From: johnturmel@gmail.com   
      
   JCT: I was in Brockville yesterday to register in the Leeds-   
   Grenville-Thousand Island-Rideau Lakes federal byelection. I   
   did an interview at iHeartRadio News with Kimberley Johnson   
   yesterday morning at 9am.   
      
   Then I spent the next 3 hours getting my signatures. Very   
   hot streak, 80 signatures in only 3 hours, 27/hour average!   
   My buddy got 42 at a nice clip too, 14/hour.   
      
   While I was on King St., I got a call from Ronald Zajac from   
   the Brockville Recorder & Times who came over to do an   
   interview:   
      
   Record-holding loser eyes byelection run   
   Ronald Zajac   
   November 8, 2018   
      
   https://api.pddataservices.com/images?   
      
   url=https://nexus.prod.postmedia.digital/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BT.John-   
      
   Turmel.jpg&w=840&h=630   
   Caption: Perennial election candidate John Turmel wants to   
   make the Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes   
   byelection his 97th campaign. He is seen posing on King   
   Street while gathering signatures to register on Thursday   
   afternoon, Nov. 8, 2018 in Brockville, Ont.   
   (RONALD ZAJAC/The Recorder and Times) BT   
      
   A new name may soon be on the ballot for the local   
   byelection - the same name that has been on ballots for 96   
   previous elections in various parts of the country, at   
   different levels of government.   
      
   John Turmel, who holds the world record for most elections   
   contested (and lost), was walking King Street West Thursday   
   afternoon hoping to gather the 100 signatures he needed to   
   get on the ballot for the Dec. 3 Leeds-Grenville-Thousand   
   Islands and Rideau Lakes byelection.   
      
   JCT: I've only ever needed a second day to get my signatures   
   once, in a Toronto riding where 90% of people going by did   
   not live in that riding. So it was an easy hope.   
      
   If he gets on, it will be his 97th election.   
      
   His first was in 1979, the federal contest that brought Joe   
   Clark, briefly at least, to power. "I ran as an independent   
   to legalize gambling, prostitution and pot," he said,   
   repeating the timeworn quip that he was called "the champion   
   of the gamblers, hookers and dope smokers."   
      
   In the nearly four decades to follow, he developed something   
   of a shtick: Fast-talking, ready with the lines, supremely   
   self-assured with a dose of irony.   
      
   According to the Guinness World Records website, Turmel   
   holds the record for most elections contested.   
      
   All of them resulted in defeat, although the Guinness site   
   notes: "His one non-loss occurred when the Guelph byelection   
   was pre-empted by a federal election in 2008."   
      
   An electrical engineering graduate, Turmel runs with his   
   trademark "Turmel The Engineer" white construction helmet   
   and says he made his fortune as a professional gambler.   
      
   Perhaps obviating the need for what politicos call "oppo   
   research," Turmel's own campaign sheet notes he "was   
   convicted half a dozen times for being Keeper of a Gaming   
   House."   
      
   Running afoul of the law for gambling was, in his earlier   
   days, all part of his activism to legalize gambling.   
      
   His epic record of electoral failures includes a 1993 run   
   for prime minister as leader of the Abolitionist Party.   
      
   As of late Thursday, Elections Canada had only three   
   confirmed candidates on the Dec. 3 ballot: Conservative   
   Michael Barrett, Liberal Mary Jean McFall and New Democrat   
   Michelle Taylor. Green Party candidate Lorraine Rekmans is   
   also expected to be confirmed as a candidate.   
      
   JCT: Must be having trouble getting her 100 signatures.   
      
   On Thursday, Turmel was working the pavement getting   
   signatures by promoting one idea: Paying youth with bus   
   tickets to do community service. The idea, which he dubbed   
   "bus bucks," is one variant of his central argument about   
   the need for an alternate currency to serve as a solution to   
   poverty.   
      
   Turmel wants to promote the idea of interest-free local   
   barter economies, using time, or more precisely labour, as   
   the currency, and claims to have financed the world's first   
   time bank software in 1984.   
      
   JCT: Called LETS (Local Employment-Trading System) if you   
   want to google for it.   
      
   He equates interest with usury, noting that, while poker   
   chips don't depreciate, money does.   
      
   "I want somebody to advocate for an interest-free Bank of   
   Canada," said Turmel.   
      
   He has no illusions about winning, unless it's his own   
   definition of victory: Getting his ideas talked about and   
   even taken up by others.   
      
   By early afternoon Thursday, Turmel was well on his way to   
   getting the required 100 signatures and even exceeding that   
   goal.   
      
   The number of signatures he gets, noted Turmel, usually   
   equals his number of votes.   
      
   JCT: They're the only people who met me personally and heard   
   about bus bucks and Baby-Sitting Timebanks directly.   
      
   Turmel does not plan on door-knocking or putting up lawn   
   signs in this campaign, but he does plan to attend the all-   
   candidates meetings, where he can continue putting out his   
   message. "That's my duty as a poor candidate," he said.   
      
   JCT: Ronald Zajac did well, I didn't have to correct one   
   thing. That's pretty rare. Well done, Ronald.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)