Buddy, can you spare a vote?

>> The Mirror takes the pulse of homeless constituents and Parti de Rien candidate Michel Laporte

by CRAIG SEGAL

Amid an apparently booming economy, they have become a too-often forgotten group. And in a climate where social programs are collapsing with an alarming acceptance level by most Canadians, the numbers of homeless people grow while their political voice seems, well, negligible.

But their political voice has just grown in a way that many of us take for granted: for the first time ever, Elections Canada is allowing homeless people to vote in the federal election so long as they are registered as voters with a shelter, sleep at the shelter the weekend before the election and carry a valid ID.

As part of our election coverage, the Mirror hit the streets to take stock of the homeless voter trends.

Michel Laporte, 52

Homeless candidate for the Parti de Rien in Westmount/Ville-Marie and long-standing member of the Acceuil Bonneau homeless shelter men's choir

Michel Laporte doesn't want your stinking sympathy. Or your mouldy money. Or your limp love. Laporte knows he's the token homeless candidate in this year's election. He's running against nine candidates in the mixed up riding of Westmount/Ville-Marie, which boasts such contrasting 'hoods as nanny-packed Westmount and poverty-cursed St-Henri. Laporte is running there not to provoke, but because his shelter, the Old Brewery Mission, is there. And he doesn't even expect your vote.

Laporte just wants to tell you a story about how life can turn into an abrasive merry-go-round of car horns and hunger. A door away from the room where his fellow choir members are putting together his election signs, Michel Laporte talks about his privileged childhood.

Laporte's dad was a hard-working businessman who pushed Michel and his three siblings to excel in school. So Laporte studied and went to science camp in the summers, where he got a taste for collecting butterflies and rock and plant samples that he would take up to the attic and study. He finished high school and took enough science courses to apply for Med school. His mom always wanted him to be a doctor like her dad. But Laporte's dad died right before he applied. Laporte all too honestly checked the box marked "psychological problems" because he'd been feeling down over his father's death. The Med school rejected his application, and Laporte worked as a science researcher for a year. But when his contract ended he skidded out of the fast lane, onto a long off-ramp of drug abuse.

"After losing that job I thought I couldn't have a career," says Laporte. "I smoked pot and hash every day for a year. We'd put hash right on the burner. Three or four of us--before breakfast. Just like that."

The party ended Valentine's Day, 1974. "I was driving back from Quebec City with a good friend," he says. "I wasn't stoned. I crashed his Austin Mini right into a post. I broke my ankles. My friend died.

"When I went to the hospital--this is kind of funny--the doctor told me he'd have to postpone my operation for four days because my sugar level was too high.

"When you smoke you want to eat a lot of sweets," Laporte laughs.

"After that I worked odd jobs for 11 years while living with my then-girlfriend, a legal secretary. I worked in construction, renovations, drove trucks. All sorts of things."

After his girlfriend left him, Laporte holed up in his apartment. He stopped paying his bills and his rent. He ate less, and stopped cleaning the kitty-litter box. It wasn't long before he was sleeping in parks and abandoned buildings.

The Michel is the message

Although vague about his platform, Laporte says his campaign is about responsible government. "The government has to be responsible to the people first. Not profit."

"The message is that a comfortable person with a good salary can suddenly lose his job," says Pierre Anthian, the founder of the Acceuil Bonneau homeless men's choir, and Laporte's campaign manager. "Maybe he's working for a multinational corporation that suddenly lays off workers. His wife leaves him and takes the kids. He's depressed for the first time in his life. He lets things go. Maybe he starts drinking.

"We never think we'll find ourselves on the street."

Anthian had a brainstorm to run a homeless candidate October 29, when he heard that Elections Canada would allow homeless people to vote. He rushed to the Maison du Père shelter to urge four or five guys to run as candidates. He had no takers until he saw Momo watching TV at the Old Brewery Mission. Momo agreed to run, and he did. Straight out of town. So, an hour and a half before their big press conference announcement at the Old Brewery, Anthian looked at his homeless choir and knew it had to be Laporte.

"I didn't want to lose my idea just because I lost Momo," Anthian says.

So, there isn't much chance you'll see Laporte on TV making vague promises to the electorate. But, he says, it's equally unlikely you'll see him on a street corner begging for spare change. Laporte says the campaigning, with its tight schedule and back-to-back interviews, has revitalized him. "I'm very strong mentally and spiritually," he says. "And I've got some ideas for a job after the election."

Wayne, 34

Panhandling and opening the door for customers of the Bank of Montreal on Ste-Catherine and University

You know why I don't get involved in that shit? They got a fuckin' nazi; a fuckin' cocksucker talks out the side of his mouth and loses a million dollars; and a fuckin' Separatist. I like the Marijuana Party. You know why? Because they're going to do something useful for once. You know what fuckin' voting is? It's choosin' what kind of stick you want to get beatin' with. Who the fuck is this homeless candidate? I never even heard of the fuckin' guy!

"Johnny don't know," 47

Panhandling with Wayne

I'll vote, it's certain. Stockwell Day--no joke! Because he's more honest than the others. I won't vote for Chrétien. He's a dictator. We're exploited to the maximum. It's always the poor. Always the poor. And I want the government to make us pay only one tax. The government is robbers.

