JCT: I decided I'd run in the riding of Brant, about 25
miles west of Brantford where I'm staying because they have
a charity casino with Poker, one of only 3 in the province.
The other two are Blue Heron in the outskirts of Port Perry,
and Casinorama near Orillia, both in the sticks. The
Brantford Charity Casino is right downtown.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier University is here too so there's always
the chance the kids will be interested in the revolutionary
LETS software that so regularly fails to impress their
parents.

The Returning Office is in Paris, 15 minutes away. But since
I'm on foot and with only 5 buses a day there and back,
having to go out to the Returning Office to pick up my
nomination form, when all other forms are online, was a real
pain. I hitch-hiked back rather than wait 3 hours for the
next bus. I've written the following complaint:

>Elections Ontario
Dear Sirs and Ladies:
I am the independent candidate in Brant. I'm staying in
Brantford. The Returning Office is in Paris.
All the necessary election documents are at your online site
except for the nomination form. I had to go to Paris just to
pick up the form.
I guess I should have saved a few from my last election and
saved myself the trip.
Could you please put all your forms online?
John C. Turmel, B. Eng.

JCT: What a pain. I can't imagine what reason they'd have
for leaving it off. Unless it's an extra chance to visit
the returning office and socialize. Still, a pain that's
unnecessary in our online world. Hope it gets fixed.

The Returning Officer is Carol Droeske, the same returning
officer in the by-election when I ran against Ernie Eves.
Since I was not permitted to participate in the debate with
Ernie, she's one of the few people who would remember I was
even in that election.

Though I only needed 25 signatures, Carol asked me to bring
in at least 40. I guess many people still aren't registered
to vote yet. When I got back to town, I stopped off at an
apartment building and had my 41 nomination signatures in 70
minutes. Probably a record. Under 2 minutes per. An average
35 signatures per hour. Don't ever remember such a great
rate. My registration not only broke the World Guinness
Record but also broke my Personal Signatures Record.

I attended the Returning Office for the reading of the Writ
of Election, a first for me in perhaps 20 provincial
elections. A little pomp and ceremony can't hurt.

I got a call from Tim Philp inviting me to an all-
candidates' debate broadcast live by Rogers Cablevision that
evening at the City Hall Council chambers. He's an engineer
and runs the Brantford Freenet. I never got the chance to
tell him how I had run in the late 1990s for the 7-man Board
of the Ottawa Freenet to install the LETS software for all
our members. But the National Capital Freenet never got its
LETS because I only came 6th and the old Board had decided
to reduce the number of positions to only 5 members.
Otherwise, the National Capital Freenet wouldn't be the
constant beggar for support had its members been availed of
the utility of their NCF LETS. Har har har.

It's the only time I didn't lose and they still found a way
for me not to win. Ask anyone if the Board of the
Corporation decides how many members there will be or if
it's the shareholders at a general meeting. I was cheated
out of the only election I didn't lose! it's all online,
probably at Google groups.

Maybe Philp will want to offer LETS to his freenet
subscribers and watch it soar?

We were told no signs in the Council Chambers. I was told I
couldn't wear my hard-hat which was a sign. My only gimmick
with which to counter their thousands of signs on the
outside and I can't use it. I had to sneak it in and did a
couple of times by referring to it and pulling it out.

It was played live last night at 7-9pm and then again at
10:30. It's also supposed to be played 6 more times before
election day so I'll still have a chance to tape it and
perhaps transcribe it.

CKPC Radio News:
Brant riding has a fifth candidate and he's banking on your
support. Perennial candidate John C. Turmel had run in 55
elections at all levels since 1979 and says he has unique
ideas on banking of the future which he outlined at a
Millennium Conference:
Turmel: "In the Millennium Declaration, they endorsed the
UNILETS, so that someday, you're going to have an interest-
free mortgage thanks to me."

Turmel lives in Ottawa but says he temporarily relocated to
Brantford because the city has a poker casino and he's a
professional poker player.

Brantford Expositor Newspaper:
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/webapp/sitepages/

New candidate puts on a show
A last-minute fringe candidate from Ottawa added zip to a
well-modulated, tightly-controlled all-candidates debate at
city hall Thursday night.

