Dana Larsen running for BC NDP leadership
Posted December 29, 2010 3:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The BC NDP has its first declared candidate to replace Carole James and already there’s some dispute on whether he can actually run.
Dana Larsen is in the provincial run after being forced to quit a federal campaign two years ago because of a series of YouTube videos showing him smoking large quantities of weed. But Larsen doesn’t think that will affect the amount of support he gets from other party members.
He says he quit over the videos to avoid detracting attention from Jack Layton’s campaign. “Those videos in question were produced over 10 years ago. I did those for Pot-TV. I’m not particularly ashamed of the things that were shown in those videos.”
But now the Party President Moe Sihota says Dana Larsen can’t run, at least right now. “He is currently ineligible due to lack of a membership.”
But Larsen, who also helped found the BC Marijuana Party, says he renewed his membership earlier this year. “It’s looking like there was some bureaucratic problem, and that was not processed properly. So it was processed as a donation, and not as a membership renewal.”
Speaking at a downtown pot dispensary today, Larsen said he would focus on democracy, sustainability, social justice, and a smart stance on crime, which includes legalizing marijuana.
