John Lennard for YLC President

We've heard a lot of talk recently about One Member, One Vote. It seems my recent blog post really struck a chord!

Quite a few Young Liberals believe the formula proposed by the Party National Executive inadequately protects the voice of youth. As you may be aware, youth are guaranteed a certain percentage of delegates to national conventions - currently in the 27-30% range. If we do away with the convention system, some fear our collective influence will diminish considerably. They argue that the Party will become less progressive, youth will become marginalized, nobody will listen to our issues, and the YLC will just fade, fade, fade away.

And so, they say, we need to amend the proposed OMOV to include a 25% youth quota, thus guaranteeing our influence. Failing that, it seems, they will vote against OMOV.

Let me be clear: Amendment or no amendment, I will be voting in favour of One Member, One Vote at convention. And I encourage everyone else to do so, as well. For me, it's about making sure the Liberal Party is a Party built for everyone. Every single Liberal must have a say, a voice and a vote. This fundamental democratic principle is too important to let slip away.

I take the issue of youth representation very seriously. I stood up in Edmonton, Halifax, Laval and Toronto and urged the Party to respect the contribution Young Liberals make. I showed up to the National Executive meeting last weekend in Montreal to listen, learn and make my case for youth participation. For months, I have contributed ideas on EnFamille on party reform and the role of young people. I'll continue to do all of these things, both as YLC President and as a Young Liberal volunteer.

Having travelled the country and met with countless party members, I am convinced, now more than ever, that the best way to guarantee youth influence within the Party is to grow our active membership. On leadership selection, we could settle for an artificial quota, be it 25% (as suggested), or 30% (as we have now), or 33% (as we had when I first joined the Party ten years ago). But nothing beats a robust organization with an engaged and growing membership to back us up. Membership can have a real influence on the party at all levels, and as Young Liberals, we need to seriously punch above our weight.

And so the question I have for Young Liberals is this: What would it take for the YLC to double its membership?

What will it take in terms of policy development? As a young gay man, I proudly stood up for same-sex marriage at the 2005 biennial convention in Ottawa. Four years later, it's time for us to think about new progressive policies by actually listening to what young people have to say. Our next VP Policy needs to be far more active in designing a broad, national policy process that breaks down barriers and encourages everyone - current party members and soon-to-be party members - to have a voice. Relevant policies will help us grow our base.

What will it take in terms of outreach? I'm proud to have met with numerous cultural, community and issues groups during my campaign. The YLC can't survive if we remain an inwardly-focused organization. We need to be far more active in building the Young Liberal network - and encouraging Young Liberals to build their own personal networks, too. Peer-to-peer outreach will help us grow our base.

What will it take in terms of organization in rural areas? What will it take in terms of communication, both horizontal and vertical, online and offline? What will it take in terms of fundraising? The answers to all these questions - backed by a strategic action plan to mark our progress and get results - will help make the Liberal Party more relevant to youth, the YLC more relevant to the Party, and Young Liberals and even more influential in the entire process. 

(By the way, if we doubled our membership, imagine how many Young Liberal riding presidents we could have? Imagine how many Young Liberal candidates we could nominate? And if we REALLY took our role as leaders of a national youth movement seriously, imagine how many Young Liberal MPs we could elect?)

The problems the Liberal Party is facing - in reaching out to Canadians, in listening to Party members, in building a strong organization - are real. They're urgent, and they're not going away any time soon unless we start changing the way we do politics. Young Liberals need to lead the way. We need to lead the way in supporting OMOV, and we need to lead the way in growing our membership. The Liberal Party will always be progressive if we, as a youth wing, constantly focus on growing our active base. Youth will never be marginalized if we punch above our weight with real numbers. No one will be able to ignore our ideas if our members have real influence, not just every couple of years, but all the time, and throughout the Party. And so at the very least, we need to double our membership. I'd personally like to see it triple, or quadruple, or even reach 100,000. But we have to start somewhere. So let's get on with it! 

Over the past months, I've had the opportunity to travel and meet with Young Liberals from across Canada.  It's been a wonderful experience.  Young Liberals everywhere, from Victoria to St. John's, are so diverse, hardworking and progressive.  They have passion, spark and vision.  They want to leave their mark and have their say, and believe that the Liberal Party of Canada is the best way to do it.

One of the biggest ways Party members can have their say is during a leadership campaign. As someone who's been through three leadership campaigns in my day, I can say, without a doubt, that there is nothing more thrilling and empowering than standing among Liberal friends on the floor of a convention and choosing the next leader.  