Independent joins election campaign
by Expositor Staff page 3

A fifth candidate has jumped into the race to represent
Brant at Queen's Park.
John Turmel registered as an independent on Thursday, just
hours before nominations closed.
A newcomer to Brant, Turmel has been a candidate in more
than 50 municipal, provincial and federal elections,
beginning in 1979 when he ran in a federal contest in an
Ottawa riding.
He founded the Abolitionist Party of Canada in 1993.
Based in Ottawa, the party advocates, among other things,
the abolition of interest rates, income tax, the goods and
services tax, and the Senate.

New candidate spices up debate
By Susan Gamble, expositor staff
Friday, September 19, 2003 - 01:00
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/webapp/sitepages/
content.asp?contentid=43684&catname=Local+News

SG: Local News - A last-minute fringe candidate from Ottawa
added zip to a well-modulated, tightly-controlled all-
candidates debate at city hall Thursday night.

John Turmel, who is running in Brant as an Independent, is a
man who proudly announces he has lost more than 50 political
races and holds the Guinness World Book record as the
biggest election loser.

He doesn't get a lot of votes, but he does get a great
chance to promote his causes, such as bartering and a
revamped banking system.

JCT: The revamped banking system records barter deals.

SG: When questioned on same-sex marriage Thursday, Turmel
cried out that the government should put everyone on even
footing by doing away with the marriage licence entirely.

JCT: I mentioned that now they needed lawyers to split up
like heteros always did. Are they crazy?

SG: His advice on smoking was to create smokers' bars and,
regarding marijuana, he suggested people "get grandma to try
cooking up some marijuana muffins to try instead of
pharmaceuticals."

JCT: I only pointed out they only had to keep the smoke from
my face but banning smoking bars or smoking rooms in
bars was overkill. And I got my chance to mention that I'd
gone on Parliament Hill with the 3KG of marijuana to alert
everyone that it's time to try the stuff out now that it's
legal before they make it illegal again.

SG: The Ottawa engineer did comment on a specific local
problem: "In a walk over here I found 25 open stores out of
85 shops in the downtown," said Turmel. "I thought it was a
disaster zone! Bringing more broke students into the area
isn't going to help."

The four other Brant candidates participating _ Mike Clancy
of the Green party, Liberal Dave Levac, New Democrat David
Noonan and Progressive Conservative Alayne Sokoloski _ were
polite and well-prepared, turning in one-minute answers to
questions posed by a local media panel and the audience.

JCT: 16 questions. 15 about underfunding. The non-funding
question was about gay marriages. In my opening speech, I'd
shown them some Toronto Dollars and I'd predicted that
almost all the questions would be dealing with how to spread
around the funding shortage and the other four would be
concerned, concerned, concerned, concerned, and I'd have
community currency to fund the gap. EAch time, they'd be
concerned, concerned, concerned, concerned and I'd point to
LETS dollars.

SG: Topics raised by the media included energy issues,
hospital redevelopment, the clean-air bylaw, downtown
redevelopment and Brantford's brownfields problems.

JCT: Problems of insufficient funding for energy issues,
insufficient funding for hospital redevelopment,
insufficient funding for the clean-air bylaw, insufficient
funding for downtown redevelopment and insufficient funding
for Brantford's brownfields problems. All lacking sufficient
funding to be done right. All four candidates just said
they'd do their programs without mentioning where they'd get
the money. Dreamland.

SG: Audience members raised rent control, rising tuition
costs, teacher strikes, provincial downloading and the
homeless.

JCT: Again, insufficient funding needing rent control,
insufficient funding for rising tuition costs, insufficient
funding for teacher strikes, insufficient funding for
provincial downloading and insufficient funding for the
homeless.

JCT: After awhile, the candidate with a solution to the
funding problem starts to sound repetitive. After all,
shouldn't there be many different solutions to so many
different areas are lacking funds instead of just one, use
community currency to fill the gap.

SG: One of the most personal problems was raised by Jennifer
Charnish, a University of Waterloo student who explained
that she had to move home because she couldn't afford both
tuition and housing in Waterloo and is graduating into a
profession _ teaching _ that is laying off. "In the U.S.,
school boards are willing to help with my loans, put me in
an apartment and pay me to teach," said Charnish. "What is
your government going to offer to keep me in Canada?" Clancy
said the Green Party wants people to be able to pay student
debt through community service.

