Baldasaro back in the race

He’s a political candidate who readily admits to smoking pot and inhaling, many, many times. It’s an unusual statement for a political wannabe. But then again, this candidate is anything but typical.

He is one of Hamilton’s most colourful characters. The self proclaimed minister and founding member of the Church of the Universe. A church that recognizes marijuana as a sacrament.

A passionate activist, brother Michael Baldasaro has never backed away from a challenge. He has taken on the federal government over Canada’s marijuana laws and now is taking another run at the office of mayor in Hamilton.

Like many of the current candidates, Baldasaro says the LRT is necessary, but he’s proposing a looped route that would include stops along the waterfront.

He also wants to see changes to funding and terms for council members: “Well I’d like to see term limits. And I would like to see everybody cut a third off their pay and stop wasting money and sending things out in the mail. And some more communications between the municipal and the provincial and federal representatives of the city. Nobody’s grabbing them by the short hairs and saying what about this what about that lets stop this and find a way to work together.”

This isn’t the first time brother Michael has thrown his hat in to the political ring. He has run for mayor at every municipal election since 1985, finishing fourth in the last municipal election with almost three thousand votes. But he is hoping this time will be different: “You have to take a leap of faith once in a while. I know I look different I got a beard. The mayors use to have beards. The reason they don’t is because in World War One, they invented mustard gas. It has nothing to do with having a beard. I’m old fashioned and I’m not a soldier so I’m not worried about mustard gas. But I had a heck of a time scuba diving. If you want somebody who’s like you, a real plebeian, then vote for me, the common people. bless you.”

Years ago, covering Michael Baldasaro’s campaign, one of his campaign promises was to build a dome over the downtown core so people could walk around in the dead of winter nude and not be impacted by the cold weather. I asked him if he would reintroduce that promise and he said he certainly was considering it.