Thrilling, yes.  Empowering, definitely.  But fair?  I'm not so sure.  

Leadership conventions are great spectacles, but they are, above all else, exclusive affairs.  Not all party members get to participate.  Only members elected as delegates get to have a say - and even then, only delegates who can afford to actually make it out to convention.  All told, a small percentage of the membership of our party - 5%, maybe 10% if we're lucky - gets a direct vote on who becomes the next leader.  

Throughout the course of this campaign, I've met far too many Liberals - and especially Young Liberals - who would love to be a part of the Vancouver convention, but can't afford the expense.  This is an unfortunate fact that needs to change.  Money should never, ever be a barrier to participation in the Liberal Party.  Full stop.

That's why I'm in favour of a One Member, One Vote (OMOV) system of selecting our Leader.  But for OMOV to work in the Liberal Party, it has to treat all ridings equally and leave no region of the country behind.  One of the biggest concerns with OMOV is that it will give a greater say to areas in which we are already strong, and ignore the legitimate concerns of regions where we have some work to do.  As a Northern Ontarian, I recognize the importance of giving a voice to areas of our country beyond the big cities.  After all, it is precisely in rural and non-urban ridings where we are having the most trouble electing MPs and engaging party members.  Liberals here deserve to be heard, too.

The proposal put forward by the National Executive of the Liberal Party of Canada is an very acceptable compromise, in my view.   Here's how it works:

● Every member of the party votes for his or her preferred leadership candidate.  

● Voting can be done over the internet, telephone or in-person at regional gatherings. 

● Each riding is then assigned an equal number of points (100 points) with those points being allocated proportionately to the votes received by each candidate.  

In other words, whether a riding has 100 members or 1,000 members, its voice, relative to every other riding in the country, is just as strong.  And the best part is, every single Liberal across the country gets a direct vote!   This proposal is inclusive, simple and equal, and it deserves to be adopted.

As President of the Young Liberals of Canada, I will always stand up for openness and inclusion.  And so my task starts now: I urge all delegates in Vancouver to join me in supporting a Party built for everyone.  Join me in supporting One Member, One Vote.  

 

 

I want to take a quick moment to say how grateful I am for the outpouring of support I received after I released my newest policy announcement on multiculturalism. I also want to recognize a few people who contacted me and asked to be added to the list of those endorsing the platform.To all those who are willing to support me because they believe in the policies I have put forth, I say a sincere "thank you." I am developing policy in close consultation with grassroots Young Liberals from across the country, so please feel free to email me your ideas; I would love to hear them. I can be reached at john@johnlennard.ca.

To see the policy again please visit my website.

To view my story about meeting with Gurbaj Singh Multani, visit my blog.

You can visit me on facebook or on twitter.

Thank you to the following supporters:

 

Aaron GlynWilliams

Asad Nematullah

Anika Khanna

Audrey Tremblay

Ben Keen

Bianca Bruni

Bobby Sidhu

Brandon Maze

Carley Wasechek

Carmen Cipolla

Damien O'Brien

Daniel Gatto

Darcy Diachinsky

Eddy Byers

Emine Duzgeren

Fawad Mehrzad

Jesse Coady

Jonathan Pinto

Josh McLarnen

Justin Edwards

Katie Gillespie

Kerit Sidhu

Mannat Kahlon

Micheal Foo

Naman Chopra

Namrita Kahlon

Natasha Joshi

Navneet Singh

Neelam Dhaliwal

Pallavi Brar

Paul Saddler

Peter Swaitly

Puneet Greway

Rajat Mohla

Robin Gill

Sandeep Gill

Satinder Kang

Shameeza Kassamali

Simarpreet Singh

Sonia Kainth

Steven Addison

Taras Koulik

Terry Chemij

 

