by NOEMI LOPINTO

Every time an election is called, I run for a different party. I ran for the NDP in 2000 and for the Greens in Bourassa this year, and I already have plans for the next federal election, whenever it is. The idea is to experience democracy in a more profound way than reporting on it or complaining about it. Despite the media machine and the staged events, politics at its base is about the implementation of ideas. I am always curious to experience the obvious (and less obvious) requirements for that kind of life. I have learned that, in order to be a good politician, you must believe so firmly in a cause that you are willing to endure the sound of your own voice all day long. You have to enjoy talking to people, believe in the intelligence of the electorate, and failing that, pretend. You need a team of devoted slaves, and you need to put everything - family, health, fun - aside. But having done that, it is possible to win.

Being a candidate gives you the power to make promises - even a pathetic, hobbling, impoverished and overworked candidate for a marginal party whose leader was excluded from the chiefs' debate can count on shaking some hands and promising to "look into it." It would be pretty exhilarating if the realization of those promises were possible, or, let's face it, meaningful. But the other thing I learned is that the most marginal people in our society have a better understanding of the meaning of democracy than those in the so-called mainstream. And if I were ready to put family, health and fun aside, those promises would eventually result in the realization of some of the dreams I had when I worked for Greenpeace as a teenager.

Take our platform, please

I hope people voted for the Greens, because as a bunch they are actually fun and interesting people. The point of the party is not to win a majority government, as most of them have lives they wouldn't want to stop living. They want attention paid to the environment, and they would be perfectly happy if the 4.3 per cent of the popular vote they had at midnight on Monday night means that the larger parties steal some of their ideas. Green candidates actually walk the talk. They own property, drive cars, manage money, run businesses, own stores - they just do it in a "green" (the Party synonym for "good") way. I ran this campaign pretty much alone, followed around everywhere by the Mirror photographer, who became an unofficial assistant of sorts. The Party kept me company via my inbox, which was overrun with e-mails about everything: Party procedure, obscure arguments, happy thoughts and breakdowns of each of the 308 candidates' activities across Canada. It was a veritable Internet flood, and I am glad that part is over. I just hope I can wrestle my e-mail out of these people's hard drives: bugger off, Friends of Freedom! Eat my dust, Council of Canadians! Unsubscribe me, taxtyranny.ca!

On election night, about 40 Greens got together in a bar on Rachel W. to watch the votes pour in. The candidates were all very excited. They screamed and hollered when the little Green donut appeared on the television screen beside the other party symbols - even though there was a big fat zero right next to it. By and large, most of the candidates had run poverty-stricken, weekend-only campaigns. One exception was Dylan Perceval-Maxwell, who ran a committed campaign. Maxwell showed up at the bar and got the same treatment as the donut - applause and screams (I thought maybe Bruce Cockburn had entered the room). We had high hopes for Maxwell, but he lost, and so did I (for the record, I came in fifth, with 660 votes, behind the winner, Martin Cabinet member Denis Coderre, and the Bloc, the Conservatives and the NDP). I attribute what success I did have to this column and the clever gimmick of playing soccer in Parc des Hirondelles until I sprained my ankle.

The last thing I learned this year is that the anarchists are essentially right: leave people alone, and they will generally manage and organize themselves. Government is a giant waste of money, an institution that tends to represent the interests of government itself. But having said that, while we argue amongst ourselves, other people are out there making the system work for them. The middle-class people I spoke with know how to make it respond, the rich sure as hell know it, and it's about time poor people learn how. So look for me at the next election - I'll be running for the Bloc Québécois. Vive le Québec libre!