Leo, 38

Panhandling at the corner of St-Denis and Ste-Catherine

I'll go for the Bloc Québécois because the Liberals are not worth a lot. It's all lies. The money we send there, we don't see where it goes. They're just blah-blah-blahing. Me, I'm for the Bloc. That's it. I don't want to know anything about Chrétien at all.

I was always Separatist. In the beginning it was René Lévesque, and I want it to continue. It has to change, you know. The Liberals didn't do anything. Today they haven't started to do anything either. We have a lot of resources. That's the difference.

Mercier, 22

Hanging with half-a-dozen squeegee punks on Ste-Catherine near Hôtel-de-Ville

I don't think I'll vote because the government--I'm not really for that in the end. A gang of fuckers. They do nothing in the end. What do they do for homeless people? At the forum they built a big cinema. Why didn't they make a big homeless shelter? They already had showers there.

We have to abolish the government. Abolish the police, man. There's something wrong with our society. Get rid of money, okay? Without money you could do it.

Bizz, 20

Hanging out with Mercier & co.

Me, I'll vote for all the parties that are on the list. I'll just spoil my vote. Why does the Christ de gouvernement have a right to my vote? They're all a bunch of fuckers. It's a Christ de gourvernement. This or that government. It's all the Christ de bullshit. It's just false promises. I'm not for any party or frontier. The only planet we have is our planet. Whether it's Quebec or Canada or America. It's all the same Christ de planète. Whatever happens happens to everyone.

Todd, 28

Panhandling on the sidewalk on Ste-Catherine at the corner of City Councillors with his pal Dan

I'd vote for the Marijuana Party. What I heard about it, if they get something done about it for the voting or whatever, you'll be able to walk down the street with five grams of marijuana in one bag and if the police stops you they can't do anything about it. And then it's your personal stuff to smoke. Marijuana, it's not like alcohol or any other drug. No matter how much you smoke tonight you can never die on it. You can smoke a pound of it and, like, all you'd do is you'd just fall asleep and just wake up, and be tired. And if they do get what they want, I'll vote for that. Yeah, for sure. I might do a bit of research and read about every party to see what it's like.

The government is really screwed up. They force the police to harass people that live in the street. The police bug us about panhandling and that--especially the Plateau. It's really bad up there. A cop up there one time, for some reason he didn't like me at all or whatever. He says if he sees me panhandling again that day, he's going to bring me up to the mountain and crack my head open. And I have a couple of witnesses who seen that. I didn't like that at all. And a couple of my friends and that, the police brought 'em up to the mountain and beat 'em up and that and then left.

Sylvie, 18

Panhandling on the sidewalk on Ste-Catherine near St-Urbain

I think that voting won't bring anything concrete. Democracy, well, it's a kind of utopia. If voting could change anything it would be outlawed. I don't think we have any real power whatsoever over the future. We can't have any power in the long term and all the real decisions are not made with real consultation.

The government should help the poor--poor families. Those that are in the street. I don't know. I've got lots of things I'd like to change. I'd legalize pot for medical reasons, legalize prostitution.

Dan, 33

Panhandling with Todd

I'm voting Liberal. I think Chrétien did a good job, man. He brought back the health care. Instead of paying $16 a month or $17 a month now, if you're on welfare, you get medication for free. He's not hiking tobacco prices. Taxes haven't been going up.

I'm voting Liberal man, if I can vote. If I can't, I can't. I have no ID.

Well, what they hell are the other parties going to do for the country, man? They're not going to do nothing. Nothing at all. I haven't even heard of them since you brought them up man. That's it man.

Victor, 61

[refused photo] Panhandling at Ste-Catherine and Aylmer

I won't vote because it won't do anything. But if I did vote, I'd vote Bloc. Because we're French. We want to stay chez nous. We want some autonomy. I understand you. I understand the English. As more and more French people speak English, we'll disappear. For us it's not funny. Language is the most important thing. But it's more important that money is given to homeless people. I'm not sure I'll vote. You'll have to forgive me about the anglophone stuff. I don't detest them. I worked with them three years out West.

Fouad, 51

Panhandling at the corner of Ste-Catherine and McGill College

I'll vote Liberal. I always vote Liberal. I'm on the voters list. Look [shows proof]. I don't know if they're good. It means "liberty." I voted once for the Bloc but that didn't do much. I'd vote for the homeless guy if he was in my riding. I'd give him 100 per cent of the vote if I could. Actually, I hate Chrétien. I call him "cretin." Actually I may change my mind. Maybe Bloc or NDP.

Ren, 22

Panhandling at the corner of Ste-Catherine and Stanley

Oh, the Mirror! I usually read Real Astrology. It comes real close to the truth sometimes. Stockwell Day is a damn good candidate. But more than likely I'd vote for the Marijuana Party, because it does more good than damage. People who do chemotherapy have to smoke two to three joints per day to keep equilibrium. It's better than alcohol. It's the only thing that cures my headaches. But I doubt I'll vote. I'm a North American Indian, I don't want to lose my status.

Adrian, 41

Panhandling near Schwartz's on St-Laurent

I'd vote Liberals. The family I grew up in usually voted Liberals. They got the welfare system in a pretty good position with Trudeau. I vote every once in a while but my name got screwed up on my ID. My picture's faded. I wouldn't want to vote for the homeless candidate. The government we have is much more concrete. Sorry to interrupt, but I have to make my money.