CalgaryLiberal

Archive for the ‘Liberal Party of Canada’ Category

With the new seats coming federally in the House of Commons to the economic seat of Canada–Alberta–the province will finally get a more reasonable level of representation. No longer will each of our votes matter less than Ontario or Quebec and the seismic changes of the last ten years will finally be recognized. Gargantuan growths in population and in economic clout in the last twenty years has secured Alberta a unique place in Canada and so too should it earn itself the just level of representation that should be allocated with such unique importance. And, as the population and economic clout of the province increases so too will its larger role in Alberta’s political system.

There will be more seats, more economic clout, and Alberta will be the center of Canadian politics in the 21st century. There is a problem with this for Liberals. Firstly, it first appears that the province has a tendency to be dominated by a single party other than the Liberals. Secondly, the Liberals will need Alberta in any winning coalition in the 21st century. I believe quite firmly that the Liberals can break into Alberta and especially into Calgary. Firstly, however, there needs to be an understanding of what exactly Alberta political culture ‘is.’

A Tradition of Federal Malcontents

Almost eight weeks ago I attended a forum where one of the panellists, a professor at the University of Calgary, articulated a theory that stated that Alberta replaced the province’s opposition groups in the legislature with that of Ottawa thus making local opposition moot and anti-federal government voting a reality in federal elections. This makes non-government parties, like Reform, federal Progressive Conservatives, and Alliance politicians of yesteryear, very attractive to Albertan voters because of the consistent messaging that traditional governing parties (Liberals?) were bad.  With public opinion assuming the federal and provincial tories are one and the same it would appear the tactic of making the federal government “the enemy” or an opposing force to Albertans a tactic that would gather less and less returns.

In essence, the competition between the federal and provincial Tories for the best ‘boogeyman’ position will cause a lot of damage for both groups, both provincially and federally.  A way to view it provincially is to look at the level of federal Tories involved in Wildrose politics against the Progressive Conservatives, and angry Progressive Cosnervativess staying home rather than voting for the Conservative Party of Canada. The divisiveness in the Conservative party opens new opportunities as donation money stays home and volunteers are split between differing camps of supporters.

It also opens up an avenue of support for non-traditional Alberta parties to enter into the political fray. Seeing that both the provincial and federal tories will be embroiled in the strife between them, the opening for parties other than those two will become mainstream will become eas

A Fundamental Shift

Taking a step back, the demographic changes in Alberta, in particular in the cities, have been gargantuan. First of all, it is a rare sight to see a third or fourth generation Albertan in Calgary anymore: the rapid immigration to the city has simply been that great. From across Canada and the United States Calgary, and Alberta, has had a shift in who lives here. With this shift also came a shift in political opinions that have been brought from elsewhere. Additionally, there has been a swelling of the urban centres in Alberta–particularly along the Calgary-Edmonton belt–which has been a boon to industry and cultures that develop in urban centers (like internet technologies).

I argue a fundamental shift has occurred in the province. And, as I’ll argue below, the Liberals have increased their voting tallies, likely taking advantage of these shifts.  So not only has there been a seismic demographic shift (arguably with an accompanying cultural) with a likely political shift, there has also been a shift in the amount of economic-political clout of the province of Alberta coupled with an increase in Liberal votes.

A question that is posed from this situation is whether or not the Conservative Party of Canada can hold the province as they currently do. With growths in Calgary and in Edmonton in opposition votersExamining the election results in Calgary from the 2011 election we can see several races that had an increase in turnout for opposition parties: either (a) because of the Orange Wave effect and (b) strong campaigning by the Liberals. In Calgary North East as one example where Liberals jumped from 20% to almost 28%, not only the highest Liberal result in Alberta but one of the highest opposition results as well. Although, the orange ‘wave’ effect was notably muted in southern Alberta as a whole with most NDP candidates seeing their vote tallies increasing only marginally (in North East the NDP only had their vote % increased by 1% and in Centre the NDP vote actually dropped by nearly 5%).

Substantial Growth

There was some substantial growth for the Liberal Party of Canada in the May election in Alberta. Taking a look at North East Calgary with candidate Cam Stewart the party experienced the most growth in Liberal votes in the country. This is an amazing amount of growth and, coupled with a strong campaign, earned Cam Stewart amazing results. Sadly, this did not translate into an upset victory but it is a sign of the change times in Calgary and Alberta’s  Additionally, a shift seems to be occurring where Liberals find the most of their support in the province. As pointed out by Dan Arnold over at CalgaryGrit Calgary had more votes than Edmonton.

