Federal Election 2011

With the conclusion of the 2011 federal election I thought it worthwhile to offer some thoughts on what happened. For first time readers, I’m a person who’s been an active member of the Green Party on and off for five years and I managed the Green Party campaign for John Lawson in Guelph for the past seven weeks.

So, in no particular order:

1. The Green Party of Canada established electing Elizabeth May as it’s only primary goal at some point shortly following the election in 2008. Elizabeth May was elected, I’ll admit to being a voice that was unsure that this was going to happen. During the election I was happy to assist with calls to SGI and am happy that she won. I believe that achieving significant milestones such as this should be celebrated J. Congratulations to everyone who worked hard on electing Elizabeth in SGI.

2. Nationally, it feels as if we were decimated. I don’t have the exact numbers, but it appears that the number of ridings that exceeded 10% of the votes dropped an extraordinary amount between 2008 and 2011. Here in Guelph, that comes at a catastrophic financial cost. It’s important for the decision makers in the Green Party to do a thorough analysis of why this happened beyond Elizabeth May not being in the debates. I would suggest that ridings who have built strong relationships in the community could deal with an unfavourable national climate and the fact that we were unable to do so suggests that we do not have the relationships we need. As it was, the national climate in this campaign was about fear and we were unable to communicate that we were a legitimate alternative to the politics of fear. The NDP were obviously able to capitalize on this message.

3. In Guelph, I think we still struggle with a divide between “old-school” and “new” Greens. A group of new Greens got involved in this campaign. My experience of the past is that the emotional attachment and personal investment that the old-school Greens have with the party prevented new people from getting involved, to the point where an old school member put a name in for riding president far past the nomination deadline to prevent a new member from becoming president. This challenge is difficult, as I am unsure of what actions can be taken to create an environment where old-school members can trust and feel safe with resigning or leaving their positions and knowing that they will be well cared for by new (less experienced) members. Up until 2008, their leadership built a strong foundation in Guelph, since then (to be blunt) they laid the groundwork that helped us lose ¾ of our support. I played a role in that and am hoping to find new approaches to solve that problem.

4. I hope that, both locally and nationally, we are growing to understand the use of social media better. I observed us to be very effective at the usage of it nationally, but I cling to the belief that, at it’s most effective usage, social media can only amplify a message. It is not a solution to engaging youth, winning media cycles or recruiting volunteers/raising money. The Green Party (as all others) will need to continually improve two things: What are the best ideas we can come up with to improve our future and how can we communicate these ideas in a way that the average person in Canada can connect with. Ultimately, I still feel like I can’t define or connect with what the Green Party is. If I can’t define that, then odds are I am doing a poor job of communicating that to voters. I hope for some assistance from the central party in shaping that answer J.

5. It’s going to be fun to watch Elizabeth participate in governing! Watching her use the 24/7 media cycle and relationship buildings skills inside parliament could lead to all sorts of unexpected successes.