For those of you unfamiliar with the case, here is a short run down: In November 2001, Gurbaj - a 12 year old student in Montreal - was playing in the school yard when he accidentally dropped his kirpan, a ceremonial dagger worn at all times by some religious Sikhs. The incident prompted a school board tribunal to declare that kirpans be considered weapons, and that they be banned from schools. Viewing this ruling as an infringement of his freedom of religion, Gurbaj, his family and his community appealed the decision all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court ultimately held that the prohibition violated Gurbaj's rights under s. 2(a) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Gurbaj was kind enough to show me around his Gurdwara, or temple, in west-end Montreal. What a stunning sight! I am always amazed at the extent to which Gurdwaras serve as community centres for the Sikh community. Open 24 hours per day, the entire community participates in the life of the Gurdwara. The main hall is used for prayer and reflection. A constant flow of people enter the hall to pay their respects to the Guru Granth Sahib (holy scripture) and to make an offering of money for the Gurdwara's upkeep. Once you exit the hall and go downstairs, you enter the Langar (free kitchen) where vegetarian food is always in plentiful supply. Women and men can be seen chopping vegetables, cooking meals and washing dishes. Everyone - Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike - sit on the ground as equals and enjoy their meals. Nearby, children take Punjabi lessons and karate classes. Books, CDs and videos are available for sale or borrowing at the library. Upstairs, there are prayer rooms for special occasions such as weddings and funerals, as well as small apartments for individuals and families with no homes of their own. You see, unlike many of us in Canada, the Sikh community actually takes care of its most vulnerable members. Everyone always has a home in the Gurdwara, and nobody is ever left behind.

 

 

 

 

I am convinced that we can all learn a great deal from the Sikh community. The values of fraternity, self-sufficiency, sharing, tolerance and interdependence are cornerstones of the Sikh philosophy, and ought to be the foundations of Canadian society as well. Liberals should proudly and actively promote these values.

 

Meeting with Gurbaj, listening to his story and visiting with his community reaffirmed my commitment to creating a commission, a Party and a country that is open, tolerant and accepting of everyone. As President of the Young Liberals of Canada, I will personally commit to meeting with as many cultural, ethnic and religious groups as I possibly can. Because building a stronger, more representative and more inclusive commission starts with each of us standing shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Canadians.

Over the past few days, I've given a lot of thought to this whole notion of "party renewal."  It's hard NOT to think about it, given the results of Tuesday's election.  That, and every reporter, columnist and talking head in the country is discussing it.  As the cacophony of advice and insight grows louder and louder, I thought I'd do the honourable thing... and add to the chatter.

 So what does party renewal look like?  How about this:

 

• Young people doing the hard work nobody else wants to do. That was the story in Outremont, where Thomas Mulcair, the super-duper-Starship-Trooper candidate for the NDP in Quebec, was supposed to win in a cakewalk against his little-known Liberal opponent appointed two days AFTER the writ was dropped. My friend Martin - new to politics, but eager to help out in his home riding - talked me into volunteering. I'm glad I agreed.  People called the campaign "hopeless."  A mid-campaign newspaper poll had us behind by double digits.  Nonetheless, my friend and I worked hard.  In fact, we were the only two canvassers most nights.  Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from Martin on election night (I was back home in Sudbury for the final week).   His voice filled with excitement, he told me that our candidate was ahead in the early returns.  In the end, we came up just a bit short, but the experience left me with an emphatic belief that hard work, persistence, focus and a positive attitude are the values that win elections. To my friends and colleagues in the "hopeless" areas of Canada: Don't listen to the polls, pundits or papers. Just get 'er done!
• Young people being innovative.  For years, national campaigns have used Youtube and other online tools to get their messages across.  Local campaigns, however, seem ambivalent towards these tactics.  That all changed with Tyler Banham's "3pm" ad in Hamilton Mountain.  Inspired by Hillary Clinton's wonderfully infamous (or infamously wonderful?) "3am" ad, Banham's version is a cutting indictment of the NDP incumbent's poor work ethic.  It was widely successful among the college crowd, and also made it onto the local news (free publicity is always a plus!).   Watch it for yourself.  I bet we'll be seeing a lot more of this stuff in future campaigns.
• Young people taking on (very) senior roles on local campaigns.  I saw it first hand in Parkdale-High Park, Trinity-Spadina, Guelph, Hamilton Mountain, Westmount-Ville Marie, Laurier-Sainte-Marie, and (yes!) Nickel Belt.  It happened in other ridings as well, I'm sure. We may not have won all of them, but our impact was as positive as the new energy we brought to the table.  We made decisions - sometimes unorthodox ones - on strategy, organization, tactics, spending, communications and policy.  Better still, we learned, discovered, observed, figured out, tried, tested, succeeded, failed and grew from our experiences.  We'll take these lessons seriously, ponder them deeply and apply them favourably to the next campaigns we run.  

