Where does the Liberal Party’s rebuilding process begin?
Cash is a good place to start.
The party is being dramatically outstripped on the fundraising front by Stephen Harper’s Tories, who are on track to add $24-million to their war chest in 2012, according an analysis by the Liberal Party’s outgoing president.
This is in addition to $80-million the Conservatives have raised since 2008, which is about 40 per cent more than the $32-million the Grits have been able to attract.
The report notes that the Liberal Party has about 40,000 donors, which is estimated to be about one-third of the number contributing to Tory coffers. And that gap is widening.
On Saturday, Don Tapscott, an outsider and total stranger to Liberals and their politics, will attempt to launch them on their adventure to find a way back to power. His message? Innovate.
A visionary and renowned business thinker, Mr. Tapscott is the keynote speaker at the Liberals’ three-day policy convention. His presence indicates what the Liberals are hoping to achieve this weekend: to get rid of vested interests, open up the party to outsiders and find policies to engage Canadians.
For Mr. Tapscott, the question facing Liberals is whether they can bring about fundamental change.
“The leaders of the old have great difficulty embracing the new,” he says. “Your success in the old becomes your inertia. I suppose that is the big challenge facing the Liberal Party – that, more than any party, it’s kind of like Canada’s most successful ruling party if you look at history since Confederation. So more than any other party they are the leader of the old paradigm.”
Reduced to a 34-seat rump in last May’s election, Liberals are trying to plot a recovery that doesn’t involve falling back into familiar patterns, such as pointing fingers or the infighting that has defined the party since the John Turner years.
Party officials say about 3,000 delegates, 1,000 of whom are under age 30, are attending the convention.
Nothing less than blowing up the leadership selection process and adopting a wide-open primary system – as well as other measures to make the party more transparent and wrest power from MPs and the leader – will be voted on this weekend.
But on Day 1, it was the party’s ability to raise money that came under the microscope.
If the Liberals are to be viable, outgoing president Alfred Apps says, they must replace the few hundred corporate and wealthy donors who used to finance the party with thousands of small donations from individuals.
So, at this convention, he and his executive team are pushing for changes to fundraising, including the creation of a $2.5-million call centre for soliciting donations.
That facility would also help gather information about individuals, including what issues concern them. The Tories are also way ahead of the Liberals at identifying their voters and keeping them engaged.
Liberal pollster Michael Marzolini, head of the national polling firm Pollara, meanwhile, suggests something Liberals can do immediately to help fundraising efforts: Lose the superior attitude.
“For 20 years, the most frequently mentioned complaint by Canadians about Liberals is that they are arrogant and think they know better than the general public,” notes Mr. Marzolini.
“It is appropriate that Liberals listen to, and consider the views of, Canadians of every walk of life. The Liberals need to become the allies of Canadians – their brothers and sisters, rather than their parents.”
