When Holyrood beekeeper Brendan Quinlan started getting calls from the press, he figured his candidacy for the Marijuana Party in the Avalon riding was official.

He figured wrong.

"I found out days later that I had to go and get the nominating papers, had to do this, had to do that. And to try to get people underneath to help, in a very short time, is very difficult," he told CBC's St. John's Morning Show on Wednesday.

Quinlan, who was poised to be Newfoundland and Labrador's first Marijuana Party candidate, said he got conflicting information on what Elections Canada needed and when it needed it, chiefly when it comes to the 100 nominating signatures candidates need to be considered official.

"I did find a few people, but I was told that I had to be on that electoral list, and if I wasn't on that I couldn't do the paperwork. Then I found after I could do the paperwork, or I could get the nomination names even without that done, and do that later. So it was just a mixup."

'We never had a chance'

A big part of the problem, Quinlan said, is the odds are stacked against a newer party like the Marijuana Party, which was formed in 2000.

"You're just a new party starting up and you don't have people involved in it to show you the ropes, I suppose," he said.

"It's not like we have a team like the PCs, Liberals, they've been doing this for decades, the main two players in the game. They got everything set up. We never had a chance, myself down here running it, first time, just never had nothing set up for it."

The Marijuana Party is a whole bunch of eccentric individuals, and the majority of people who say they want to be candidates don't actually do it. - Blair Longley

Marijuana Party Leader Blair Longley said it's common for their intended candidates to not actually make it to a ballot. He said the party had 16 people lined up to run for this month's election, but the party has just four — two in Ontario and two in Quebec.

He told CBC he doesn't think Quinlan understood what was involved in becoming a candidate until it was too late.

"The Marijuana Party is a whole bunch of eccentric individuals, and the majority of people who say they want to be candidates don't actually do it, and it wasn't a surprise to me," he said.

Marijuana Party Leader Blair Longley says most of the people who declare themselves candidates for the party don't actually wind up on the ballot. (Submitted by Blair Longley)

For the small, non-mainstream party, there's more onus on the candidate to take care of needed documentation, said Longley.

"We run in a totally decentralized way with zero budget," he said. "It's not like we've got a team of people that can fly to Newfoundland and help do it. You have to have persistence and pluck and go to public places and ask stranger after stranger until enough have signed."

Lack of persistence and pluck wasn't the problem, said Quinlan. He said he planned to get his nominating signatures taken care of by going to a couple of cannabis-related businesses in St. John's.

The encouragement I got, I would have made a dent. - Brendan Quinlan

But with marijuana legalized in Canada a year ago, why run for the Marijuana Party at all? There are just two items listed under Party Policies on the party's website: "Legalize marijuana," and "Legalize revolution." The latter isn't elaborated on, and the former happened in Canada on Oct. 17, 2018.

But there's more to the party than the legalization of cannabis, said Quinlan.

"It's not like the Marijuana Party's just all about marijuana. They're all about the other issues as well. It's just a name. You're just basically flying under that flag, running underneath that flag, you know? What is the PCs? What is the Liberals, really? Same thing, isn't it?"

Plans to run again

Quinlan, who says he's never been a recreational user of cannabis but started using it 20 years ago to deal with chronic pain, said he wanted to run for the party to work on behalf of people who went to jail as criminals before legalization.

"It stands for a lot, if you really think about it. How many people have gone to jail involved in the PCs, Liberals? People's lives have been destroyed, involved in marijuana. And now people are starting to accept it is a cure, it is medicine."

He said he's not at all discouraged by the failed candidacy, and says he plans to run in the next federal election.

"I'll know what to do next time," said Quinlan, adding he felt well positioned to compete with other candidates in the riding this year. "The encouragement I got, I would have made a dent. It would have changed things."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador