NDP, Liberals import grassroots approach from the Obama campaigns
The 2015 federal election will require political parties to work harder than ever to capture the attention of the electorate. With this story, Adam Radwanski begins a new assignment looking at how the party machines across the country are preparing.
Justin Trudeaus Liberals have quietly been getting regular advice from Jennifer OMalley Dillon, Barack Obamas deputy campaign manager in the last U.S. presidential campaign.
Somewhat more openly, Tom Mulcairs New Democrats have been receiving guidance from Jeremy Bird, who was Mr. Obamas national field director.
Look closely enough, and it is possible to see the influence of those and other prominent Democrats on the Liberals and NDPs election preparations just not in the ways one might expect, based on some of the hype about high-tech methods set to be imported.
Insiders from both parties concede that some of the most ambitious techniques from the Obama campaigns the sort that are said to use advanced data analytics to target messages to individual voters are not applicable in a country with less money in its political system, stricter privacy laws that limit access to personal information, and a less predictable electorate than one in which voters register to support one of two parties.
As an example of Mr. Birds input, New Democrats instead point to the days of action they have been holding every month or two, in which teams of canvassers talk to voters about a specific policy proposal or issue. Although part of the objective is to collect data about potential supporters, the point is mostly to engage and train volunteers in the hope of having a force ready to roll when the campaign begins in earnest.
The Liberals have been nudged toward more volunteer training as well. And as further evidence of taking advice from the Americans, party sources point to the $3 contributions they have been soliciting from first-time donors a minuscule amount meant to get people in the habit of giving so that larger amounts can be sought in future. If those do not jump out as revolutionary concepts, that is somewhat the point. Much of what Democratic consultants are preaching is a sort of return to basics for parties that long neglected the painstaking work needed to build national grassroots organizations.
For a time, parties got away with that neglect more easily. Television advertising and other mass communication allowed them to get their messages out. Paid phone banks became a preferred way of identifying supporters and ensuring they voted without too many on-the-ground volunteers. Lax fundraising rules allowed the Liberals to get by mostly on corporate and large individual contributions, and the NDP on union ones.
Today, changing media consumption habits make it increasingly difficult to reach voters through mass communication, people are harder to reach by phone because they have done away with land lines or have caller ID, and corporate, union and large personal donations are banned. So parties and candidates have to work harder and more creatively to capture the attention (and dollars) of an electorate that can more easily tune them out something that social media and other online tools can help with, but that also requires direct personal contact.
Whats been proven is that successful campaigns use an integrated approach to reach voters in one-on-one conversations, whether thats online or on the ground, Mr. Bird says. This grassroots outreach is hard work and requires a deeper investment. (Ms. OMalley Dillon did not respond to requests for comment.)
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NDP, Liberals import grassroots approach from the Obama campaigns