the national total of votes, all votes for us end up being worth nothing, and we make no money from participating in the elections, but rather we tend to gradually go broke trying to participate. Unless individual Canadian residents make gift contributions to the Party as a whole, then we have no money to spend during the elections. We support the election of our Candidates to the best of our abilities. However, the best of our abilities is practically nothing in the real world. The elections laws are extremely unfair to the smaller political parties, and hugely biased in favour of the bigger parties. There is no level playing field. There is an enormous vertical cliff at the threshold of 2% national votes. Above that, votes are worth money to parties, while below that, votes are worth nothing to the parties. Above that parties get most of the the money they spend campaigning refunded, while below that smaller parties get none of their expenses refunded. This unfairness has been upheld as constitutionally valid by the Canadian courts. Big parties make money from participating in elections, while small parties go broke. Parti Marijuana Party is the poorest of all the registered political parties, and we barely get enough funding to survive. Therefore, unless somebody gives us financial contribution, we can not afford the expense of special delivery letters and/or faxes, etc.. Therefore, we usually will not be able to take any emergency measures during the last week of the nomination period. CANDIDATES’ INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE DOES STEPS ON TIME! It is better for Candidates to take timely steps to appoint their own local Official Agent, and to ask an Auditor to send them the Auditor’s consent letter. Our party’s Chief Agent is willing and able to act as the Official Agent of a Candidate running a $ZERO campaign, but she must be asked early enough, either before the elections are called, or quickly, at the beginning of the election campaign, when the nomination period first opens. Candidates who wait too late probably will not receive the letters they need in time, before the nomination period deadline closes. IF the party has enough money to be able to do so, then it would possible for us to fax either the Leader’s endorsement letter, or the Chief Agents signed consent page letter to act as the Candidate’s Official Agent, closer to the deadline of the close of nominations. It is possible to fax those letters directly to an Elections Canada Returning Officer, as long as the original signed paper letter was then delivered to the Elections Canada Returning Officer within 48 hours after then nomination period deadline. Generally speaking Parti Marijuana Party has to run on minimal budget, and Candidates have to take the initiative to get everything necessary done in a timely way, or else it will not happen. Of course, any individual resident of Canada can send a financial contribution to the Chief Agent of Parti Marijuana Party, to enable us to pay our bills, if they want to do that. Then we might be able to pay for more of the things that we would like to do, and should do. REPORTS AFTER THE ELECTIONS ARE OVER: WITHIN FOUR MONTHS AFTER THE ELECTIONS ARE OVER ALL CANDIDATES MUST FILE A REPORT WITH ELECTIONS CANADA THAT IS SIGNED BY THE CANDIDATE AND THE CANDIDATE’S OFFICIAL AGENT, WHICH INCLUDES A LETTER FROM THE CANDIDATE’S AUDITOR ABOUT THAT REPORT. A Candidate must report to Elections Canada any gifts that they received during the election period that were worth more than $500. If the Candidate has asked Jan Redekop, the Party’s Chief Agent, to act as the Candidate’s Official Agent during the election, then both the Candidate and Jan Redekop, as the Candidate’s Agent, must sign the Candidate’s Electoral Campaign Return, even though that return will only say ZERO throughout. The Candidate’s Auditor is in a similar position to the Candidate’s Agent, in that the auditor has to sign a letter confirming the fact that there is a $ZERO report filed after the elections. See the Elections Canada Web site: links through "Candidate>forms" http://www.elections.ca/pol/can/ec20120_c2.pdf: Candidate’s Electoral Campaign Return, Part 1, at page 6. CANDIDATES MUST STILL BE ABLE TO BE COMMUNICATED WITH, AFTER THE ELECTIONS, FOR AS LONG AS FOUR MORE MONTHS, IN CONTACT, UNTIL AFTER CANDIDATE’S ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN RETURN HAS BEEN SIGNED BY THE CANDIDATE AND ACCEPTED AS COMPLETED BY ELECTIONS CANADA. If a Candidate can not be properly contacted to sign the return, then the Chief Agent will have to ask special permission to file, including even going before a court to get a special court order. Therefore, Candidates are urged not to lose contact until after the final campaign report has been signed. Candidates must be asked to make sure their Agent and their Auditor can continue to contact them until after Elections Canada has accepted their elections report as completed. Rules Regarding the $1,000 