Featur e
The Local Team is Your Strongest Asset
Quality Campaigns + Quality Riding Associations = Successful Elections By Jason Cherniak
ciation” or “EDA”), its executive and its members - formerly known as the “Riding Association”. Similar Associations exist provincially and many individuals are active at both levels. They are a committed group of local volunteers who have been recruiting members, raising money and otherwise supporting their political party between elections. Some of them have even spent their entire political lives doing noth- ing but recruiting and supporting whoever the local can- didate might be. They range from students to seniors and seasoned politicos to novice activists. They include hockey moms and dads, retirees, blue and white collar workers and every ethnic background. Between elections, Associations are the only legally recognized representatives of political parties at the local level. Everything changes with the drop of the writ. Suddenly,
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the Association might as well have no existence. Pursuant to the Canada Elections Act, the only person who appoints a candidate for a political party is the party’s leader or a des- ignate. This at times results in candidates being “parachuted” into a riding (i.e. Jocelyn Coulon in Outremont) against the will of the Association and without a proper local can- didate nomination process. The money for the election is controlled and audited by appointees of the candidate. In any good campaign, everything is organized by a campaign manager who is also hired by the candidate. After one, four or even fifty years of hard work, the local Association volun- teers are suddenly nothing more than names, phone num- bers and emails on a list. In many cases, this transition is a smooth and uncontested
process. The local candidate is on good terms with the As- sociation and the campaign manager has been approved in advance. The Association transfers money to the campaign manager with a small reserve for emergencies and otherwise defers to the formal structure. The local Association mem- bers then transition into the campaign organization accord- ing to their expertise and availability. However, this is not always the case. When a local can-
didate is controversial, appointed from above, or simply self- ish, disaster can follow the writ. Local volunteers who have spent years raising money are suddenly expected to turn it
48 Campaigns & Elections | Canadian Edition
olitical campaigns do not begin when the campaign manager is hired. Behind every good federal cam- paign is the Electoral District Association (the “Asso-
all over to the unknown official agent, appointed by the of- ficial candidate, to be spent by the hired campaign manager. None of these people need live in the district and none of them are responsible to the Association. While campaigns can be successful without support of the
local Association, there is no advantage to such a scenario. If an Association refuses to transfer money to a local cam-
paign, the process of obtaining access to the money can be quite time consuming during the short-lived 36-day elec- tion period. It is also expensive because lawyers cannot legally volunteer their services to a political party beyond the donation limit. While a campaign can raise significant funds during the writ, some Associations already have tens of thousands of dollars to buy signs, print brochures, rent a campaign office and pay for phone canvassing. All they re- quire is a candidate and campaign that they can support.
While campaigns can be successful without support of the local Association, there is no advantage to such a scenario.
For candidates and campaign managers, it is important
to develop and maintain an early, strong and positive rela- tionship with the Association. Local volunteers can be the most committed workers for a political party. They are not paid for their work, they do not necessarily get to travel to Ottawa, they receive little or no recognition from the lo- cal community and they often feel like the central political organization does not care about them. Indeed – particu- larly since the ban on corporate donations – their hard work often leads to little more than frequent requests or even de- mands for donations. Nevertheless, all these busy individu- als give much of their lives to getting other people elected. When these volunteers are motivated, they can be the best campaign workers. The legal entity of the Association can also provide sig-
nificant organizational advantages during a campaign. If the Association accepts donations during the campaign, then it can transfer money throughout and allow the official agent to avoid the complicated campaign receipting process. This
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