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Recovering backpacker, Cornwallite at heart, political enthusiast, catalyst, writer, husband, father, community volunteer, unabashedly proud Canadian. Every hyperlink connects to something related directly or thematically to that which is highlighted.

Friday 4 April 2014

If You Think This Ends Well, You Haven't Been Paying Attention





Just wow.  But it gets even better:


So, the master plan is this - diminish the opposition, accept past mistakes but change the channel away from them and focus on micro-targeting likely voters and putting heavy pressure on front-line volunteers to get out there and drag them to the polling booths.

I can just imagine how much fun that campaign would be to work on.  Especially given how much disgruntlement there is at the ground level, particularly outside the GTA, the reverse question the central people assigned to individual regions are going to find hearing back is "you weren't there when I asked for your support, so why should I take any shit from you instead of just waiting for you to lose your job post-loss and then see if your replacement is any better?" 


See, most Riding Association members aren't as ardently supportive of the Institution as the kids in TO are - they're believers in the Party's values, which used to be summed up with the phrase "move forward together."


I'm sure the organizers in place know far better than someone like me how to win tough political fights, so they've no need to listen to any advice from my end.  

But if they did, I might suggest something along these lines:

- don't deflect from cultural challenges that are bigger than the Party - show how you are actively going to fix them.  Open By Default provides a great plan for how to do that structurally at the governance level.

- show that you've learned and are acting on what you've learned.  Reform the OPS, but for God's sake, fix the Party structure, too.  A little bit of training and some communication will go a long way.

- stand for something that all Ontarians can relate to.  I'm sorry, but the transit conversation is all about the GTA.  Ask anyone outside the GTA, and they'll tell you that.  It's been poorly framed, but the constant bickering over subways hasn't helped any.

Instead, take on something that all Parties stand for and all Ontarians relate to, like mental health.  Which is also about engagement, as is Open Data - which is what leadership is about.  Which leads back to Open Government.

Or, you know, isolate your voters through micro-targeting, focus on individualizing their interests instead of promoting conversation and big-picture thinking and put increased pressure on the people who owe you nothing by implying they owe you everything and demand they perform miracles from which they will gain no benefit.

It's worked wonders for Harper, right?

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