JCT: Great answer. Pay back with Timedollars! I pointed out
that I was one of Canada's first Greens, I attended the
founding convention at Carleton University exactly 20 years
ago in 1983, but I'd been expelled for advocating LETS
without the permission of the party's "Il Duce" and
everyone knows the Greens don't allow their members to have
their own ideas. Then in 1988, they adopted LETS in their
program. I'd bet Clancy was shocked by the ancient history
even if he got plugged for having the right answer.

SG: Levac told Charnish students such as herself were stuck,
facing debt in amounts never faced before. "We hope to put
an economic package in place to bring you back," he said.

JCT: Vote for Dalton's boy, Dave Levac, who have high hopes.

SG: Noonan said his anger over his own student debt was one
of the reasons he was running for the NDP.

JCT: Perhaps being angry makes up for having no solution.

SG: Sokoloski, meanwhile, said her government was putting
another $400 million into a student trust and was creating a
million new jobs. She added that tuition has traditionally
been split, with two-thirds being paid by the government and
one-third by the student. "It's been that way since I was in
university 25 years ago." "It's not comparable," said
Charnish. Levac agreed, saying that comparing a $6,000 debt
25 years ago to a $60,000 debt today is absurd and "shows
insensitivity."

JCT: My interest-free debt from 30 years ago was $2400 for 4
years tuition and of course, the cost of living hasn't gone
up 25 times since then so the burden today seems much
higher. I wonder if their loans are interest-free too or if
the extra debt is interest since the beginning.

SG: Another student described how he often sees people
sleeping in parks on his early morning walks to BCI. "What
are you going to do to address the problem of homeless
people?" the teen asked.

JCT: Liberal said they'd replace the funds that had been cut
by the Tories, without mentioning who they'd take the funds
from, and the Tories offered an extra 5%. The NDP said
they'd build 32,000 new units. Pretty impressive considering
they don't have the money. The Green could only say things
were terrible and Greens wanted them to be better.

SG: The candidates agreed that Brantford needs more
affordable housing.

JCT: I didn't. When they asked about rent control, I said no
because once people had their interest-free credit lines,
they could afford to pay for the market price and no one had
to make it more affordable. The others who have no solution
to the underfunding were all in favor of more affordable
housing, apple pie and motherhood.

SG: On the issue of same-sex marriages, all the local
candidates came out in favour of the federal same-sex
marriage law. "I believe in the family, but I also believe
that we cannot discriminate against others," said Sokoloski.
"But I would represent your ideas in Toronto and do what you
asked." Levac said cutting into the Charter of Rights was
too dangerous. "We can't determine who we're not going to
give rights to. Who's next?"

JCT: So no one wants to discriminate. Dave Levac thought I
was homophobic for comparing heteros to homos. I told him
later I was no homophobe, I was only blunt. Precise
actually.

SG: The audience applauded when Sokoloski told a student she
favoured a law against teacher strikes because strikes don't
have a history of working and kids can't learn unless
they're in the classroom.

JCT: And I pointed out there would be no teachers strikes if
students had enough credit to pay them with. And the
applause came from the crew of Tory clappers.

SG: More applause was heard when Levac said that there have
been more teacher labour actions in Ontario since 1995 than
anywhere else in the country. "The government has created a
crisis," he said.

JCT: Liberal clappers over-applauding nothing valuable.

SG: During the debate's two hours, the audience heard
Sokoloski emphasize the accomplishments of the past eight
years, Levac arguing for a change from the last eight years,
Noonan pushing for public power and Clancy highlighting the
cooperative, practical nature of his party.

JCT: And Turmel talking about how to fund it all.

SG: About 70 people attended the televised debate, which was
sponsored by Roger's Cable and The Expositor and hosted by
Tim Philp. The event will be re-broadcast by the Cable 20.

JCT: Rebroadcasts on:
Saturday Sep 20 8pm; Sep 27 2pm;
Sunday Sep 21 7pm; Sep 28 pm.

Upcoming meetings:
Tuesday Sep 23 at the Brantford Expositor;
Wednesday Sep 24 7pm Brantford Rotary Club;
Thursday Sep 25 8pm Federation of Agriculture.


--
Abolitionist Slave Leader John C."The Banking Systems Engineer" Turmel
for UNILETS interest-free time-based currency in U.N. resolution C6
to Governments in the http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration.htm
http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel 519-756-1325 USENET: can.politics