deposit:The last thing that a Candidate must do in order to be officially nominated is pay $1,000 in cash, or by check payable to the Receiver General of Canada, to their local Elections Canada Returning Officer. The Party Chief Agent, Jan Redekop, may be able to pay some of the Candidate’s $1,000 deposits, for her Candidates only. At the present time, it appears that she probably will not be able to, unless someone else lends her the money to do that with. If possible, she will do so by mailing a check for that amount, payable to the Receiver General of Canada to the Candidate, or directly to the local Elections Canada Returning Officer in that Candidate’s electoral district, during the nomination period, as indicated in the particular circumstances. Candidates must take the initiative to make sure that Jan has all the necessary information to be able to send the $1,000 deposits on time. Candidates are encouraged to try to pay their own $1,000 Candidate deposit, or to borrow the money to pay it from someone else, if and when possible. Jan will only be able to pay her Candidate’s deposits if somebody else lends her money to do so. The $1,000 deposit is refunded by Elections Canada to the Candidate’s Official Agent after the report on the campaign is completed and submitted to Elections Canada. That usually takes about six months after the elections are over. An Official Agent can write a letter to Elections Canada called an "assignment," which will direct Elections Canada to repay the $1,000 deposit to the person assigned to receive it by that official Agent’s letter to Elections Canada. If Jan’s Candidates were able to pay the deposit themselves, then Jan Redekop will refund that $1,000 to them, or someone assigned by them, after Elections Canada has refunded it to her. (If that deposit money is not refunded, then it becomes a contribution to the Candidate’s campaign, and must be treated as surplus funds in the campaign, which means that it must be transferred by the Candidate’s Official Agent to the Marijuana Party’s Chief Agent after the elections are over, and that transfer has to be reported on to Elections Canada.) Thus, Elections Canada insists on one of these TWO ways of informing them what happened to the $1,000 deposit money. FIRST, the official Agent can write a letter of assignment telling Elections Canada to whom to repay the $1,000 deposit. That assignment letter is submitted before or with the final election report package, and then the refund will be sent by Elections Canada to the assigned person. OR, SECOND, after the reports are submitted, and then Elections Canada refunds the $1,000 to the Official Agent, and after the Official Agent repays the $1,000 deposit to someone else, then the official Agent must write a letter to Elections Canada telling Elections Canada that the $1,000 has be refunded to someone else by the Agent. That letter by the official Agent can be one letter to Elections Canada, with a list of all their Candidates, if the Official Agent acted for more than one Candidate. Elections Canada demands to know whether the deposit was refunded, or became a contribution to the party, through the Candidate’s surplus funds being transferred to the party. Therefore, Elections Canada demands to know whether the $1,000 deposit money was refunded and to whom, and the Official Agent must arrange or report that through Elections Canada. In theory, if the $1,000 was not refunded, it would become surplus funds, any and all of which must be transfer to the Chief Agent of the party as a whole. If the $1,000 is not refunded from the Agent to the person who provided that $1,000 then it is deemed a financial contribution to the party because the Candidate’s Agent must transfer the $1,000 to the party as a whole, if the Agent receives that $1,000 back from Elections Canada, but the Agent does not refund the $1,000 to another named person, then the Agent must transfer it to the party as a whole. Candidates must take the initiative to make sure that their Official Agent has all the necessary information to be able to do that on time. Candidates are encouraged to try to pay their own $1,000 Candidate deposit, or to borrow the money to pay it from someone else, if and when possible. That $1,000 is refunded by Elections Canada to the Candidate’s official agent after the report on the campaign is completed and submitted to Elections Canada. That usually takes about six months after the elections are over. An official agent can write a letter to Elections Canada called an assignment, which will direct Elections Canada to repay the $1,000 deposit to the person assigned to receive it by that official agent’s letter to Elections Canada. If Jan’s Candidates were able to pay the deposit themselves, then Jan Redekop will refund that $1,000 to them, or someone assigned by them, after Elections Canada has refunded it to her. (If that deposit money is not refunded, then it becomes a contribution to the Candidate’s campaign, and must be treated