By Debora Van Brenk
London Free Press
They're the perennial also-rans.
They're the people whose names you see on the ballot every election, the ones whose names you usually forget between elections.
They're the ones who have never enjoyed the title alderman or trustee or member of Parliament.
Yet, like Sisyphus, they keep on hoping.
"I know I can't get elected no matter what I do. Not yet," says Londoner Marc Emery, who has run unsuccessfully five times - once federally, twice provincially and twice municipally. "But just because I acknowledge I'm not going to be elected, it doesn't mean I won't work to be elected."
For personal reasons, the 30- year-old bookstore owner is taking a break from this year's elections. But he promises to be back.
"I'm fully convinced that I'll be running when I'm 60 and I'm not going to be any more popular . . . I've got an opinion on everything," he says amiably. "The smart way to get elected is to say you sympathize with both sides of the issue and then side with neither of them."
Sitting on the fence, however, is not Emery's style.
He estimates he has spent at least $150,000 on what he calls his "crusades:" petitions and other information against aldermanic wage increases; petitions against London playing host to the 1991 Pan - American Games, and a campaign in support of Sunday shopping.
"The only reason I do it is because I know it to be the right thing. I have to run to give myself an alternative. I have to run to give myself a chance to hold up my ideals."
Adds Emery: "When things are easy you don't learn anything. Success is a lot easier to take but failure is a lot more educational."
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last updated on April 28, 2002
