Ottawa South 2011

Candidate's Application
NAME/NOM: Mike Bleskie

PROVINCE: Ontario

RIDING/CIRCONSCRIPTION: Ottawa South

PARTY INVOLVEMENT / PARTICIPATION DE PARTI:

I co-founded the Pirate Party of Canada in June of 2009, with minor involvement going back to December 2008, so I have a claim as the oldest active member of the Party. I had been an "acting director" with the interim board, and was elected as a Director-at-Large in August of 2010.

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE / L'EXPÉRIENCE POLITIQUE:

From September 2009 until September 2010, I served on the executive re-election committee for Greater Sudbury Mayor John Rodriguez in his unsuccessful re-election bid, doing election training with the Canadian Labour Congress. In that campaign I did web management and served on the campaign's promotions sub-committee. I was also remotely managing Jeff Coleman's by-election last November.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST / CONFLITS D'INTÉRÊTS:

I am a student, thus I have student loans with OSAP.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT / PARTICIPATION DE LA COMMUNAUTÉ:

Though my community involvement in Ottawa South has not been the best, I have won youth volunteering awards with the Sudbury Trail Plan Association, and served on the local board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, for whom I have been able to fundraise several thousands of dollars with my family toward Type 1 Diabetes research.

PLATFORM / MANIFESTE:

I plan to run a crowd-sourced campaign similar to Jeff Coleman, so that I can readily gauge the interests of the residents of Ottawa South, rather than create a platform that may not reflect the views of the constituents. I do, however, plan to make adjustments based on Jeff's performance, such as, actually speaking out during the campaign, rather than listening all the way through and not making enough statements based on the remarks gathered. I also want to look at current federal funding of infrastructure projects in the area, and re-evaluating the popularity and the effect that these projects have.

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Director's Evaluation
Interviewed by: Shawn Gray

Name: Mike Bleskie

Province: Ontario

Riding: Ottawa South

Education: Enrichment Courses, Carleton University

Party Involvement:


 * Active on PPI boards 2008
 * Co-founder Jun 2009
 * PPCA Federal Director Sept 2010-Present

Political Experience:


 * Executive committee to re-elect John Rodriquez as Mayor in Sudbury 2010
 * Website maintenance
 * PR & Promotions Committee

Conflicts of Interest:


 * “Student Loans”

Community Involvement:


 * Various diabetes charities in Sudbury
 * Juvenile diabetes, event planning (Sudbury)

Platform:


 * Redevelopment of space, federal contributions for infrastructure to increase green space in communities
 * Listening campaign during the opening days of campaign, switching to a hybrid campaign there-after

What will be your primary focus this election?

Giving communities a voice.

How will you involve young voters and those able to vote but who have chosen not to vote through your campaign?


 * Open-space youth conferences
 * Coffee shop meet & greets
 * Door-knocking

How do you respond to Liberal charges that a vote for anyone other than the Liberal party is a vote for Harper?

Bad faith in democracy. Those lenses distort the system. That claim takes the voice away from voters.

'''A recent meeting of unaligned political people determined electoral reform, climate change, and foreign policy were key issues. How could you incorporate that in your campaign?'''


 * Mixed-Member Proportional System
 * Green space creation & protection through grants and infrastructure funding
 * Northern Africa focus, providing support w/o military intervention

Social Media Outlets:


 * Facebook
 * Twitter
 * LinkedIn
 * Reddit
 * Personal Website

Hobbies:


 * Genealogy
 * Coin Collecting

Other Notes:


 * Has completed interviews for PPCA, though first interviews were as young as 13 years of age
 * Have written and released press releases

Assessment:

Bleskie has two main areas of weakness. The first area stems from his recently having joined the Ottawa community. During his time in the area he has not been involved with any local groups or organizations. This severely limits his contacts within the community, leading to a lower than average chance of recruiting volunteers to help with his campaign.

This primary weakness is coupled with Bleskie’s public speaking issues. Although usually able to get messages across, Bleskie is exceptionally nervous, sounds very unsure, and is unable to maintain eye contact, often looking away and having his eyes examine the ceiling. These issues will need to be worked on if he is to have success in campaigning in the region. Another weakness, although minor, is Bleskie’s lack of education. Currently he is only in the “Enrichment” program at Carleton University. As this, in and of itself, is not a degree, this could serve as a hindrance to his being taken seriously by other candidates and the media.

On the positive side, Bleskie is a high-profile member of the PPCA. This works to his advantage as there are additional areas where people can research his activities should they choose to do so. Additionally, as a high-profile member, that increases his appeal for media interviews and comments, despite the obscurity of the Party. This, combined with his knowledge of the issues, works as a great way to get a message out.

