Kitchener—Waterloo 2011

Candidate's Application
NAME/NOM: Steven Bradley Scott

PROVINCE: Ontario

RIDING/CIRCONSCRIPTION: Kitchener/Waterloo

PARTY INVOLVEMENT / PARTICIPATION DE PARTI:

I have thoroughly read the party platform and support the positions represented. While I only became a member on March 29th, I have been watching the parties in Europe for several months. I am proud to be a member of the first Pirate Party outside of Europe.

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE / L'EXPÉRIENCE POLITIQUE:

No significant political background. However, as a musician and former actor I have a large amount of experience in front of an audience. I am well spoken, typically articulate, and as a songwriter/programmer able to communicate logically while employing tactful metaphors. It is not directly political, but passion and comfort in the face of an audience is helpful for an effective orator.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST / CONFLITS D'INTÉRÊTS:

I have been an employee of Research In Motion for four years which has connections to both Bell and Rogers communication companies (though I have not personally worked with them, I felt it may be relevant to the party) as well as having a number of patents of its own. This has actually enhanced my awareness of the risk of patent infringement and current legal ramifications. I have received a confirmation from my management that this would not be a conflict of interest. In fact, I believe it may actually assist me in connecting to a large portion of the community in the Kitchener/Waterloo area (thousands of employees), though it would necessarily be tactful. I operate as a Technical Vulnerability Analyst, a position directly related to the security of applications, code, and services. This position has brought me to Black Hat this past year, a security industry conference in Las Vegas, where a number of privacy issues were raised during the talks. This enhances my understanding of the technical details and implications of the issues with which the Pirate Party is concerned, particularly those involving privacy and computer crime.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT / PARTICIPATION DE LA COMMUNAUTÉ:

I have lived in the Kitchener/Waterloo area for approximately four years. During this time I have been involved in the music community and have become a regular at a number of café’s and pubs. This means that people recognize me, even if they do not know me personally. I am an outspoken advocate for the individual’s right to privacy and have friends in the area (some within the Pirate Party) who have already stated their support during the upcoming campaign. Schedule events with musical support, on campus, to the local Linux Users Group, or at the various café’s will be helpful to ensure proper communication to heads of the grass roots communities.

PLATFORM / MANIFESTE:

When a work is made unavailable to a potential audience due to publisher negligence, antiquated legislation, or the poor implementation of DRM (Digital Rights Management) it deprives the individual and society at large. In its worst case the deprivation is not only in the immediate, but long-term, as the potential inspirational spark that accessing such a work could strike is lost, as is the spark of any further derivations. We need only look at blues music to see how derivation can be a strong force of inspired creativity, without which the world would be less colorful and less interesting. In a smaller sense of personal use complications, DRM harms legitimate users by forcing them to jump through malfunctioning hoops, simultaneously turning the supposed thieves into heroes. While I do not believe that either moniker is suitable it illustrates the dysfunction of the current state of affairs. This is an important issue, which must be addressed.

Patent reform is essential to a functioning industry within Canada. Currently, the majority of patents are held or purchased by a small number of companies at large sums, rendering fledgling companies in a variety of industries nonviable. In the technological age, where advances of a few years are equivalent to generations of ages past, it seems prudent to update patent law to reflect the current pace. Smaller companies then would be able to both leverage and improve upon fundamental technological advances. As such, patent exclusivity terms should be shortened to five years to ensure that the public and private sector has access to the latest technologies at competitive prices, thus improving the quality of life in Canada.

Open government is absolutely essential for a functioning democracy and free people. Access to information, such as the source of campaign contributions, protects the citizenry from oligarchy and other forms of oppressive collusion. Transparency is essential to a functioning government and, as has been recently demonstrated, to confidence in that government. Particularly when confidence in government is high, protection of whistle-blowers and other sources of responsible leakage are vital. Freedom of the press to report on these items and critique the regular workings of government is equally essential, and must be protected for an effective, open, and free society. Dissent is a cornerstone of honesty, and only an honest government is worthy of governing.

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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
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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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Overall tone and presentation
I found that allowing a chuckle and a "yar" here and there was not a detractor, but instead was a necessary acknowledgement of many misimpression's of our party's intents. Having garnered favor with this subtle outburst, I found it easier to then inject opinions. The end state of all of the interviews was essentially surprise on the part of the reporter. I wore a suit each and every day during the campaign to ensure that I looked like a candidate from any other respectable party. I wanted the Pirate Party to look as legitimate as possible. Understanding our evocative name, coming off with a compensating seriousness was important, as the hook only lasts so long.

Debates
I found that my best points came through discussion with other people. We have a handful of Pirate Party members in the area and it was through discussion with them that I came to more fully understand the arguments for our position. As a result of that understanding I was better able to weave in those ideas to the conversations during the debate. In terms of tone, the last thing that people want to hear from a new candidate is anything that could be construed as disrespect. As a result, before a debate I went and shook hands with each other candidate. I also did this afterwards. Where possible, I tried to perform this activity with some visibility, but even when that was not apparent I did the same. The reason for this is fairly clear – it promoted the sense that we were a serious party.