 

1.  Harper apparently found the toilet paper.  He apologized for his pooping incident, and Dion accepted his apology.  I say we move on to more important issues.  Like the economy.  Or eating kittens from outer space.  

2.  Don't be fazed by polls.  They go up and down, even until the very last day.  Case in point: New Hampshire.  I travelled down during winter break last year.  After Obama's big Iowa win, he received a huge bounce, and the pollsters said he would win by 10%.   Low and behold, Hillary ended up winning by three points. Lesson learned, friends.  Organization matters.

So a funny thing happened on the way home from school last night...

 I rode a Liberal campaign bus.

 That's right.  I'm walking home from school in the pouring rain, kicking myself for not thinking to bring an umbrella on a cloudy day  (hey, no one said law students were smart!).  I'm also a little pissed off.  It's 5:45.  I'm just leaving campus.  The Quebec campaign kickoff rally in the leader's home riding starts at  6:30. There's no way I can get from downtown to north Montreal in less than an hour (public transportation in Montreal is decent, but exceedingly complicated).  

All of a sudden, the rain slows to a drizzle.  The clouds part, allowing the tender warmth of the sun to shine through.  I look over to my right, and I see...  A big read bus with Stephane Dion's face across the side. 

 

 

 A miracle!  I start running after the bus, which happens to stop at a hotel right beside my apartment.  "Wow," I think to myself, "this just keeps getting better and better."  I look around the parking lot and spot an old friend of mine who works on the leader's tour.  I go up to him and we shake hands.  Trying to be subtle, I ask: "Hey, what's the easiest way to get to the rally tonight?"  He laughs at me: "Trust me, there is no easy way."  He pauses to think for a moment.  "Come with me."

He takes me across the lot to where two other busses are parked.  These ones are white, with the Liberal logo blazoned on either side.  "Media busses," he explains.  

 

 

 

He leads me onto the first one, and tells me to sit right up front, beside an RCMP officer.  One thing I've learned in politics is that when an opportunity presents itself, you shut up and take it.  So there I sat, in the front seat beside a security guard, for the ride up to the rally in Saint-Laurent.  The bus is jovial.  Cameramen joking with one another, quizzing each other on obscure Montreal trivia, complaining about the terrible roads in Quebec ("It's not construction work," I explain, "It's repair work.") I can see Roger Smith from CTV News sitting a few rows behind me, quietly working away on his laptop.  

 

 

We arrive at the rally, and a Young Liberal friend of mine watches me step off the bus.  He shakes his head.  "How did you pull that off?," he asks.  "Long story.  Be glad I'm here."

 It was a great event.  Three hundred Liberals packed the room and cheered on as candidates from across the province joined the leader on stage.  Stephane Dion was officially nominated as the Liberal candidate in Saint-Laurent-Cartierville.  He gave a fantastic speech, urging us never to forget what the stakes are in this election.  

 

 

 

 

He's right.  We have to keep plugging away.  And so I will.  

 

(**apologies for the poor quality of the pictures... Camera phones...**) 

Just watched Harper and Dion's respective news conferences.  I don't have much to say. Pretty boring stuff. 

What's more interesting, for me, is what goes on in the ridings, on the ground.  Case in point: Nickel Belt, where I'll be offering as much assistance as I can to elect Louise Portelance as Member of Parliament.  Granted, living in Montreal means that I'm eight hours away, but trust me: So much can be done remotely with a cell phone and an internet connection.  

Over the past couple of weeks, our biggest challenge was finding a reasonably-affordable, highly-visible and readily-accessible campaign office.  Until yesterday, it was looking pretty bleak, and we began to consider other options (A roving office?  A trailer, perhaps?).  Then last night, in a STUNNING turn of events (sorry, I grew up watching Larry King), I got the good news that we had secured not one, not two, but three campaign offices!  For a riding as ginormous as Nickel Belt (you could fit a few European countries within our boundaries), having a few satellite offices makes sense.  So take that, broken down Winnebago!  We'll be living the high life after all, thank you very much!

 So for anyone passing through Northern Ontario over the next few weeks, drop by and lend Louise a hand!

 

Valley East Office

(next to the Pizza Hut)

4544 Highway 69N, unit #3

Val Therese, Ontario, P3P 1P9

 

Rayside Balfour Office

Place Bonaventure

4764-10A, R.R. 15

Chelmsford, Ontario, P0M 1L0

 

West Nipissing Office

173 King Street

Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, P2B 1R6