What's the alternative?

>> One-on-one with a few of Canada's fringe party candidates

by NAOMI BLOCH

It's hard not to feel disenfranchised in today's political climate. There are 11 official parties running in the upcoming election, but all the mainstream media hype indicates that the NDP is the only existing "alternative" party. The NDP would have us believe that it's all the bankers and lawyers who are bringing this country down. Candidates from some of the forgotten parties might put it otherwise. Dare to compare.

Michael Wilson

Banker

Natural Law Party candidate in NDG/Lachine

Mirror: What's the point of the NLP?

MW: We want to make Canada quite literally invincible. We want to do things in tune with all the laws of nature--so that no laws of nature are broken. We would like to have the government of Canada function in tune with the Cosmic government.

M: How are we breaking the laws of nature?

MW: For example, if you look at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, they have a southern entrance, which is not beneficial. There's a form of construction in tune with the laws of nature, so that the entrance is where it should be, the room where you practice law is where it should be etc.

M: What's the role of the 10,000 Yogic Flyers?

MW: What we want to do is to organize 10,000 Canadians who are interested and teach them the Transcendental Meditation program including Yogic Flying. When you get people together practicing this type of program, it creates a field effect in consciousness. And we've proven this before, in different parts of the world--in the U.S., over in Israel just before Egypt declared peace with Israel. It's like creating a superconductor, in effect you're creating a field where no negative influence can establish a home.

M: How do you determine if you're having an effect?

MW: There's a way of measuring it. For example, in a war zone they look at the decrease in body count, or they look at the effects on the stock market. When we went to Washington D.C. in 1993, we had 4,000 people practicing the TM program including Yogic Flying. And during that time, all you had to do is read the papers and our success was right there.

M: But how do you determine the correlation?

MW: Well I'm not a scientist. But I've heard scientists talk about this. The laws of nature come into play at the level of quantum physics when you lift up off the ground. It's true that I'm not floating around the room, but there's no question that in the hopping--when you do lift up--there's no question that something's happening.

I'm looking at if from a point of view of personal experience and I'm sharing this experience with someone who probably hasn't had the experience. To me, it's very practical. But someone looking at what I'm saying is probably thinking, "Whoosh, what is he smoking? Maybe this is the Marijuan Party I'm listening to."

M: You say you'll reduce disease by 50 per cent in three years, which would eliminate a lot of jobs. You also plan to cut government drastically. How will that affect unemployment?

MW: We have a tendency to look ahead and see but our vision is very very limited. How do we know what will come? When Columbus set out from Spain, he didn't know what he would encounter. If your vision is one that eliminates negativity, then maybe all of the things you take for granted just aren't necessary. You have to look at the whole picture. The NLP wants a better integration of family life. Try to imagine a situation where maybe only one or two members of the family are working to support the other two or three generations. Then you don't need so many people in the workplace.

M: How's your family life?

MW: I've been married three times. Today I'm going to see my grandaughter--my son's baby girl. My daughter lives in California. I've got a son who's nine years old. I think that even though his mother and I aren't living together, he probably gets more quality time with me than a lot of his friends whose fathers are living at home. My current wife teaches Transcendental Meditation. I guess you could say my family is supportive.

M: Is running in the election a practical way to meet your party's goals?

MW: We're trying to get this knowledge out there. It's not as important to us to get elected as it is to the other parties. What's really important is that whatever party gets elected makes use of this knowledge. Chrétien could make use of it. He could experiment with it. He might be surprised.

Ken Fernandez

Lawyer

Canadian Action Party candidate in

Saint-Laurent/Cartierville

Mirror: Your party leader has said that Canada is becoming the 51st American state.

KF: It's already half way there. Paul Hellyer founded the party after having obtained the text of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. After going through it very thoroughly, he realized the monumental sellout to which Canada was being exposed--sellout to big business. During the Seattle WTO round, Pierre Pettigrew [Minister for International Trade] agreed with the U.S. Trade Secretary's insistence that water, roads, educational institutions and health-care services be open to privatization--corporate control, owned by shareholders. It's a beastly proposition.

