Laval—Les Îles 2011

Candidate's Application
NAME/NOM: Stéphane Bakhos

PROVINCE: Québec

RIDING/CIRCONSCRIPTION: Laval - Les Îles

PARTY INVOLVEMENT / PARTICIPATION DE PARTI:

I have been a member of the party since it's early beginnings when it was started by Rob Britton. I am currently a director of both the party and the Fund. I'm also the registered agent of the party. I am involved mostly with the administrative side of things. My wife has agreed to take my place as registered agent for the duration of the election and to be my chief agent.

Je suis un membre du parti depuis ses débuts sous Rob Britton. Je suis présentement un directeur du parti, ainsi qu'un directeur du Fonds du parti pirate. Je m'occupe surtout du côté administratif du parti. Ma femme a offert de devenir l'agent enregistré pendant que je suis un candidat.

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE / L'EXPÉRIENCE POLITIQUE:

None / aucune

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST / CONFLITS D'INTÉRÊTS:

None / aucun

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT / PARTICIPATION DE LA COMMUNAUTÉ:

I have lived in this community all of my life and know quite a few of the constituents. I have a good feel of the challenges facing the fast growing community.

J'ai toujours vécu dans cette communauté et je connais beaucoup de personnes. J'ai des bonnes idées sur ce que les électeurs veulent.

PLATFORM / MANIFESTE:

Of course I fully agree with the party's core values.

UBB:

A very dangerous threat to the Canadian economy and its long term viability. It needs to be killed with prejudice. Also I would start examining various projects to bring more competition to the broadband ISP sector.

Nuclear power:

The current mismanagement of AECL needs to stop and more money needs to be put into research to bring the CANDU lines of reactors to Generation IV. Even in light of the crisis at Fukushima, nuclear power still remains a viable alternative. The fact that those very old reactors still have not caused a major environmental catastrophe is a testament to the solidity of their design.

We also cannot continue pumping greenhouse gas and keep our heads in the sands about the current thermal ways of making electricity.

1. What will be your primary focus this election?

My main focus will be on raising publicity and membership for the party. The main campaign focus will be how we can improve the life of every Canadian and put Canada back to the forefront of innovation.

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

By trying to open a dialog with as many young voters as possible.

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

If the Liberals are so scared of vote dilution, it is a sign that they know that their ship is sinking.

4. What kind of community support do you have (ie for getting volunteers)?

Not much as of now.

5. What has been your involvement in local community organizations?

Sadly, none.

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Director's Evaluation
(where applicable, include Director's interview/evaluation)

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Official Agent Information
(include basic info here)

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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
(image links to all posters, brochures, etc)

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Volunteer List
(list of volunteers, if available)

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Voting Results
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Looking back at my campaign
From the beginning it was clear I couldn't spend much time campaigning. I couldn't take leave for my job because of a crushing (18k$+) tax bill and also being a new father. Nevertheless I decided to still run and learn the ropes.

I got my approval on the 7th (I think) and quickly organised an order for 50 2'x4' signs. In QC it is usual to have such signs with a photo of the candidate. In fact the cons used 4'x4' signs.

The only door knocking I did was in front of a camera crew and to get the signatures.

The signs costed 1080.28$, so about 20$ each. Only 12 were retrieved at the end of the election, hopefully most of the balance is keepsakes by voters. A lot of people did recognise and approach me from the signs.

My wishlist and how I would like us to go forward
So this was pretty much a quick fire baptism for all of us. Of course being a minority government, there was only so much time to get ready for the election, and so much experience. Now that we have experience and know better, this is what I think we need to do going forward:
 * Any candidate willing to participate in the next election should be allowed to do so. They should all form their own Electoral District Association. This makes it possible to bank a lot of extra money into the next campaign and to take advantage of the tax credit. It also allows to pre-buy some expenses. According to EC, for non-election years they tend to just collect fund and do a report every year. I'm sure our auditor would appreciate the subsidy to audit the books too :)
 * Get pins, this was found to be a major problem and I will line us up with a batch soon.
 * Get a professional writer on board and pay him to write. I can't stand seeing any of our websites at a standstill for so long. We need someone we can just tell what we want and have it ghost written.
 * Redesign the main website to make it easier for people. As we grow and add menus it's just getting worse.
 * Get pamphlets template ready to use. A simple ODF with easy to change text would work great.
 * I'll get us some contacts for printing, a candidate spent over 1.10$ per pamphlet and got seriously ripped off. This we can't allow to happen again.
 * Get professional pictures of our candidates done if they are going to be used on promotional materials.
 * Get a newsletter out every month outside of a campaigning period, and every other day during a campaign.
 * Improve access to the CRM for candidates so they can do mailouts, get lists of candidates and so on.

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