TOKIN' CANDIDATE MORE THAN A TOKEN CANDIDATE

VICTORIA - It seems like a long leap, from earnest NDP candidate to the
Victoria hopeful for the Marijuana party.

Back in the 1997 election, NDP candidate Chuck Beyer earned more than 8,000
votes in an unsympathetic suburban riding here.

This election Mr. Beyer, an amiable 40-year-old realtor, is challenging
David Anderson as one of 76 candidates for the new pro-pot party.

The change hasn't gone over well with some of his former comrades, Mr.
Beyer says. "They're pretty angry because they figure I'll take away votes
from them."

That's his objective. The opposition to marijuana reform is so entrenched
the only way to get the established parties to act is to hurt them at the
polls, he says. "Nader got his message across by sinking the Democrats this
time," he notes.

Meanwhile, Brian Burchill is leaping in the opposite direction. In 1997, he
ran against Mr. Anderson for the Canadian Action party, a fringe party that
proposes tearing up NAFTA and rejects conventional economic theory,
pledging to use the Bank of Canada to create billions in new money.

This time Mr. Burchill running as a Progressive Conservative in the same
riding.

"I haven't change my views," he said. "As a candidate of a mainstream party
I hope I have a little more credibility."

You can't blame voters for being bewildered. They have doubts about the two
leading parties. And the rest of the field includes confusing surprises
like Mr. Burchill and Mr. Beyer.

Mr. Burchill, a 50-year-old tour bus driver who is continuing his education
in engineering, was uncontested for the Conservative nomination. The tours
shut down for the winter, so he has time to campaign.

He says he accepts the Conservatives' core principles. But he's also glad
to get a platform for his views on monetary policy, health care and the
environment. "There's a lot of information that the mainstream press is not
getting out."

For example, he explains, Canada is wasting money borrowing from banks when
the Bank of Canada could create money. "People fear it, they think it's
funny money," he said. "The banks are big contributors to political parties
and I see that as buying influence."

And Mr. Burchill drew gasps at a candidates' forum when he said the focus
shouldn't be on cancer research, but on pollutants that cause the disease.
"If the mainstream parties are not going to address it, we're going to keep
living in this chemical soup." He favours quick conversion to wind and
tidal power, a proposal that doesn't align closely with Conservative thinking.

But Mr. Burchill has achieved his objective. He's at least invited to the
debates this time.

Mr. Beyer can't count on the debate invitations. But he still thinks he's
taking the best route to get marijuana laws changed. The party points to
polls showing that two-thirds of Canadians support decriminalization. About
2,000 people are in jail for marijuana possession. Get them out of the
system, stop wasting police and court resources, get rid of the gangs and
begin taxing what he says is a $20-billion industry and you have a better
society, he says.

Mr. Beyer uses marijuana, but not publicly like some of the party's
dread-locked candidates. He looks like a young businessman and he's running
a low-key campaign, planning to spend about $3,000. Signs are out -- they
get taken as souvenirs. But he'll have ads on the cable channel, leaflets
and a web site. His aim is to take enough votes to make the leading parties
see the importance of the issue -- maybe enough to cost Mr. Anderson the seat.

Meanwhile, he says voters like him better now. "The anger which I found
when I introduced myself as an NDP candidate was so much greater."

Voters may not be angry, but they could be bewildered -- or attracted -- by
candidates like these two.

And in close races, like the race here, Mr. Beyer and the rest of the
alternative candidates might well decide the outcome.