Featur e We spoke with the vendor, who was located in the
States, and decided to try it out. We set up our first Tele- Forum to dial 1,000 party members in Northern Ontario. We chose this area of the province as a pilot project as it is geographical remote, making it difficult, and expensive, for travel. We put the plan in motion immediately, resulting in very little advance notice to the potential participants. Yet, as we started the TeleForum, of the thousand names, we connected with just over 600 of them during the al- lotted hour. Clearly it was working. The average amount of time
participants stayed on the call was over 20 minutes, and all were excited to be able to ask their questions directly to Tim, take part in real-time survey questions and be per- sonally involved in the political process. I could not believe that this had never been used in Ca- nadian politics before (this was later confirmed, as it turns out, the only organizations using TeleForum in Canada prior to this were two NHL franchises). As we completed our inaugural TeleForum I turned to fellow campaign worker, Kelly Mitchell and said “This is what puts ballots in the box”. He agreed. We conducted four more TeleFo- rums throughout the Hudak campaign with the results being roughly the same in each one.
There are two main benefits from this system. First, is the relationships built between a client and their constituents or stakeholders. Second, is the data that received at the end of the Forum.
Tim Hudak won the June 2009 leadership race, and
while TeleForum wasn’t the reason he won, based on the response we got following each session, it played a sub- stantive role. Picea Partners was formed in early 2010 with Kelly Mitchell, founder of the Toronto-based consulting firm, Pathway Group, and myself. Picea Partners is the first company in Canada to offer the TeleForum service. The TeleForum system is designed so that tens of thousands of people can play an active role in the political process. More importantly, participants are having their voices heard, something that is invaluable in today’s election campaigns. During each call the client has unlimited possibilities as to the areas of discussion and debate. The forums can be issue specific, touch on over-arching election platforms, or follow an open question and answer format. The client has the ability to hear directly from their constituents in a personal, and engaging, town hall format. Each TeleFo- rum is capable of conducting a number of real-time survey questions on any topic of the client’s choosing. Questions
42 Campaigns & Elections | Canadian Edition
can be predetermined, or spontaneous. Everything is con- trolled through a user-friendly web interface. There are two main benefits from this system. First, is
the relationships built between a client and their constitu- ents or stakeholders. Second, is the data that received at the end of the Forum. In one hour an MP, MPP, or MLA can determine what the main issues are in their riding, the level of support they are receiving, and who is willing to place a lawn sign on their property. Initially, politicians in Canada were reluctant to try
Teleforum, and uncertain of its abilities. But it has been proven in Canada, as it has in the U.S, that TeleForum is a very powerful communication tool. However, there are also a couple of other reasons why I think politicians in Canada are hesitant to try the system. I have long be- lieved that, at least up until fairly recently, political groups in Canada have been two to five years behind the United States in using new technology to their advantage to build support and to get out their vote. TeleForum is no excep- tion. Politicians have been using TeleForum in the United States for over two years with great success. It’s so popular in the United States that President Obama has participated in a number of telephone town hall meetings as a guest speaker on a number of different topics (health care re- form being a big one). Another reason new technologies have not taken off is
Canada’s general lack of interest in politics. It’s no secret that voter turnout has gone down over the years, and few tools have been brought into the political arena to help rebuild the support. However, new tools like TeleForum and other social networking platforms are proving to be a very successful method of delivering a message. And people are listening. The TeleForum explosion came to Canadian politics in the early summer of 2010, when all across the country a light went on in the offices of every political party. People were participating in these town hall meetings, and the numbers kept growing. Slowly, as more and more people starting using TeleForum as a way to communicate direct- ly with their constituents, as the media started listening in and reporting on what was taking place, the demand grew. From coast to coast there are telephone town hall meetings taking place every week connecting hundreds of thousands of people to the political process at all levels of government. This could be because of a number of things, but I believe, mainly because of the amount of political activity that is going on across the country. As I write this, there are five or more provincial elections taking place this year, and the strong possibility of a federal election happening this spring. Politicians at all levels, and their campaign teams, are ramping up and trying to spread their message to constituents quickly, and in a direct manner. Back in the late fall of 2010, during a federal by-elec- tion in the riding of Vaughan, Picea Partners conducted a TeleForum for Conservative candidate, Julian Fantino shortly before Election Day. We contacted 40,000 con-
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