Part 2: Rebuilding our Base from the Bottom Up

It’s time to think outside the Ottawa bubble. It’s time to rev up the Big Red Machine.

The more Young Liberals I talk to, the more I realize that we are all doing incredible work coast to coast. It’s time to highlight that work and share in our expertise and innovation.

I’m a proud Liberal from Northern Ontario, a place where passion and hard work deliver Liberal victories, a place where everyone is equal regardless of title or experience, because we are all Liberals and we are all equally important to the cause. I will bring that same attitude as President of the Young Liberals of Canada.

I am committed to making sure we listen to our membership and empower them with the tools to help them build organizations and deliver election victories to make sure that Michael Ignatieff becomes the next Prime Minister of Canada.

Below are a few key ideas I have. I look forward to hearing from you and building on these ideas.

My best,

John

A specific plan that works for you:

Let’s establish a “twinning” program, where Young Liberals in held Liberal ridings partner with Young Liberals in unheld ridings to share best practices, election tips, and volunteer recruitment strategies. No youth should ever feel alone. We are a team.

Let’s have youth caucus liaisons in every region of the country. Our national youth caucus liaison, Navdeep Bains, is doing an incredible job. Imagine how much he could accomplish with a national team. Every club, riding, and PTA should have a point person in caucus to help them with election readiness, recruitment, and fundraising.

A Speakers Bureau is a must for any Party getting back to basics to build its base. I remember the excitement and benefit of having a high profile speaker to a club, campus, or PTA meeting. VIPs and former ministers are more than willing to lend a hand. Having a YLC speakers bureau with a team working to coordinate invites, dates, and events can help to guarantee that any Young Liberal willing to organize an event has this organization's full support in helping to find a motivating guest speaker.

A bigger vision that works for you:

The YLC needs to work more cordially with our provincial organizations. We need to recognize, accept and respect the role of our PTAs as being the main delivers of tools, information and services to Young Liberals across the country. This doesn't mean that we remove ourselves from our role as the national brand and national voice of Young Liberals. It simply means that we need to coordinate more effectively on a range of issues, from policy to election readiness, from how money is spent to what our September recruitment packages will look like.

We need to encourage our provincial organizations to work more cooperatively with each other. The YLC should set up an online forum so that our PTA executives can exchange policy ideas, success stories, recruitment strategies and overall best practices. The provinces ought to be working together to drive our national agenda on a whole host of levels, particularly on policy, where Young Liberals can have and have had an enormous impact.

We need to set short-, medium-, and long-term goals for the YLC and for each of the PTAs. Our strategic plan needs to include clear progress indicators. We have to ask ourselves: How do we measure success, in recruitment, in policy output, in attendance at events? It is essential for us to know these kind of details so that we have a clear-eyed view of how our organization can grow and become more inclusive and accessible.

The YLC should take its lead from the corporate and not-for-profit world and produce an annual report. An annual report is an important accountability tool that lets everyone in our organization see how we are doing. I want to see charts, graphs, diagrams... How many new members did we recruit, nationally and in each province? How much did we fundraise? Where did we spend our money? In addition, the annual report should include a "success stories" section, highlighting fun, new events and activities that local Young Liberal clubs have initiated. Whether it's a “time-raiser” event in Toronto—Danforth or a clothing collection drive in Victoria, new ideas should always be valued and applauded.