Matt Hebb, the
2009 campaign manager for the Nova Scotia New Democrats, injected some
humour into his presentation last weekend at the federal NDP convention
in Halifax. His talk was about how the NDP managed to pull off a
majority government in the June provincial election. “One of the
secrets of winning is to get incompetent Tories,” Hebb quipped. “People
agreed it was time for Rodney MacDonald to go.”
Hebb acknowledged that normally Nova Scotia voters would have turned
to the Liberals. But the new Liberal leader, Stephen McNeil, hadn’t
established himself yet. So the NDP, led by the unpretentious and
better-known Darrell Dexter, was finally poised for a breakthrough.
Dexter had fought successfully on behalf of nursing home residents
losing their life savings after being forced to pay for their own
medical care. That issue was a strategic one, Hebb said. It helped
establish the NDP as “the party that cares.” It also fit with the
party’s main promise “to make life better for today’s families.”
Hebb and his counterpart in Manitoba were asked to speak to the
1,300 convention delegates so that federal party members could get tips
on how to run winning election campaigns. Manitoba has elected three
majority NDP governments in a row. The federal party, on the other
hand, is still mired in fourth place in the House of Commons, with only
36 of 308 seats. Some federal members argue the NDP should adopt
polished marketing strategies, slicker advertising and catchier slogans
to win its way to power. Some were pushing to “re-brand” the New
Democratic Party by dropping the word “new.” Thankfully, that
name-change proposal was far enough down the list that it didn’t come
up for debate. But there was still plenty of marketing talk, with one
supporter asking whether there was anything new about the “NDP
product.”
Fortunately, the convention heard from a pair of Americans who
worked as key organizers in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Marshall Ganz, a veteran organizer on behalf of farm workers and civil
rights causes, told delegates the Obama campaign attracted
one-and-a-half million volunteers by offering hope, focusing on shared
values and shifting “to a politics that resisted turning people into
customers for finely targeted messages.” Ganz added: “We recognized
people as citizens [who could] come together, work together and decide
their future together.” The Obama campaign used town hall meetings,
house parties, interactive web sites, email, Facebook, Twitter and
blogs to encourage people to say what they thought.
But, said Betsy Myers, Obama’s chief operating officer, “Everything
was a call to action offline.” People were asked to donate money,
volunteer at the local campaign office, organize house parties, phone
their friends and canvass door-to-door. “Always ask for something,”
Myers told the NDP delegates. “People want to be involved. They want to
be heard.” She said that organizers would ask people who came out to
meetings: What’s your story? Why are you here? What matters to you?
“Our campaign was not about talking at; it was about listening to,”
Myers added.
Ironically, the two Americans were talking to a Canadian party that
was once expert in grassroots campaigning. During the 1960s, the NDP
perfected door-to-door canvassing techniques designed to identify
supporters, listen to their concerns and then, get them to the polls.
But a steady decline in volunteers over the decades coupled with the
growing influence of television led all political parties to rely
heavily on pre-scripted news events, polished campaign ads and
telephone marketing. Personal contact with voters dwindled and, not
surprisingly, so too did voter turnout. The Nova Scotia election in
June set a new low with only 58 per cent of voters bothering to cast a
ballot.
The federal NDP and their provincial Dexterite cousins would do well
to heed the advice from the Obama campaign. Offer hope, focus on shared
values, treat people as citizens, not consumers, and above all, ask for
their help.
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2009.