Why I am Running for Vice-President (Organization)

The next election will be won by the Party with the best organization on the ground. Even with the best policies and candidates, unless we are the best organized and able to get the vote out our efforts will be in vain. Vice-President (Organization) has a crucial role to play in making sure we have the organizational backup we need to succeed.

I am Thornhill Riding President and Deputy Chair of the National Council of Presidents. Being involved in the grassroots core of LPC gives me a perspective and contacts that are invaluable for the LPC(O) board. Bridges need to be built and communications kept open between LPC and LPC(O). I am a Past President of the Ontario Bar Association, a professional organization of nearly 17,000 lawyers, law students and judges, and in that role I brought change though organization and attention to detail.

Let me turn to specifics; there are three goals that must be achieved by the next Vice-President (Organization). We need:

1. Detailed portfolio descriptions for each board position. Such descriptions can be prepared for approval within two months of the February AGM;

2. Training binders and materials for EDAs are essential. These materials must cover community outreach, fundraising, media relations, canvassing, procedure for EDA meetings and membership expansion. These materials can be used with an expanded Liberal University for training throughout the election cycle – not just immediately before and during a campaign. These materials will require very considerable work and effort and could be prepared for board approval within ten to twelve months of the February AGM; and

3. We need a cadre of people trained and ready to supervise and conduct contested EDA meetings. We have some very competent people doing this now but they are stretched thin and their numbers have to be increased. Finding and training this expanded group could be done within six months of the February AGM.

I commit to meeting these goals in the timelines set out above.

Elections are not won or lost in Party Headquarters. It takes the dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work of thousands of Liberals to win the battle of ideas. One of the great lessons of the Obama campaign is that grass roots activists in the Internet age can produce massive voter results if the national campaign reflects local concerns. But the Obama campaign did not succeed without detailed attention to organization.

We will win the next election because we are right on the issues people care about, and we will have the numbers we need to win. I will work to make sure we have the organization needed to bring those numbers out.

Please feel free to join my Facebook group located at:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=819315441#/group.php?gid=91393230465&ref=ts

and pass the information to your friends. I look forward to speaking with you in the near future and/or at the LPC(O) convention in Windsor.