Ain’t democracy grand, well in Canada anyways!
New party seeks sexual revolution in Canada election Mon May 16,11:45 AM ET
A new political party campaigning for a sexual revolution in a Canadian election is testing even the well known tolerance of the people of British Columbia.
The Sex Party has been campaigning in the provincial election for a “sex-positive culture”, promising to teach children to have sexual activity “in a gradual and disciplined way” and to repeal what it calls sex-negative laws such as banning public nudity.
The campaign has attracted intense media spotlight by taking potshots at institutions such as Britain’s 19th century monarch Queen Victoria.
The Sex Party would create “Eros Day” to replace a provincial holiday in honour of Queen Victoria, which it says “commemorates a monarch legendary for her negative attitudes towards female sexuality”.
Some voters are offended. “I was flabbergasted and utterly disgusted”, wrote one critic on the partys web site.
While the provinces two main parties slug it out over more conventional issues, the Sex Party is not alone in fighting unconventional political battles. British Columbia also has a Marijuana Party seeking an end to prohibition of the drug, which is still widely consumed.
There were as many journalists as supporters turned up at a recent Sex Party party fund-raiser. In a large rented room with Persian carpets and plush couches, the audience viewed couples having sex, erotic art and provocative performance artists.
A woman calling herself Kamiliya wore a black Muslim Burkha, with only her eyes uncovered and her nudity evident beneath the Burhkas see-through material, which she called “a symbol of all society which tries to hide sexuality. The more you try to hid sexuality, it shows.”
Kamiliya insisted, “I have a lot of respect for Muslims”, but said her see-through Burkha illustrated sexual shame worldwide.
Nearby, a man and a woman scantily dressed in white cotton underwear offered people paint trays in which to dip their hands and then fondle them. It was part of an art exhibit called “Dirty Laundry”, explained Mark Christenson, standing in boxers, undershirt and sports shoes as he waited for people to grope him.
Christenson admitted qualms about such action with strangers. “I dont know these people. Its kind of creepy.”
Party leader John Ince, a lawyer and co-owner of a sex shop in Vancouver, said he founded the Sex Party to “heal the culture of its erotic wound.”
Ince contends that the more squeamish people are about sex, the more likely they elect right-wing governments. “There is a correlation between sexual fear and political conservatism. They cause each other”, he said.
Ince uses legal tactics as well as as publicity to get his points across. He is suing the province’s liquor agency over a dispute about serving alcohol at fund-raisers featuring sex, and when Canadas postal service refused to deliver sexually-explicit posters, the Sex Party trumpeted, “Canada Post censors political expression”.
Few, however, take the party seriously. “It makes for interesting street theatre, and it makes people aware theres an election on”, laughed Norman Ruff, a political science professor at the University of Victoria. And even Ince doesnt expect to win a legislature seat. “Theres no chance whatsoever.”
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Now if you went to the polling station on election day naked, would that be a giveaway to those doing the exit polls, that you might have voted for the Sex Party? One would wonder.
MarkB
