Natural Law Party candidates, 1997 Canadian federal election

The Natural Law Party of Canada ran several candidates in the 1997 federal election, none of whom were elected. Information about these candidates may be found here.

Quebec

Ronald Bessette (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine)

Bessette was a perennial candidate for the Natural Law Party. He listed himself as an architectural technician in the 1997 election.

He first sought election to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1993 election, and received 551 votes in Lachine—Lac-Saint-Louis for a sixth-place finish against Liberal Party candidate Clifford Lincoln. He was listed as residing in Pierrefonds, Montreal, Quebec at the time.

Bessette ran as a candidate of the Natural Law Party of Quebec in the 1994 Quebec provincial election, and received 226 votes in Marguerite-Bourgeoys for a sixth place finish against Liberal Liza Frulla.

He later campaigned for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in that province's 1995 provincial election, and received 263 votes (1.04%) for a sixth-place finish in Windsor—Sandwich. The winner was Sandra Pupatello of the Liberal. A newspaper report from the period lists him as residing in North York, Toronto, Ontario ("Windsor Star", 26 May 1995).

He received 569 votes in the 1997 election, finishing fifth against Liberal candidate Marlene Jennings.

Ontario

Robyn Brandon (Eglinton—Lawrence)

Brandon was an office worker with an interest in social methods of stress reduction. ["Eglinton—Lawrence", "Toronto Star", 30 May 1997, A15.] She received 397 votes (0.91%), finishing fifth against Liberal incumbent Joe Volpe.

Roger Bouchard (Ottawa—Vanier)

Bouchard is an author, and has worked with l'Association des auteurs franco-ontariens ("Ottawa Citizen", 2 May 1997). He argued that the NLP would bring a "peaceful revolution" to Canada, and spoke in favour of an all-party government with experts from various social fields ("Toronto Star", 21 September 1993). During the 1993 campaign, he wrote that he had been a practitioner of transcendental meditation for twenty years ("Ottawa Citizen", 21 October 1993).

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