as surplus funds in the campaign, which means that it must be transferred by the Candidate’s official agent to the Marijuana Party’s Chief Agent after the elections are over, and that transfer has to be reported on to Elections Canada.) TO REPEAT: Elections Canada insists on one of these TWO ways of informing them what happened to the $1,000 deposit money. FIRST, the official agent can write a letter of assignment telling Elections Canada to whom to repay the $1,000 deposit. That assignment letter is submitted before or with the final election report package, and then the refund will be sent by Elections Canada to the assigned person. OR, SECOND, after the reports are submitted, and then Elections Canada refunds the $1,000 to the Official Agent, and after the Official Agent repays the $1,000 deposit to someone else, then the Official Agent must write a letter to Elections Canada telling Elections Canada that the $1,000 has be refunded to someone else by the agent. That letter by the Official Agent can be one letter to Elections Canada, with a list of all their Candidates, if the Official Agent acted for more than one Candidate. Elections Canada demands to know whether the deposit was refunded, or became a contribution to the party, through the Candidate’s surplus funds being transferred to the party. Therefore, Elections Canada demands to know whether the $1,000 deposit money was refunded and to whom, and the Official Agent must arrange or report that through Elections Canada. In theory, if the $1,000 was not refunded, it would become surplus funds, any and all of which must be transfer to the Chief Agent of the party as a whole. If the $1,000 is not refunded from the Agent to the person who provided that $1,000 then it is deemed a financial contribution to the party because the Candidate’s Agent must transfer the $1,000 to the party as a whole, if the agent receives that $1,000 back from Elections Canada, but the Agent does not refund the $1,000 to another named person, then the Agent must transfer it to the party as a whole. AFTER NOMINATION PAPERS ARE SUBMITTED: The Returning Officer has 48 hours after nomination papers are filed to check and verify those papers. Candidates can continue to work on fulfilling all the requirements until the nomination period closes. It is prudent to file as soon as possible, to make sure that a Candidate will have additional time still left to try to complete any outstanding requirements that the Returning Officer says are still necessary to complete. The first Candidate to be recognized as A Candidate who sends a fax of any relevant nomination papers to an Elections Canada Returning Officer has until 48 hours after nominations close to have paper originals delivered to the Returning Officer. Everything that matters most is getting Candidates nominated, so that the Candidate’s name and Party name can appear on the ballots. Context of becoming a CandidateThe full name of this party in English is Marijuana Party The full name in French is Parti Marijuana We tend to use Parti Marijuana Party (PMP) for the full business name of this party.
Our Electoral District Associations use (Electoral district name) Marijuana Party Parti Marijuana de (Electoral district name) The short-form party name, in BOTH English and French, is Radical MarijuanaThat short name is printed on voting Each Candidate is running due their individual interest. Candidates are free to express their opinions to voters. Our party is in the same social position as marijuana is in. Just as the government uses bad laws to try to wipe out marijuana, the government systematically implements bad laws that were designed to minimize the ability of smaller political parties to operate. The party history section of this Web site has articles about the details of the history of the funding of Parti Marijuana Party. TO REPEAT: Elections laws are extremely unfair, There has been a deliberate effort by governments run by the bigger political parties to attempt to wipe smaller parties out, by starving them of funds, while the bigger parties give themselves more money to use. (It is more unfair for independents than for small parties.) The bigger parties gave themselves the opportunity to be in a positive feedback between their votes and money, while making sure that the smaller parties could not share that benefit. The bigger parties make money from elections, and get a lot of the money they spend refunded, while the smaller parties get nothing from their votes, and get none of the money they spend campaigning refunded. During elections, Radical Marijuana Candidates are participating in elections for their own sake, because they want to. They are free to campaign in any way they want, and they are solely responsible for doing so. Given the unfairness of the elections laws, which we can do nothing to change, since we are trapped inside of that Catch 22 kind of predicament, Parti Marijuana Party is a loose collective of Candidates who are practically the same