Ads
I purchased a facebook ad – extremely economical. It cost about $100 in total and tens of thousands saw it, almost 200 clicked. It was targeted specifically to my riding and I was able to see the number of views/clicks. I recommend you pay by clicks. Of course, this means that one needs to ensure that their facebook page is updated. In my ad I also included the URLs of the party website and the blog, so that an interested party didn't need to click it (spend my money) to find out where to find the blog. I found that the introduction of this ad lead directly to additional likes. I also leveraged a personal profile which was setup specifically for the campaign and changed my name on my actual personal facebook page. This removed the concern regarding tags in bad images.

Social Media Cleanse
When I first changed my twitter account over to use as my campaign account, I went through all of my tweets from the past two years and deleted those which appeared of questionable moral value. I also deleted dating site pages and other questionable material where possible. This is – in my opinion – an important step. While it is unlikely that a local campaign will come under fire in direct attacks, once you become an MP the other parties may choose to target in this manner. As such, I think it prudent for any candidate to erase anything which may be considered questionable. Remember, it doesn't have to actually be questionable to deserve a look.

Manipulation and being first
In my riding the Liberal candidate pretended to be my best friend, the green candidate gave me rides, the NDP went for coffee with me, the marxist Leninist gave me a 2 hour history lesson on communism, and the Conservatives ignored me. Whenever you talk to any of the other candidates, regardless of how they present themselves, recognize the possibility of the political implications of the things that you say. I was never burnt, nor did I provide the opportunity for such a scoup, but one should be particularly wary of bringing up political points before they are used in a debate. This is particularly true if the individual you're speaking with is in a potentially likeminded party. Remember, you need to be the first to say something in a debate for it to count as your point.In the first debate, Telegdi (the Liberal) brought up C-32 before I did, which made it look in every article across the country as if the Liberals cared the most about this issue. This was a failing, to not realize that the Liberals would capitalize on this bill, and to miss my opportunity to beat them to raising it. It may sound petty, but this is politics. The early bird catches the worm.

Signs
I never got any, but would have liked them. It takes several days to get them and it is one of the larger investments you can make. Plan for it and do it early. Once they are up, they are awesome.

Volunteers
Again, do it early. Contact people as early as possible, host a small rally, and plan how you will canvass the area. The major political parties print lists of the polls. As the volunteers knock on each door, they talk to them then ask them if they are planning on voting for the party. If they are, then they check them off. This builds their voter list. If they are interested, then the volunteer can ask them if they would like to volunteer/have a sign/come to an event. Get email addresses. The volunteer then leaves a flyer. These lists are used for various other things later on in the election, I don't need to go into detail.

On polling day these individuals are contacted and reminded to vote. If they have difficulty getting to a polling station or finding it, then the volunteer can help let them know. Since we know the polling station of each of our voters (we have their addresses) it might be a good idea to setup delayed emails with their polling station addresses, which are then sent on the day of the vote so that they don't have to go through the trouble of looking it up. Remember, people are lazy – make it easier for them to be lazy and they will vote for you. Put a volunteer at the key polling stations and check people off as they come in. Each hour, forward the list of voters to the candidate's office. This can help ensure that you put extra effort into contacting those who were supposed to vote for you, but haven't yet.

Resources
Things I would have liked to see from the party:


 * Template art
 * Flyer
 * Sign
 * Debate booklets/cards
 * We all had the same points, so let's raise them uniformly and save each other time. Having someone create point cards for us to print/study/bring to the debates would have ensured that we all represented the positions properly
 * Budget numbers in the platform
 * For each item that we raise, if it has any impact on spending, then it should have a cost associated with it. This could be negative or positive. It must be evidence-based and fall within reason of a Canadian parliamentary budget. This is for a number of reasons
 * Helps us answer questions like "will you raise taxes?", "what will this cost us?", "Is this tenable?"
 * Shows that we have done our homework and are providing reasonable responses which we can back-up
 * Guidebook for new candidates
 * This was trial by fire for everyone. However, I think we have amassed a large amount of experience between us. I applaud the effort of having these post-mortems and think we should flesh them out and format them as a guide book for other new candidates. This could include checklists/budget recommendations/etc.
 * Clearer establishment of meeting times
 * I missed some meetings. This is my fault. However, I can honestly say that more clear announcement of the meetings would have ensured that I was there. We could use google calendars/etc. for this.
 * Shared Calendar
 * A shared calendar for all members of the party should be made available for significant events/televised debates/etc. to be announced to other party members
 * Internel Notification of Significant Events
 * The VPN, for example, was not something I was aware of until I went to the party website and saw it. We should have a couple of days of notice before this. Even if it is discussed at a meeting, an email with the details should be pushed to all candidates, along with recommendations for how to explain/justify/defend the decision to others.

Conclusion
In terms of personal mistakes, no doubt I made a number. However, I feel that the above is what is most useful for the group as we move forward. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support and assistance throughout this process. It was an incredible experience and I learned a great deal.

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