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We have something to say.

We are a party of artists, writers, historians, lawyers, doctors, nurses, seniors,

programmers, businessmen, the farmer, the student, the young professional, and the

professor. We are a party of new immigrants, people who have been here for generations,

and a party of the future.

Ideas matter and Alberta is in desperate need of ours. One of these ideas is that there is a

role for government in society. This role serves the public interest, that safeguards the

environment, and engenders a democratic system that cherishes public debate. There is a

need for champions of systems that value human potential and creates systems that work

in order to give every person, no matter their station, the opportunity to succeed.

This innate knowledge this Liberalism has never been more needed in Alberta.

Alberta needs a moderate, centrist organization that is capable of delivering a strong

economy and a strong society, both through sound policy and solid fiscal management.

We now suffer more economic inequality than ever before. We have squandered a quarter

century of royalties and are set to continue spending in the now rather than on the future.

Albertans once sought to expand Albertas industries beyond the oil patch are stymied by

inadequate policy, inadequate economic conditions, and by a severe lack of leadership.

This lack of leadership undermines our education system by its consistent cuts; our health

care system by quasi-privatization and turmoil; our stewardship of our environment has

made us the laughing-stock of the world; our caring for the sick and the disabled brutal

and inhuman; and our mutual success is ultimately dashed.

There is a lot of work to be done, and done quickly, for our advocacy to assist in creating

a better Alberta. This document seeks to engage in a discussion on the things we need to

do as a political organization to be more successful.

Vincent St. Pierre,

President

Calgary-Klein Provincial Liberals

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Table of Contents

1. Forward

2. Table of Contents

3. Party of Now

4. Think Tank Labs Report and Review

5. Building the Iceberg

6. Rajs Story

7. The Building Blocks

8. The Snowflake Model

9. Volunteer Recruitment and Retainment

10. A Party of Communicators

11. The Media

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The Party of Now

A modern party is responsive. It is imbedded in the current debate, makes clear its

position, and involves itself thoroughly in the public discourse.

One key portion of this is two way communication between the voter and the political

organization. This requires timely communication of complex information is very short

bursts at an individual, person to person, level. Its online, its in person, and its always

about the needs of the voter coming first in the conversation.

Agenda setting for a political party is extraordinarily difficult thing to do, especially for

an organization that doesnt control the government. In order to do so like in the

example of the Gay Straight Alliance push in 2014 with Motion 503 and Bill 202 there

needs to be demonstrable effort by an organization.

This doesnt mean that we dont try to drive our issues. However, the modern political

context needs us to focus on issues currently in the public discourse and to explain our

position in a quick and effective way.

Recommendations:

(1) Have a person (not the individual who the account represents) on point for each of

the following twitter and social media accounts: Raj Sherman, Laurie Blakeman,

David Swann, Darshan Kang, Kent Hehr, the Party Twitter (@abliberal), and the

party Facebook account. Content needs to be timed to twice a day by using

scheduling tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer. Additionally, there is a direct need

for increasing the engagement of our accounts and the regularity we do it with.

This is especially important for Rajs accounts.

(2) Donations should take less than 30 seconds to accomplish. This requires we move

from paypal as our primary donation processor. Rather, we should use

Authorize.net in order to keep the user experience on our website (no Paypal

redirects), shorten the donation time, and reducing the donation time from our

current 1:30 to 0:30.

(3) Have every MLA, candidate, and party president equipped with a fundraising

package (a Square reader, donation forms, and a default fundraising letter) to

allow them to take donations on the door and immediately.

(4) Have every MLA, candidate, and party president equipped with a social media

package that includes our platform and easy to share graphics.

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Thinks Tank Labs Report

In 2011 Raj Sherman and David Swann both contacted Think Tank Labs to write an audit

of our web platforms. After the entire process was completed the consultants offered six

core areas to improve our online presence.

Objectives Completed

Amalgamate all Electorate

Information into a single

database.

We now do this (as of 2014

with the Nationbuilder

database). The consultants

offered a mapping function

in addition to a database but

this is functionality already

present in Nationbuilder.