If we assume that the voter turnout for the Liberals was lessened because of the stance Ignatieff took on exporting oil to China (barring tankers along coast of BC which endanger Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline), amongst other things, the votes garnered this election may be a group of voters that will stay with the Liberals until the next election. I believe there is a seed of a change in the province of Alberta where the Liberals will be increasingly raising their voter tallies in the next decade of elections. This election was substantial for growth in the province for the Liberals and lay a foundation for further growth and possibly even a seat or two. Stranger things have happened.

Conclusion

With a growth in Liberal support, shifts in the character of Alberta, and a long time trend benefiting an entrance to an alternative in Alberta, Calgary–and the rest of Alberta–is a place to watch for the Liberal Party of Canada in the next few years.

Politics Reimagined: Mark Holland from Corey Hogan on Vimeo.

(Reposted from NewLiberal.ca)

I had the pleasure of sitting just offside to Mr. Holland while he made his speech. Just watch it: it’s quite the speech. It talks about pulling the party together based on a national vision and open sourcing our discourse.

Almost two weeks ago I wrote a blog post about the challenges that face the Liberal Party of Canada. It received a small bit of media attention and more. In particular, I wrote about building the party outside of it (or, in fact, ‘behind’ it), where I used an iceberg metaphor to show how the 90% of the Liberal Party, behind the names, riding associations, and candidates, should be built up. From this post (and others) many Liberals across the country have buckled down, put their thinking hats on, and have begun the process to build the proverbial ‘iceberg’–the activism, the training, and the leadership building that makes a party possible.

These are people in the party that have said to themselves that change–while possible at the top–doesn’t necessarily has to be so. These are groups that have come into being not from the Ottawa-Toronto area–movements that are coming from across the country from all walks of life, from both new and old Liberals.

I’ve been impressed with how these groups have grown (one facebook group has spurted to almost 500 members–all active, engaged folks involved with their constituencies) and the leadership shown by its many, many leaders. And the greatest thing is that these groups aren’t underneath the thumb of the party’s executives or big wigs–it’s all the membership pushing these groups.

If I’ve missed any please comment below.

Name: New Liberal

Website: http://www.NewLiberal.ca

This website is dedicated to aggregating numerous blog posts, articles, and ideas about building up the Liberal Party of Canada, along with provincial parties. It was set up by Corey Hogan (director of the Alberta Liberal Party) and is being pushed by a lot of Alberta Liberals. Of particular note is how it’s set up: that it’s encouraging people to get into their constituency associations, their provincial territorial associations, and building that local strength in the party.

It calls for grabbing 20 of your buddies and getting involved locally, eventually building a “movement within a movement” to push the party in a new direction. It’s grassroots politics at its most basic level and the group serves as an idea posting board for bloggers, writers, and activists to spread their message. I’ve been featured on it, too.

 

Name: Clear Grits

Website: (Facebook) http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_200463776655579

In homage of the Clear Grits of the 19th century, this group of party stalwarts have joined together over social media. The Clear Grits were called that then because of their tenacity and determination, and the term actually alludes to the type of grit (‘sand’) used in bricklaying. It’s also a name used by a bunch of angry farmers in the prairies who were angry with the government and organized. I can’t think of a better name for a reform movement than the Clear Grits.

They share links, ideas, events, and meet ups on their facebook page. A lot of young liberals are involved in this group, like Youth Prime Minister Max Naylor of the Canadian Youth Assembly (disclaimer: I use to be one of his ministers).

 

Name: Liberal Party of Canada Phoenix Project

Website: http://www.liberalphoenix.ca

This group of Liberals have made it their focus to build up and train the skills of those involved in activism at all levels of government. I really like this group of Liberal reformers because they’ve chosen a direction and kept it limited in its scope: and it fills a rather important niche in rebuilding the party.

My training in all things political have come from a few hours at random conferences that I’ve attended–and mostly these have to do with light skimming of techniques and a heavy dose of electoral rules/regulations. The real election training I’ve received have been through a full semester course with Dr. Thomas Flanagan at the University of Calgary for campaigning in Canadian elections and then a Leadership Institute weekend training seminar put on by Craig Chandler (yes, that Craig Chandler). Note that these fellows are on the Conservative side of the political divide–and for good reason: from my research and searching only the Conservatives deem it necessary to train their activists beyond just conventions.