Recommendation:

I do recommend allowing Mike Bleskie to run in the upcoming election. His knowledge of the issues and his high-profile position within the party will aid in his campaign. Both of these elements, combined with his activities through the Pirate Parties International, will lend strength to his campaign in interviews and through the creation of related collateral materials.

Although Bleskie’s lack of social community contacts cannot be corrected in time for a spring election, it will not hinder him more than anticipated at this point. His public speaking issues can be solved through dedicated practice, and this will require some coaching from the campaign team. It will be difficult to have people focus on the issues and Bleskie’s strength without this skill being examined and honed prior and during the election.

Realizing that it is unlikely that he will win the seat in this election, I think between the end of this election and the beginning of the next, Bleskie should focus on building connections within the social community in Ottawa-South through volunteering and joining community associations. As his prior service has been primarily with various Diabetes Foundations, this would be an excellent avenue to explore and is highly recommended. These actions will help raise his profile and give him a better chance for success when he runs a second time.

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Official Agent Information
Name: Shawn Gray

Phone: Restricted - Non-business.

Address: Restricted - Non-business.

Email: shawngray@pirateparty.ca

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Official Auditor Information
(include basic info here)

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Event Dates & Information
(info on any events, volunteer meetings, battle planning)

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Collateral and Advertising Materials




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Volunteer List
(list of volunteers, if available)

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Voting Results


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Post-Election Reports
The Following Report was issued by the Official Agent for Mike Bleskie

Bleskie had a few issues creep up during his campaign. The writ dropped right as his exams were in full swing, and this prevented him from having as much time to go around and get his signatures as he required. Once he was freed from that responsibility, he was able to get the requisite in the final weekend and was approved as a candidate on the last possible day. As a result of his late registration he was excluded from the RogersTV debate for Ottawa South. Although he missed out on the debate, the station provided him with a short interview segment in its stead. A nice play by RogersTV, but an interview is not the equivalent of being a part of the debate. This unfortunately means that some of the free publicity that could have been garnered by being a part of the televised debate was lost.

Bleskie was able to get a couple small appearances in local papers: This Week, EMC, and the Ottawa Citizen. Unfortunately, there was no return call from The Sun, and releases sent to other minor papers were ignored. The Algonquin Times has an article on another member of the Pirate Party during which Bleskie was mentioned, and its circulation of 5000 may have helped. There was also some benefit from online sources, with Twitter, Facebook, APT613, and OpenFile containing some discussion by our candidate. Radio was mostly mute, with only Live88 and CKCU speaking with Bleskie. There was a blog on his campaign website, although half of the articles were ghost-written.

As Elections Canada dictated, no expenses could be accumulated until after Bleskie was confirmed as a candidate. This left the first two weeks of the campaign without any literature. Once approved, a limited run of English-Only pamphlets were printed and quickly distributed, including roughly 30 at the only town-hall style debate in Ottawa South. Bleskie also distributed a couple of flyers during the student Vote Mob at Carleton University.

Mailings went out electronically to the local PPCA list. The e-mail included a copy of the English-Brochure, a brief update on Bleskie, and an appeal for funds or volunteers. Although no volunteers stepped forward from this mailing, we were able to raise far more money than had been anticipated. As a result, a slightly larger run of bi-lingual pamphlets were distributed Easter Weekend by Bleskie’s agent & a couple of volunteers.

Bleskie had to leave town with over a week remaining in the campaign. This meant less canvassing and contact with the candidate locally, and may have been one of the worst things that could have happened to a campaign that was beginning to get its footing. As a result of his forced departure, a number of interview contacts remained uncalled.

The campaign had a number of hurdles, in addition to the late start and early “end”. To begin, Bleskie is not from the area. His experience with Ottawa South is restricted to what he acquired during his school year residency in the area. As a result, he has not had the opportunity to garner the connections, or create the public face that is required to run for office. Bleskie, and all candidates, should be active in the public sphere throughout the years between elections in order to build their public profiles.

Additionally, there was no collateral of any sort available during the pre-confirmation campaign. A generic PPCA pamphlet will need to be developed and should be printed & distributed to potential ridings before the writ drops. Candidates need to have something that they can hand-out throughout the process of collecting signatures. The costs incurred would come from the Federal Campaign budget, which should be developed, in advance, for this purpose.

Also on the Federal Party level, the Website requires a major revamp. A major complaint from people both locally and through the party’s PR e-mail has been its poor design. It is difficult to discover the information that is required to make a good choice. Additionally, although the forum has been of benefit for continuing discussion, it is not a good location for people to find out about the party or even contribute to making the party a success. For a party that is dedicated to digital values, we are sorely lacking in the digital department.