Creation of Constituency

Microsites

We now have the

functionality to create

microsites for the different

constituency associations

through Nationbuilder

(since 2014).

Contact Resource

Management Software

Nationbuilder has the tools

to engage out donor

network, past voters, and

the tools to communicate

with these two key groups.

Listening Posts

The consultants offered

special social media tools to

track reactions to Liberal

communications and policy.

Advance issue tracking is

something we currently do

not do at a statistical level.

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Design

The consultants said that we

should invest in a common

design and uniform message

across all of our platforms.

When we invest in a new

Nationbuilder design from

LiberalLab or another

provider it should make this

process better. For now, we

are close to this goal.

Text Message Donations

The consultants suggested

to pull in donations at a

grassroots level through text

messaging. We shouldn't o

this because (i) we havent

used text messaging yet

through Nationbuilder, and

(ii) it is better (and cheaper)

to send a link to people

through a text message to

donate on our own page.

As you can tell from the above table, we are 3 for 3. However, the in depth social media

tracking, investment in better design, and using Nationbuilder functions for text message

donor campaigns can all be set up in fairly short order by a skilled individual.

It is the opinion of this president that we should invest in a party website redesign as soon

as possible, however. That should be a priority for the party as we approach an election.

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Building the Iceberg

Political parties do not exist in isolation.

Organizations, such as unions, universities, advocacy groups, civic organizations, all

form the basis for a political party coming out from the public consciousness to either be

formed or to be supported. Without a larger group of people supporting an organization

from all walks of like a political party is nothing more than a debate club.

The iceberg metaphor popularized by Preston Manning tells us that a political

organization is seen from above the water line its volunteers, party leader, MLAs,

policies, and such are visible. However, beneath that top level there is a vast swath of

society that creates the momentum for such parties to come into existence. 90% of what a

party is would be its supporters and the generally unseen elements of its iceberg.

Two case studies are key. Firstly, the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Leadership in

Ethics (named after the late Liberal MLA Sheldon Chumir) had a president for six years

(2006 to 2012) that is now the leader of the Alberta Green Party. An organization that has

deep roots with the Liberals in this province somehow ended up with the leader of the

Green Party as its president. There is a single mention of the Liberals on the Chumir

Foundations website and it is relegated to less than a single line in his bio.

Secondly, past Liberal MLA Linda McCulloch was recently elected as the new Public

Interest Alberta Chairperson. However, coordination with such an esteemed organization

as the PIA seems to regularly align with the NDP and have their research dollars inform

the opinion of the public yet the NDP tag along for media and public attention.

There has been a strategic effort to undermine institutions that are liberal in Canada. Be it

the targeting of poverty advocates by the federal government, the decrease in supports of

non-profits in Alberta, and the rough transition of generations in different civic groups

that often leave these groups destitute and broken, there has been a fundamental shift in

our society where these organizations have been harmed. It is our responsibility as

conscientious advocates to support these organizations and make sure they are successful.

Recommendations:

(1) We need to integrate ourselves strategically with these organizations that have

historically been tied to us and are pliable to our shared worldview.

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(2) Utilize the research dollars these organizations put towards leadership (in the case

of the Chumir Foundation) and public policy (in the case of Public Interest

Alberta) to support and further Liberal policies and efforts.

(3) See these organizations as places to (i) recruit volunteers and candidates from, (ii)

engage in long term twinning of our partys policy priorities to align with their

efforts, and (iii) be a place where these organizations can strategically work

together and be included in their communication efforts.

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Rajs Story

A leader is part of a partys brand and we are extraordinarily blessed to have one of the

best leaders a party can get.

Raj is a person of strong morals and full of energy. Driven, passionate, and tireless, he is

the type of leader that a political party needs to be successful.

