- Communist Party candidates, 2004 Canadian federal election
The
Communist Party of Canada ran a number of candidates in the 2004 federal election, none of whom were elected. Information about these candidates may be found here.Manitoba Beatriz Alas (
Charleswood—St. James )Alas was a twenty-three year old
sociology andpsychology student at theUniversity of Manitoba . She joined the Communist Party shortly before the election, and focused her campaign on improved programs for recent Canadian immigrants. [http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/riding/215/] She received 49 votes (0.12%), finishing sixth against Conservative candidateSteven Fletcher .Paul Sidon (
Elmwood—Transcona )Sidon was an overhead door mechanic in the Transcona region of Winnipeg at the time of the election. [Glen MacKenzie, "Party of five", "Winnipeg Free Press", 18 August 1999, A10.] He became politically active in 1996, working within the progressive
Ukrainian-Canadian community and with Manitoba'sCuba Solidarity Committee. [ [http://www.panix.com/~nyxfer1/radiohc/Distributions/Radio_Havana_Francais/.1999/99_aou/Radio_Havane_Cuba,_le_3_aout_1999 "L'ACTUALITE CUBAINE SUR RADIO HAVANE CUBA", "NY Transfer News Collective", 3 August 1999, accessed 2 March 2007.] ] [ [http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes2004/riding/218/#c7 Canada Votes 2004: Elmwood—Transcona] ,Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , accessed 2 March 2007.]Sidon ran for the Communist Party of Canada on two occasions, and was also candidate of the provincial
Communist Party of Canada - Manitoba in 1999. He challengedDarrell Rankin for the provincial party's leadership in January 2004, and received 21% delegate support. He reportedly left the Communist Party shortly after the 2004 election.Allister Cucksey (
Portage—Lisgar )Cucksey was a 23-year old university student living in Brandon at the time of the election. He has served as secretary of the Brandon and Area Environmental Council. He has also been a member a Young Communist League, and has worked on matters relating to the environment, sustainable agriculture, medicare and similar issues. [http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes2004/riding/220/] In
2003 , he took part in protests against the invasion of Iraq ("Guelph Mercury", 4 January 2003).Cucksey was the first Communist candidate to run in Portage—Lisgar since the 1945 election. He received 117 votes (0.34%), finishing sixth against Conservative candidate
Brian Pallister .Gérard Guay (St. Boniface)
Guay was born in Winnipeg, and was educated in economics, administration and law in
Montreal . He was a practising lawyer for several years, and returned to Winnipeg following his retirement. As of the 2004 election, he lived in the city with a special-needs child. [http://election2004.communist-party.ca/candidates.htm]The
2004 election was his first as a candidate. He received 77 votes (0.20%), finishing seventh against Liberal incumbentRaymond Simard .During the 1990s, a lawyer named Gérard Guay served as head of the Canadian Centre for Law and Justice ("Winnipeg Free Press", 9 February 1996). He provided legal defense for right-wing Christian groups ("Toronto Star", 22 November 1994), and Canadian supporters of
Lyndon Larouche ("Globe and Mail", 21 October 1986), although he clarified that he himself was not a supporter of Larouche's movement. It is not clear if this is the same person as the 2004 candidate.Anna-Celestrya Carr (
Winnipeg Centre )Carr was eighteen years old at the time of the election, and may have been the youngest candidate anywhere in the country. She has been an active participant in Winnipeg's peace movement, and has been involved in issues concerning refugees, the women's movement, and Manitoba's Aboriginal community. She received 114 votes in the
2004 election, or about 0.5% of the total cast in the riding. Carr also ran in the 2006 election. In 2004, Carr became the youngest Aboriginal women to ever run in an election in Canadian history.Carr is the daughter of
Cheryl-Anne Carr , who has campaigned as a candidate of theCommunist Party of Canada - Manitoba on three occasions.Ontario Gurdev Singh Mattu (
Brampton—Springdale )Mattu was born in
Jalandhar , Punjab,India , and for many years served as the vice-president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in Punjab. He moved to Brampton in1997 , and became an active figure in theIndo-Canadian community. [http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes2004/riding/114/] He received 86 votes (0.21%), finishing fifth against Liberal candidateRuby Dhalla .Footnotes
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