M: You seem to say that Quebec is even closer.

KF: The so-called sovereignists have made a very cozy alliance with Uncle Sam. It's bizarre that someone who claims to want sovereignty would then seek to use a foreign dollar, and would go to Latin America and try and tell the people of Argentina and Chile and other countries that they should adopt the U.S. dollar--it suggests that the leadership of the Parti Québécois is really acting on behalf of Washington. The U.S. has a vested interest in breaking up the country. It's called Divide and Rule. It's one of the oldest tricks in the Imperialist books.

M: How do you fit yourself in among the more traditionally known parties?

KF: Right now the other parties seem to be one and the same. They have slight variations on the rhetoric but by and large it's one big party--the party of big business.

M: What about the NDP who claim not to be?

KF: I can claim to be a Martian, that doesn't make me one. A few months ago I was handling the file of the Nova Scotia and Cape Breton miners. I had occasion to meet the wives of some of the miners. In order to get to Ottawa, these poor ladies had to raise money by having bake sales and church bingo games and no one would help them. All four unions involved in that mining outfit just washed their hands of them. And on the four occasions when those ladies went to Ottawa, the NDP leader, who's from their own province, refused to give them even five minutes of her time. I think it's disgusting hypocrisy.

M: An NDP candidate recently said that Canadians should send the Liberals a clear message by voting for alternative parties in ridings where the Liberals were assured a seat.

KF: The Canadian political system is quite different from that of the U.S. That kind of advice, to me, is somewhat hollow. What they're essentially saying is, "Don't vote for the recognized party of big business, vote for the one that claims not to be and hope for the best." This comes from a party that has spoken in favour of globalization and has said that globalization is inevitable and I would suggest that if someone feels that they are unable to rise to a challenge then they should not be in the ring.

Robert Lindblad

Psychic who finds missing children

NDP candidate in Chateauguay

Mirror: What prompted you to enter the political arena?

RL: I've always wanted to be a politician since I was eight years old. So I got my Political Science degree from Concordia. But when I graduated I thought, people might not want to vote for me because they don't believe in psychics--I didn't. But this year, I decided that I've seen the Liberals and the Conservatives destroy Canadians' fundamental right to health care. Now is the most crucial time in Canadian political history for the survival of medicare. If the NDP do not come to power, we can kiss medicare good-bye.

M: How did you become a psychic who finds missing children?

RL: When I was going to university in the late '80s, a friend of mine said: "Rob, if there's anyone I know who's psychic, it's you." And I said, "I don't even believe in that stuff." He had me hide, then he put 30 books on the floor and he put a quarter under one of the books. Then he said, "Rob come back out and tell me where the quarter is." We repeated the test over and over from 10 at night until 5 in the morning, and I was correct every time. So I freaked. Right away I said, "Wow, I've got to find missing kids. If I can find coins, I can find kids."

M: How many cases have you looked into?

RL: Over 800 by now, from all over the world. I do it from the comfort of my living room.

M: Do the police turn to you?

RL: The police never call me. It must be an unwritten policy, never to call a psychic. Parents have called me. In 1998, I was sitting at home one morning when a mother called me and said, "You must have heard of my son's case." I said, "No." She filled me in that the police had been looking for a month for this child, with helicopters, dogs and hundreds of volunteers and had come up with nothing. She gave me her son's Web site, where I could see his photo. It took me two minutes to tell her everything that had happened to her child and where his body could be found.

M: Are there any other parties whose platforms you support?

RL: All the other parties are in the same bed, screwing health care. In 1996, Chrétien let Stockwell Day pass Bill 11 that would give public funds to private health-care businesses. Joe Clarke went along with Stockwell Day. And when the NDP asked the Bloc Québécois if they would help us pass a bill that would make it illegal for public-health funds to be given to private health-care institutions, they jumped into bed with Clarke, Day and Chrétien and they didn't even wear a safe.

M: As a psychic, do you see any chances for the NDP?

RL: Well, I never like to check for myself. I like that element of surprise. But I would hope that the NDP will form a majority government.