Members of the Green Party gathered at “Campaign School” in Waterloo this weekend. It was a gathering of candidates, campaign managers, and quite a few of the who’s who within the party to discuss strategies for the growth of the party, the upcoming election campaign, the platform (to be released during the writ) and for making connections with other campaign teams.
Elizabeth May (party leader), Adriane Carr (deputy leader), and Jim Harris (former leader and campaign chair), Sharon Labchuk (PEI leader and GPC director of organizing), Jim McDonald (executive director) and many candidates, campaign managers and others from as far away as Windsor, Sudbury and Montreal were all present to inject energy into the troops and tell us all their strategies for the growth of the party and tips for success in our personal campaigns.
Flush with organic, fair trade coffee, we discussed various ways of reaching out to constituents and supporters, from the traditional phone calls and door knocking to web sites, using blogs, social network sites, and other modern communication tools. The Green Party, as a grass roots organization, is already substantially ahead of the other parties in the use of these new tools. After all, unlike some other parties, we actually WANT to hear from you, and not just to tell you about what we are doing.
As we move toward the spring, my team and I have great plans to ramp up the local campaign in anticipation of a spring election and reach out to the community, so stay tuned here for updates. And by all means, support me on Facebook at the link above for announcements of meetings and other events.
And for those in Newmarket-Aurora, don’t forget our EDA’s Annual General Meeting next Saturday January 26. It’s at 11:00 am at the Newmarket Community Centre. Hope to see you all there!