From his days working at the pulp mill, working his way up cleaning hotel rooms to

earning an education to serve society as a doctor, and making smart investments along

the way, he is the embodiment of the immigrant kid done good. He is now a qualified

professional and respected in his field, in addition respected for his work before entering

politics as an advocate for Albertas healthcare system. Hes excellent on the doorstep,

passionate when speaking with people, and fantastic with engaging voters on a one to one

level.

Theres also the story of his working with the federal Liberal as a delegate and organizer

for the Gerard Kennedy leadership campaign, his independent voice as a champion for

Albertans that ultimately had him split with the governing party, his run for Liberal

leader, and his continued service in the legislature.

There is an amazing story here that touches on what it means to be Canadian and

Albertan. And we should be the ones telling it.

Recommendations:

(1) Engage in a session with the executive and membership to define, in full, the story

of Raj Sherman.

(2) Create a 6 paragraph long biography to use for Raj that exemplifies his full story

and create a stump speech for him.

(3) Engage in a long term (2+ year) effort to showcase Raj to the Alberta public, that

includes social media, our website, video, and other tools.

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The Building Blocks

Liberals and other parties often find themselves after an election stating they need to re-

engage the grassroots and that they ought to engage in a renewal or rebuilding

process.

Sometimes there just needs to be a building process to begin with.

There are three parts of any successful party. And all three need to be built.

Firstly, it needs people. A lot of people.

Secondly, money. It needs a lot of money.

Thirdly, a vision that appeals to Albertans and the means to communicate it.

Recommendations:

(1) In 2012 we identified 14 core constituencies to focus our organizing on. We

should continue this focus and effort into 2015, but now with an even stronger eye

on recruiting candidates.

(2) Identify 50 donors in Alberta who are willing (or have) donated in excess of

$5,000 in the past to the Alberta Liberals. We need to utilize our Nationbuilder

database to track our interactions with this large donors and involve them more

deeply in our party organization.

(3) We fundamentally hamstring ourselves when we do not allow our constituency

associations to raise money for themselves. We should engage in a program of

accreditation that teaches CFOs and riding executives how to collect and receipt

funds so that we can engage in fundraising at a grassroots level. A degree of

financial centralization is required but there is a need for a reasonable degree of

riding autonomy in the collection of funds. Additionally, in 2014 a board motion

was passed that directed the party to begin allowing constituencies to take in funds

and issue receipts.

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The Snowflake Model

The Obama campaign at the beginning of his presidential bid utilized a social theory that

people naturally will gather together and support a greater effort. It relied on the working

of a party around a set of individuals who then built a team around themselves. As these

teams grew theyd subdivide, grow, and shape themselves.

Normally, these organizations would have paid staffers be the centre point of a growing

web of supporters and activists. (This is where the idea and the mental image of a

snowflake comes from.)

This is a long term technique to build up an activist organization that has motivated

volunteers with a core of paid staffers supporting their efforts. The Liberal Party of

Canada has recently begun to engage in this grassroots building at a national level,

investing in organizers across Canada. Alberta, specifically, now has two organizers that

are paid by the Liberal Party of Canada (Alberta) to engage local voters and volunteers.

You can read more about the snowflake organizational model online at Barrack Obamas

website below.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/snowflake/

Recommendations:

(1) Hire staffers who are on point as volunteer managers and outreach coordinators in

each regions of the province (starting in Calgary and Edmonton). They can start

off as part-time. The goal is to create a level of stability in the organization and

have a point person to direct volunteers and activists towards in order to begin

building the initial snowflakes. Young and underemployed people are good for

these jobs.

(2) Continue to engage in open communication with the membership and volunteers.

(3) Focus our messaging on three core constituents: volunteers (who need inspiring),

donors (who need a value proposition), and the general public (who need to hear

our ideas). For the snowflake model we need to regularly inspire and create

material for our volunteer core.

(4) Our organization needs to have an overwhelming sense of positivity from top to

bottom in order to be a place where individuals want to contribute their time and

be involved in branching out and building up snowflakes.

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Volunteer Recruitment and Retainment

Expert volunteers that know how to canvass or phone call do not appear out of nowhere.

