Michael A James Baldasaro was a Canadian political and religious figure from Hamilton, Ontario.
16 Facts About Michael Baldasaro
1.
2.
Michael Baldasaro presided over a religious sect known as the Church of the Universe.
3.
The Church has been in existence since 1969, when it was founded by the late Walter Tucker, and Michael Baldasaro remained continuously active in its operations.
4.
At their sentencing hearing in April 2008, Michael Baldasaro, who had 12 previous trafficking convictions, was sentenced to a two-year penitentiary term while Tucker was sentenced to a one-year reformatory term.
5.
Michael Baldasaro stood in the 2004 Ward 2 by-election, following the resignation of Andrea Horwath, and placed seventh out of eleven candidates with 52 votes.
6.
In 1984, Michael Baldasaro received 300 votes as a Libertarian candidate in the federal riding of Hamilton West.
7.
In 2000, Michael Baldasaro won 573 votes as a Marijuana Party of Canada candidate in Hamilton East.
8.
In 2004, Michael Baldasaro received 345 votes as an independent candidate in Hamilton Centre.
9.
Michael Baldasaro announced he would be a candidate for the Progressive Conservative leadership convention in 1998.
10.
Michael Baldasaro developed a plan to revitalize the party's flagging poll numbers by encouraging direct democracy, pardoning individuals convicted on marijuana possession, cutting government pensions and making the words to O Canada gender neutral.
11.
Michael Baldasaro was forced to withdraw when he could not meet the filing fee and threatened legal action against the party when they refused to waive $30,000 entrance fee.
12.
Two years later, in 2000, Michael Baldasaro attempted to join the Canadian Alliance leadership race.
13.
Michael Baldasaro openly admitted that the challenge was mostly for publicity, and that he did not expect to win against the likes of Preston Manning or Stockwell Day.
14.
Michael Baldasaro was dissuaded, once more, by the party's $25,000 leadership nomination fee.
15.
In 2007, Michael Baldasaro started a campaign to save Hamilton's Centre Mall from conversion into a 'power center' operated by SmartCenters.
16.
Michael Baldasaro was a candidate for the 2010 Hamilton Municipal Elections, running for Mayor.