I’ve asked about Liberal Universities (events for election training) when I’ve attended Liberal Party of Canada in Alberta meetings–and each time they say it’s up to the election readiness chair to put it in motion. That elections readiness chair, by the way, stops working at his or her duties after an election and another is reappointed as little as six months away from the next election. That isn’t sustainable and nor is it smart. I look forward to the Phoenix Liberals pushing hard in their training of the next generation of Liberal partisans because the party right now is more than incompetent in this area.

I actually have met the guy who put the website up–Ray Larson–who is also the president of the Saanich Gulf-Islands Liberal association.

 

Name: Liberals Rebuilding the Liberal Party

Website: (Facebook) http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_146023798799822

This is another social media-based group of people sharing ideas, policies, training, and articles. This group has, in the last few weeks, jumped from little under a hundred Liberals to over five-hundred–a clear statement of Liberals wanting to build up their party. Sadly this is a closed forum for discussion and requires that you apply to join. In a way this is a good thing, seeing that it focusing both the discussion and eliminates possible bad eggs from pulling the group’s focus away from rebuilding the party.

Over the last week I have gotten a lot of rather angry emails and notes speaking in opposition to my thoughts written about in my blog post last week on the Liberal Party of Canada. It has to do with the issue of centrism in Canadian politics and I do not believe I have been that clear on the subject.

First of all I would like to note that there is a clear demarcation between my opinion on a party’s electoral strategy and what is required to build up the party. Particularly being a centrist party, “at the center of Canadian politics” as some politicians like to say, is a good thing because (a) that’s where most Canadians are and (b) it’s where most of the voters are. Most Canadians don’t particularly care for ideologies or any -ism so being where most of Canadians are is a pretty good thing. I think being centrist is wonderful and is the commonsense approach to politics. This is good and shouldn’t change–it’s where the voters are and where every party to trying to pick up votes. It’s the basis of the Liberal Party of Canada kicking butt in the next election.

The crux of my issue in my previous post is that being at the center does harm the party organization for elections. While being where most voters are is a great thing an issue comes up when you’re trying to get this center-vote to turn into volunteers, donors, campaign managers, or candidates. It’s the basics of party organization here is at issue. Seeing that by definition center voters are moderate and, well, non-radicalized you can’t find people that will sit at the phones for four hours a day for 365 days of the year. That type and that level of enthusiasm doesn’t exist for a majority moderate voters. As a “radical” centrist I have a similar level of dedication but I know there aren’t that many of us, although I do know a few exist in Calgary.

One of the problems of having moderate folks our target market is that these folks don’t turn into volunteers or candidates that easily. And this hurts the Liberal Party’s “iceberg” has a systemic problem of not being able to tap into that large group of voters and possible supporters.

By virtue of their policy, history, and other things, the way that the NDP reaches out to those center voters is through having a radical base–of social democrats, socialists, marxists, some unionists, malcontents, and generally angry anti-system people–and have these people creating the strength of their party to contact voters, become volunteers, donate money, and become candidates. The Conservatives do the same with different groups of people who have axes to grind with regards to government. The backbone–the base–of a party for these two parties is present and is clear, and arguably quite healthy. The Liberals don’t have the same thing.

So when I wrote about centrism not being a philosophy that will help the Liberals it isn’t that I want to say that centrism is a dead philosophy but rather centrism doesn’t build parties. We Liberals have to rely on other things to build up the framework required to push our party forward in gaining the minutiae of party organization.

My solution, as I highlighted in my previous post, was to grow/steal/find groups that do have an axe to grind with government and society… and bring them into the party. This is beyond pandering, beyond electoral gambits, and beyond policy. Brian Rice at processingpolitics.ca hits this nail on the head: it isn’t policy or top-down leadership that’ll pull Liberals out of this, but you and me getting involved. My meek addition to his thinking is that it shouldn’t only be traditional Liberals getting their hands dirty but pulling in groups to form the spine of the party.

So in conclusion we as a party needs to adjust for the reality that the party’s iceberg needs to grow/improve. In my next post I’ll identify some growth areas for us and where I have already seen some growth since May 2nd.