by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

To the chattering-class amateur pundits who make sport of analyzing local politics, one city councillor has a challenge and an offer for you - come off the sidelines and try to get elected to city council.

Loyola councillor Jeremy Searle is launching a new decentralization-friendly political party, and election rules have him scouring the city for bright bulb neophytes to run as candidates for the next municipal election - which is still 15 months away, but some believe could be bumped up to next spring, in response to the recent demerger referenda victories.

He has a particular desire to turn political theorists into politicians. "I'm interested in finding a number of students of political science to give them the opportunity to actually participate in the forming of a political party and all that goes along with it," he says. "It could be a good way for somebody to apply their knowledge."

Searle's initial aim was to run a West End party. "But provincial law makes it impossible to have a party just for one borough. You're required to run candidates in a third of all districts," which means that his nascent Borough Party ("Parti de l'arrondissement - it sounds much better in French," he says) will need around 25 candidates.

Searle says his plot is nothing new. "In the past you had parties like the Democratic Coalition, which was basically a local district party running in various other parts of the city to justify the requirements of the law," he says. Searle will run the party, but, he says, "If somebody comes to me from Villeray and they want to run for office and they can convince us they're a good, decent public citizen, then it's not for me to tell him how to run Villeray."

Searle's new party will be free of most theory. He boasts that he has "the shortest party program ever - it reads, ‘To provide the best possible municipal services at the local level.' We don't have to talk about transparency and democracy. Municipal office is about who can manage the city the best."

Unknown candidates can sometimes pull off surprise victories in this burg, where past elections have seen such unlikely triumphs by onetime-unknowns as Nick Auf der Maur beating out John Lynch-Staunton in 1974 and Marvin Rotrand taking down Gerry Snyder in 1982. And there could be openings for other lesser-knowns in the next city election. In the next municipal election, boroughs will be electing mayors, an arrangement that could lead to a showdown-at-noon type elimination of top-ranking councillors who opt to reach for the local mayoralty ring. Unlike in the larger city, it's lights out for the loser, who won't have the right to displace an elected slatemate in order to remain on council.

Searle, who was originally elected in Loyola in '94, believes unknowns need to hook up with an organized party to have any hopes of getting elected, as such team recognition can boost a candidate's vote by "20 to 25 per cent," he says. "You can't get elected for the first time as an independent, unless you're Clint Eastwood or something."

Potential candidates can reach Searle at 483-2561