The lack of mobile applications is also of detriment to the party. Both the NDP and Greens have their first mobile apps available during this election, and the Liberal has a short code making quick donations through cellular texting a possibility. These are avenues that we should be exploring and implementing in advance of the major parties, not in an attempt to catch up.

The presentation of the PPCA platform also hindered us greatly. Elements were not rolled out as had been originally discussed by the council, with new elements magically added at a later point. The Federal Council failed to meet for the regular running of the party through most of the campaign, which also hampered the local campaign. All other parties released nice, glossy, feel-good versions of their platforms, with both the Greens and the Liberals live-streaming their launch. Once again, these are areas that we should have lead, not be playing catch-up.

With only a single media release throughout the election, the federal level failed its membership and its candidates. Releases should be coming out regularly during a campaign, some in response to other parties, some exploring our strengths and what we offer. Having candidate spot-light releases would be beneficial in the future.

An established local Pirate presence is required. The Ottawa group is in its infancy with very few regular members attending. It would be beneficial to grow this group into a local riding association, and have members participate as volunteers for other non-pirate events throughout the years between elections to continue to build our presence. This established association would help create an initial volunteer base that would make it easier to cover larger areas of the constituency to pass along our message.

More research should have been done before printing the pamphlets. Locally we elected to get them the fastest possible with the least amount of work. This lead us to utilizing Staples, which although the quality and speed of print is fantastic, is not competitive in terms of price. Every pamphlet, including tax, cost $1.12 (after tax). This rapidly depleted the donations available for printing costs.

Additionally, some fundraising efforts may have been beneficial. Local pirates need to form partnerships with coffee houses, electronic retailers, internet cafes, or be willing to take small loans in order to setup different types of fundraising events. Additional funds would have enabled more lawn signs to be printed and placed (one sign ended up at the corner of Terminal & Industrial). Additionally, the funds could be used to support a local office and a single-full-time person in the office to handle the coordination of the campaign and provide a small bank of phones for phone canvassing. This would have allowed maps to be posted and highlighted as areas were completed, allowing for a much more organized attack. Local campaigns should be supplied with a large quantity of PPCA pins to be handed out. It would be preferred that this be a federal party expense as a larger order can be created, leading to a lower cost on the pins. Bumper stickers were beneficial once they arrived, but as a larger portion of our demographic is more prone to school bags and bussing than BMWs and Buicks, they get quite confused with what to do with them. Pins work perfectly on every jacket, school bag, shirt, or even the occasional bulletin board.

Candidate websites should not be allowed to go to sleep for longer than 2-days during a campaign. It was after a week of this “sleep” time that a ghost-writer stepped in to aid Bleskie with the site. Even then, posts only came once every third day, which was still too slow. Additionally, the campaign blog should be started well in advance of the campaign, and ended at least a couple months afterward. The goal is to demonstrate that candidates were helping the constituency before, during and after the campaign. Also, a thank-you to volunteers every now and again is nice.

By far, one of the greatest weaknesses was the candidate’s ability to apply the party’s platform and positions to the issues at hand. Even knowing the topics of the debate ahead of time, Bleskie was unable to find or create links between the platform and the questions. Occasionally this lead the candidate to either ignore the question or the party. This proves to be very damaging to both the candidate and the party.

Bleskie was really good in one-on-one situations, or where questions were directed specifically toward the platform itself. Unfortunately, in our system of elections, that doesn’t occur very often. This is one area where better fleshing out the platform under standard headings in addition to the current headings would be greatly beneficial to candidates and the electorate.

My own time was gobbled up a lot by my “big event” within my college program and my various exams. I think this also detracted a little from what was possible in the campaign. Despite this, I managed to develop two pamphlets from scratch, distribute them, ghost-write entries on the campaign site, attend a debate, and have numerous discussions with people about the party, many of which initially thought I was the party’s candidate because I have the white PPCA sticker displayed openly on my black book bag and was dressed semi-formal throughout the campaign.

We were very realistic in our expectations going into this election. Bleskie and I figured that if we managed 100 votes, we should be happy. In the end, Bleskie received 383 votes, or 0.65% of the votes in the riding. Although this put him in last place in the riding (by about 200 votes), by percentage he was tied with Craig Nobbs in Langley at 4th amongst PPCA candidates. As a whole, the party landed in 9th place following the Conservative, NDP, Liberal, Bloc Quebecois, Green, Progressive Canadian, Christian Heritage and Marijuana Parties. As a point of interest, the other new party this election, the United Party, finished dead last running three candidates who averaged only 98 votes.

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