Daniel Salvatore - 2010 Municipal Election

Public Affairs C3

• Queen’s University Grad

• Political Science

• Campus Conservatives

• Queen’s Model Parliament

• Student Government

• Lifelong Vaughan resident

AALLLL

AABBOOUUTT

DDAANN

The Campaign Team

Why C3 got involved

• City of Vaughan

• City north of Toronto

• Five wards

• Daniel’s riding

• Ward 2 – Woodbridge West

The Riding

The Riding

• Ward boundaries

• Steeles Ave. to Major Mackenzie Dr.

• Between Highway 50 and Pine Valley Dr

• Twenty-five polling stations: #24 to #49

• Commonly located at schools, community centres, condos and seniors’ homes

• http://bit.ly/ward2woodbridge

• Difficult to find info specific to Ward 2

• One of the challenges in municipal campaigns - fewer resources at disposal

• Disadvantage - hard to know your target demographic

• Best source at federal and provincial levels

• Statistics Canada’s Federal Electoral District (FED) profiles

• Analyze data for Vaughan to predict Woodbridge’s demographics

Vaughan: Demographics

Vaughan: Demographics• Pop. 15 yrs + by generation status*

• Total: 118, 810

• 1st: 64, 335

• 2nd: 44, 280

• 3rd or more: 10, 190

• Age

• Median age: 35.6

• % of population 15 and older: 77.4

• Pop. 15 yrs + by labour force activity*

• Total: 118, 810

• In labour force: 84, 250

• Not in labour force: 34, 565

• Pop. by visible minority groups*

• Total: 153, 530

• Visible minorities (all groups): 39, 190

• Not a visible minority: 114, 340

* 20% sample data . Taken from StatsCan: Federal Electoral District Profile of Vaughan, Ontario (2003 Representation Order), 2006 Census

What we found

• Demographics of Ward 2:

• Either young families or elders

• East Indian influence

• English not the first language

• Live-in grandparents common

• Everyone had small dogs

Integration

• Canvassing- Played the role of volunteers. - Luke and Dan - Specific tasks for us to complete.- Canvassing was tailored for our class.

• BBQ- Worked more closely with other campaign staff

members- Set up and work the BBQ.

• Election Day- Completely integrated with the existing staff- Many students were paired up with campaign staff to scrutineer and monitor the polls.

Canvassing Blitz Oct. 16, 2010

Canvassing:

Face-to-face interactionwith voters, achieved by knocking on door’s in a designated area. Also can be done via telephone

Canvassing Blitz Oct. 16, 2010

Objectives: To determine supporters and to increase awareness of Daniel’s campaign among the residents of Ward 2, Woodbridge

Tools: A literature piece on Daniel, an invitation to the BBQ and a sunny disposition

Canvassing Blitz Oct. 16, 2010

Outcome: Along with Daniel’s team, we successfully reached out to all potential voters and documented supporters.

That’s over 18,000 doors

since June!

Daniel Salvatore Campaign BBQ

Purpose

- Engage and solicit support from community members

- Answer questions about campaign platform

- Have fun and celebrate with the community

- Increase awareness and gain publicity for Daniel

Humber PR Role

BBQ Set-up and Take downDistribution of literature

Engage with community membersAnswer questions about platform

Social Media•C3 on the Campaign Trail

•Developed a blog for peers to express their thoughts/experiences on the experience as a whole

•The blog was a collaborative space to comment on our efforts as we moved through the election process

The Blog C3’s on the Campaign Trail

•Each member of the C3 Campaign Team was asked to contribute to the blog

•For many, it was their first time campaigning so they recorded their own personal experience and thoughts on the election

“I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people are concerned and want

change in their municipal political spectrum.”

-Dustin

“I was not expecting to talk to so many people who are engaged and interested in municipal elections. I really did not think

people cared as much as they do.”

-Sophie

“Youth participation is declining at a terrifying pace so anything thing we can do to involve our demographic is great to see.” -

Richelle

“If we want youth involved in politics, we should really get them started as soon as possible…Even if they don’t align with a

political party yet, municipal politics are a great way to get involved in a non-partisan

setting.”

- Steph

“Sounds corny, but I really felt like I was making a difference.”

-Rachel

“I was nervous. I, along with most of the C3ers, had never canvassed before…[But] once we did the first few houses in teams, I felt confident in my ability to speak about

Dan and his campaign objectives.”

-Laura Banks

“At 22, he ran a campaign that rivaled that of many veteran politicians.  It was well-organized. It was strategically planned. It

was diligently executed.”

-Kelsey

“Unfortunately we didn’t win, but participating in the process gave me the

framework to see just how much a communications officer has to offer to a

campaign such as this one.”

-Nathan

•Daniel was mentioned, tagged and tweeted about by various peers, in hopes of spreading awareness on his political objectives

•Both Dan & the Campaign Team (Steph) Tweeted regularly, interacting with residents & media

Social Media

Twitter

•A Facebook page was developed for Daniel to create awareness and engage Vaughan residents and media

•Used to promote events, website, post photos, aggregate media coverage

Social Media

Facebook

• Scrutineer: The job of a scrutineer is to observe the electoral process to prevent the occurrence of corruption or genuine mistakes.

• Scrutineers can object politely to any irregularities.

• Each scrutineer in charge of a poll.

• As a scrutineer we checked into our poll at 9:45 to ensure that all procedures were properly followed. The polls open at 10am.

Scrutineering

- When you arrive at 9:45, you are entitled to see the empty ballot box and witness the sealing of the ballot box and the start up of the ballot counter.

- During the day we travelled around our polls to remind supporters that it was voting day.

- Polls close at 8pm and the count begins.

- The Deputy Returning Officer announces the official numbers at that poll.

- Those numbers are called into the campaign office.

Scrutineering

What Did We Learn?

•Voter Apathy

•Low Voter Turnout

•Political Corruption

•Campaigning is Hard Work!

•Hard to Campaign for New Candidates

•Local Politics Matters!

The results

Daniel Salvatore received 23% of the final vote.

The results

•The incumbent, Tony Carella, won

•Margin between the top two candidates was only 121 votes

•This was an incredible result for Dan’s first campaign.

•With the amount of people reached, we familiarized Dan with the community. This will make a good foundation for a future campaign.