AllMovie

When he was nineteen years old, Sam Sullivan suffered a severe accident while skiing which left him a quadriplegic, but while many people would be uncertain about what to do with their lives after leaning they would live their life in a wheelchair, Sullivan took a path that's a challenge for nearly anyone -- he went into politics. As a member of the city council of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Sullivan had earned a reputation as a conservative gadfly with a taste for troublemaking and a record for making some poorly thought out decisions (at one point he backed a program that would give cash payments to drug addicts in order to support their habits) before he announced he would run for mayor of Vancouver in 2005. While Sullivan's opponents scrupulously avoided mentioning his handicaps, his voting record and his more controversial stands were widely reported by his foes as Sullivan attempted to present his views to the people, recording his opinions in a witty and surprisingly candid video blog. Citizen Sam is a documentary which chronicles Sullivan's campaign for mayor and how he deals with the day to day challenges of running for office along with the difficulties presented by life in a wheelchair. Citizen Sam was screened in competition at Toronto's 2007 Hot Docs International Film Festival.