Blair Longley

Blair Timmothy Longley (born September 25, 1950) is a Canadian politician, activist, and leader of the Marijuana Party.

Blair Longley
Leader of the Marijuana Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 2004
Preceded by	Marc-Boris St-Maurice
Chief Officer of the Marijuana Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 2019
Chief Agent of the Rhinoceros Party of Canada
In office 1985–1987
Personal details
Born	September 25, 1950 Vancouver, Canada
Political party	Marijuana Party of Canada
Other political affiliations	Bloc Pot Rhinoceros Party Green Party

Early life

Blair Longley was born on September 25, 1950, in Vancouver, British Columbia and grew up in North Vancouver.^[1][2]

Career

Longley attended the founding meeting of the Green Party of Canada at Carleton University in November 1983. He went on to be an active member of the Rhinoceros Party of which he was an official agent from 1985 to 1987.

He joined the Marijuana Party shortly after its foundation and became the party's leader in 2004, following the resignation of Marc-Boris St-Maurice.^[3]

He has been a candidate for the House of Commons of Canada on four occasions, with three different party labels. He ran for the Green Party in the 1984 election in the riding of Burnaby placing a distant fourth of four candidates with 364 of 58,991 votes.^{[citation needed]} In 1988 he ran against opposition leader John Turner, with no party affiliation, and placed ninth of twelve candidates with 52 of 54,654 votes.^{[citation needed]}

Longley ran for the Bloc Pot in the 2003 Quebec provincial election.^{[citation needed]} He later ran for the Marijuana Party in the riding of North Okanagan—Shuswap in 2004 and placed fifth of eight candidates with 492 of 51,765 votes,^{[citation needed]} then in 2008 in the riding of Hochelaga, Quebec, placing eighth of nine with 183 of 45,683 votes.^{[citation needed]}

Following the legalization of cannabis in Canada, Longley said it was "going to be harder than ever now for the Marijuana Party to exist".^[4] Only four candidates ran for the Marijuana Party in the 2019 federal election.^[5] Longley is currently the Marijuana Party's chief agent, in addition to being the Party's leader, and so is ineligible to run in federal elections. Since legalization, Longley has shifted the Marijuana Party's message towards scrutinizing the "rapid capitalization" of the drug.^[6]

Electoral record

v t e 2008 Canadian federal election: Hochelaga
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Bloc Québécois	Réal Ménard	22,720	49.73	−5.85	$28,893
	Liberal	Diane Dicaire	9,442	20.67	+3.43	not listed
	New Democratic	Jean-Claude Rocheleau	6,600	14.45	+5.54	$21,479
	Conservative	Luc Labbé	4,201	9.20	−3.01	$8,586
	Green	Philippe Larochelle	1,946	4.26	−0.60	not listed
	neorhino.ca	Simon Landry	230	0.50	–	not listed
	Communist	Marianne Breton Fontaine	184	0.40		$898
	Marijuana	Blair T. Longley	183	0.40	−0.32	not listed
	Marxist–Leninist	Christine Dandenault	177	0.39	−0.09	not listed
Total valid votes			45,683	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			644
Turnout			46,327	58.24	−0.07
Eligible voters			79,542
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

2004 Canadian federal election: North Okanagan—Shuswap
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Darrel Stinson	24,014	46.39%	–	$73,168
	New Democratic	Alice Brown	12,528	24.20%	–	$36,696
	Liberal	Will Hansma	11,636	22.47%	–	$51,772
	Green	Erin Nelson	2,333	4.50%	–	$960
	Marijuana	Blair Longley	492	0.95%	–	$400
	Independent	Gordon Campbell	401	0.77%	–
	Canadian Action	Claire Foss	257	0.49%	–	$1,558
	Independent	K. No. Daniels	104	0.20%	–
Total valid votes			51,765	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			174	0.34%
Turnout			51,939

v t e Quebec provincial by-election, September 20, 2004: Nelligan
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Yolande James	7,812	52.58
	Independent	Michel Gibson	4,038	27.18
	Parti Québécois	Sahar Hawili	1,538	10.35
	Action démocratique	Tom Pentefountas	1,039	6.99
	Green	Ryan Young	251	1.69	–
	UFP	Josée Larouche	120	0.81	–
	Bloc Pot	Blair Longley	58	0.39
Total valid votes			14,856	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			62
Turnout			14,918	28.60
Electors on the lists			52,163
Sources: Official Results, Government of Quebec

2003 Quebec general election: D'Arcy-McGee
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Lawrence Bergman	23,968	91.29	+0.68
	Parti Québécois	Mathieu Breault	1,087	4.14	+1.02
	Action démocratique	Sylvain James Bowes	520	1.98	+0.73
	Equality	William F. Shaw	406	1.55	-2.81
	Bloc Pot	Blair T. Longley	274	1.04	–

1988 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Quadra
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	John Turner	24,021
	Progressive Conservative	Bill Clarke	16,664
	New Democratic	Gerry Scott	11,687
	Reform	J.R. Jack Ford	1,112
	Rhinoceros	John Turner (no relation)	760
	Libertarian	Walter Boytinck	129
	Communist	Bert Ogden	75
	Independent	Albert A. Ritchie	74
	Independent	Blair T. Longley	52
	Confederation of Regions	Nora Galenzoski	35
	Commonwealth of Canada	G.J. Joseph Jackman	23
	Independent	Allen Soroka	22

1984 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes
	New Democratic	Svend Robinson	28,318
	Progressive Conservative	Bill Langas	20,697
	Liberal	Mike Hillman	9,612
	Green	Blair T. Longley	364

See also

• 2008 Canadian federal election

References

1. . CBC.ca. Archived from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2010.
2. Bio from the Marijuana Party website
3. Kassam, Ashifa (June 7, 2018). "One party is dreading marijuana legalization: the Marijuana party". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
4. Harris, Kathleen (October 22, 2018). "Party's over? Legalization could spell the end of the Marijuana Party". CBC News. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
5. McKenzie-Sutter, Holly (October 4, 2019). "N.L. Marijuana Party hopeful misses nomination deadline over paperwork confusion". CTV News Atlantic. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
6. Lum, Zi-Ann (October 27, 2018). "Canada's Marijuana Party Leader Is Pissed About Pot Legalization". HuffPost Canada. Retrieved June 12, 2020.

Preceded by Marc-Boris St-Maurice

Marijuana Party of Canada leaders 2004-present

Succeeded by incumbent