as Independent Candidates. While the elections laws are systematically biased in favour of big parties against smaller parties, those laws are even more biased in favour of registered parties against independent individuals. People running as an Independent Candidates are more disadvantaged than those running for small political parties, and way more disadvantaged than those running for big political parties. Our party enables individuals who agree that cannabis should not be criminalized to have the legal advantages that follow from associating with a small registered political party. Anyone willing to associate with Radical Marijuana exercises their freedom of association in ways that expand their freedom of expression. Our Candidates and Electoral District Associations are as autonomous as the elections laws allow them to be. Radical Marijuana Candidates’ First Policy: We should stop criminalizing cannabis!Given our circumstances of operating with almost no funding, and given that a vote for our Candidates is not worth any money to our party, while a vote for a bigger party is worth about $2 per year to those bigger parties, there is no practical way that Parti Marijuana Party could ever afford to develop agreements amongst members and Candidates regarding statements of social facts and policies regarding what we should do about those facts. Pot politics is the most extreme example Pot is the single best plant on the planet for people, for food, fiber, fun and medicine. However, huge lies to demonize marijuana, based on claiming that marijuana is almost as bad as murder, were made and maintained for many decades. Criminalizing cannabis was also able to put the hemp industry out of business, so that hemp could not compete with other industries. The huge lies about cannabis that the laws started with were the "reefer madness" claims that marijuana was an "addictive narcotic, that made people become criminally insane, and then killed them." Marijuana laws were originally based on those huge lies, and then gradually changed to be based on a lot of littler lies. Pot prohibition was originally rooted in racism. Pot prohibition was originally designed as a tool of persecution, that would enable the government to cause harm to vulnerable groups, that were various racial minorities that were despised at that time. That is what pot prohibition still does, only now the law is mostly used against poor young people. Meanwhile, black market marijuana money has become the backbone of organized crime. Only a culture that was crazy and corrupt to the core would have criminalized cannabis. Marijuana laws are the most salient symbol of everything else that is wrong, due to the social facts that Canada is really a fascist plutocracy, controlled by huge lies, backed up with lots of violence from its governments. Pot prohibition has been one of the major excuses to build a bigger fascist police state, which is what the fascist plutocracy needs to do to keep growing. Individuals who volunteer to become public Candidates take real risks of backlash from some facets of the fascist plutocracy that runs the real government of Canada. It is up to the free choice of the individual whether they decide to take on those risks. To Repeat Again: Marijuana Party Candidates continue to enjoy all their freedoms of association and expression with respect to other political purposes, and may express any personal opinions while Candidates. Candidates expand their freedom of expression by Individuals elected to Parliament retain their freedom. By law, all Members of Parliament are actually “independents” No Candidate signs any written document that requires the Candidate to follow any course of action that will prevent him or her from exercising freedom of action in Parliament, if elected, or to resign as a member if called on to do so by anyone else. Candidates may make election promises to the electorate during an election campaign. However, Candidates can not be legally bound to those promises. Candidates endorsed by political parties are free, except to the degree that they voluntarily agree with the political party that endorsed them. Candidates are free to agree with the party leader’s ideas. If elected, Candidates may only be bound by a sense of honour, within their own conscience, to support their party by attending necessary meetings and voting loyal to ideas of the party leader. There is nothing in the elections law that enables the party leader to enforce obedience by elected Candidates. Any Candidate that is elected while endorsed by a particular political party is free to later become an independent, or to change parties. All Candidates are finally free to act first on their own conscience. An officially nominated Marijuana Party Candidate Marijuana Party Candidates do not have to sign Membership in the party as a whole is free. The only roles for party members to participate People who are members of this party
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