Jaime Garcia has launched a Money Bomb to help fund his campaign for the NDP nomination in Regina Coronation Park. He's called it “19 for the 19th” and is asking supporters and others who supporters of a new way of doing politics to donate $19 to help him reach the nomination meeting which will be held on June 19th.
Ryan Meili, who was the first Canadian politician to use a Money Bomb during his leadership campaign last year, had great success with his recent “Money Bomb 2.0” sequel which raised enough to fund his entire nomination campaign for Saskatoon Sutherland!
Jaime doesn't have the ready-made donor list that Ryan had from his first money bomb or the name recognition that a provincial leadership candidate who came in second will have. But with hundreds of supporters on his Facebook Fan page and over twenty people signed up only a few days after announcing this latest Money Bomb, there is potential for Jaime to raise some serious funds as well.
If you support progressive politics, innovative uses of technology for fundraising or Jaime and his potential as a political candidate, I'd encourage you to donate!
Here's the full announcement:
Hello friend,
Today is May 19 and that means there is exactly one
month until June 19 when the Coronation Park nomination meeting will be
held to choose the next NDP candidate for this riding.
So far,
our campaign has been a lot of hard work but very worthwhile as we
believe we are in a strong position going into the nomination meeting.
In addition to being a lot of hard work, there has also been a lot of
expense as we have spent money on buttons, t-shirts, printing, a web
site and even billboards at two locations in the constituency to get the
word out about our campaign and its themes of family, community and
solidarity.
That is why I’m asking you for your support in our
“19 for the 19th” Money Bomb. If you are not familiar with the concept, a
“Money Bomb” is a unique fundraising tool that allows supporters of a
political candidate (whether they live in the riding or not) to easily
provide support a candidate of their choice. Money Bombs were used to
great effect in the 2008 US Presidential Election but are still a
relative rarity in Canadian politics.
Between now and June
19, I am asking you to donate $19 (or $1.90 or $190 or any other amount
you choose) to my campaign to help us assure victory at the June 19
nomination meeting which will be held at 1pm at Thom Collegiate (265
Argyle Street North).
Pace playing on the children's computer at RPL's Sherwood Village Library earlier today (and you know you're a library nerd when you take the whole family there on your day off after spending the whole week working at the library!)
“The Swinger is a bit of python code that takes any song and makes it
swing. It does this be taking each beat and time-stretching the first
half of each beat while time-shrinking the second half. It has quite a
magical effect.” The Swinger
Stupid YouTube blocked the audio on this stupid video because I used a stupid Oasis song as the backing track.
So there was a bit of a delay (which you might not even notice since I'm backdating this post to May 19 when the video was supposed to go up, dagnabit!) so I could get this uploaded to a different service, Vimeo, which I now *highly* recommend for not being copyright jerk-holes!
Your regularly scheduled Music Monday post will return at a later date.
But having attended the NDP Leader's Gala tonight (great event – kudos to all the organizers!), I've got politics on the brain so I thought I'd post this video of Jaime Garcia being introduced in the Legislature by MLA Sandra Morin (I guess you could consider that little “this channel is off air” motif at the start of the clip as your music for the week? )
For good or for bad, if modern politics is about a candidate's story or their “narrative” (see: Obama, Barack for the ultimate example), this video does a good job of showing that Jaime has a very compelling story himself, having come to Canada at age 11, his family having fled their home country after his father was persecuted and left as a paraplegic for standing up for people's rights. The idea that within a generation, this young man could become an elected member of our government is a powerful idea. That's not all Jaime brings to the table of course – I've touched on the various reasons I'm supporting him elsewhere – but that's part of it.
Watch for yourself…
[Oh, and Regina Coronation Park candidate, Tory McGregor posted a correction to the Facebook comparison I did of the various candidates. I've updated the list with his correction as well as current numbers for all the candidates – including a newly joined one, Roger Bucsis – and apologize to Tory for the oversight.]
Each year at the start of the NHL playoffs, I usually do my predictions for the first round. (I miss the old playoff system when you could see the entire playoff brackets all the way through instead of the new system where seeding can impact who plays who each round.)
So yeah, even knowing the winners, I'm going to try not to be biased here and put who I wanted to win (as always, I choose who I *want* to win, not who I think will win which is another thing that makes my predictions somewhat unique!)
Washington vs. Montreal (Montreal) Pittsburgh vs. Ottawa (Pittsburgh) Buffalo vs. Boston (Boston) Philadelphia vs. New Jersey (Philly)
San Jose vs. Colorado (San Jose) Phoenix vs. Detroit (Detroit) Vancouver vs. Los Angeles (Vancouver) Chicago vs. Nashville (Chicago)
What's that? 50%. Which I think is about how I usually score. Oh well. Go Montreal – although no Canadian team has won since 1993, it's pretty cool that in the last six years, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa have all made it to the Finals. If Montreal does, that's even more cool that Vancouver and Toronto would be the only Canadian teams who haven't! And if there's a Canadian team that has to win it, I'd prefer it to be one with a stylized “C” on their jersey – Montreal, if not Calgary.
