By Canadian Press

Ex-Expos pitcher Bill Lee seeking Vermont governorship, wants to dissolve border

Nov 7, 2016 | 10:00 AM

MONTREAL — Former Montreal Expos pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee says he’ll work to dissolve the borders between Vermont, Quebec and the Maritime provinces if he is elected governor of the northeastern state Tuesday.

Erasing the borders would allow Vermont to get its energy from the “biggest tides in the world” off the Atlantic Ocean, Lee says, describing his main election platform issue during an interview with The Canadian Press.

The state will choose its governor the same day as the United States elects its president, and the former Major League Baseball pitcher is running with the Liberty Union Party, which describes itself as “non-violent” and “socialist.”

“We should form an alliance with the Maritime provinces,” Lee, 69, said Monday. “That’s an energy issue. We’ll get all our energy from Canada.”

In an interview in which his remarks were difficult to distinguish between lighthearted banter and serious opinion, Lee said Canadians should have no problem incorporating Vermont because “we’re just like you.”

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“There is only 600,000 of us,” he said of the Green Mountain State’s population. “We’ll be like refugees.”

The Spaceman, who pitched for the Expos from 1979-82 after 10 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, said he decided to run for office because “everything stinks” in the United States.

He added “the two-party system is dead” and outside candidates such as himself are needed to push establishment politicians forward.

Lee has run for office once before: he was the 1988 presidential candidate for the Rhinoceros Party.

Winning this time around will be difficult. Polling puts Republican Phil Scott in the lead with close to 50 per cent of the vote, and Democrat Sue Minter in second.

He said he won’t vote for anyone “other than himself” on election day and refused to support either main candidate for president.

Lee said Americans find themselves with two unpopular candidates from which to choose because the public “is not too bright. They do not learn from their history.”

He said he is also looking at moving to Canada and added the mayor of Vancouver has promised to welcome him as a refugee.

Lee also added he’ll “do everything I can” to bring his former team back to Montreal.

“It’s economically feasible,” he said about a return for the Expos. “It makes sense.”

Vicky Fragasso-Marquis, The Canadian Press