Campaign managers do not suddenly enter the position and are skilled political

organizers. Political communication is a skill and needs to be built up.

It is not a single election affair and should not be seen as such. A long term vision is

needed to invest in building up the talent of our volunteers, political operatives,

candidates, and supporters.

As a person who coordinated the 2014 summer season of festivals I feel it was of

immense importance to be out there and involved in these different communities. More

than 30,000 pieces of literature were given away and the party received many different

peoples interest. Additionally, volunteers felt like they were doing some really good

work and boosted their morale. Having tasks and being out in the community is good for

volunteers and good for the organizations efforts as it grows its organization.

Recommendations:

(1) Engage in a mentorship program that pairs Young Liberals and senior Liberals.

The benefit for careers, networking, and passing on knowledge is huge. Normally

our membership has been 25% under the age of 25 and 50% over 50 we are

fundamentally missing out on the young professionals and young families that

make up the core of Albertan society. If we create long term connections on an

individual to individual level we can lengthen our relationship with our supporters

and have it be lifelong.

(2) Identify regular tasks and low-effort events in our core zones (Calgary / Edmonton

/ Lethbridge / Red Deer / etc) where we can regularly engage our members,

volunteers, and supporters.

(3) Invest in a volunteer management team that will invest time in training and

development. This requires a pay point person, even if its a part time position, to

build up the ability of our volunteers to communicate and work with the public.

Volunteer management is an extraordinarily tough task that never gets its due

support or regard. As a membership- and volunteer-based organization we need to

get this right.

(4) In each city there should be a regular event that someone can point someone new

to in order to engage them further with a greater community. Kent Hehrs Pints

and Politics is an excellent example. So is the University of Calgarys regular pub

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nights. There are low cost, low effort events that we can pull people into so that

they can be engaged in both our party and democracy.

(5) A feeling of worth should be key in any effort to communication and support a

volunteer. Roughly one third of the time we spend on a volunteer should be on

their needs as a politically involved citizen, their needs, and their concerns. We

should always tailor the volunteer experience to the individual and promote their

needs.

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A Party of Communicators

A political organization that doesnt communicate is not political and nor is it a political

party.

We are popular in Alberta when we speak out. From August 2014 to November 2014 I

was blessed with the use of the partys twitter account and increased it from 1,200 to

4,500 by just engaging with voters and promoting what we were doing. There are

people who support our mission and we just need to connect with them.

We were inspiring people from our party account and supporting the efforts of caucus

with communication on Bill 202. In fact, in thirteen different incidents past members

renewed their membership that had previously gone to the Alberta Party, at least partially

based on the work done by the party on its communication online.

When we communicate we succeed.

Firstly, communication in the modern political context is two-way. It is not good enough

anymore to simply print a brochure and send it out to thousands of people or to expect a

party social media account to simply send out messages. There must be two way

engagement between the communication tool and the individual voter.

This means responding to tweets sent our way or placing feedback forms on every policy

page to engage with the public.

Recommendations:

(1) Spend money on website redesign. The initial redesign in January was one made

in an emergency and its replacement in March one done on a budget of zero

dollars. While I liked creating the website in both instances I know that I am an

amateur and not a professional web designer. We currently have a quote with the

organization that designed Liberal Premier Wynnes website (LiberalLab) that will

do our web redesign work for roughly $8,000. It would be wise to take advantage

of this.

(2) Utilize the list of 30-40 individuals on the Digital Influences program by sending

them regular information and increasing the list of individuals who want to share

our messaging online. This is a long term project that is modelled after the British

Columbian Liberals and it has assisted them in crisis communications and in

spreading their message to the general public. It also includes our membership, our

candidates, and our supporters more in the party organization.

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(3) Use a branding guide. Specifically, the flag motif and the use of a bold Times

New Roman font and #d81d24 Deep Red should be the mainstay of our

communications from the party. We currently jump between numerous fonts and

colours. Grassroots media creation should be encouraged but there should be some

larger guidelines on making our communication more professional from every

organ of our organization.

(4) Every communication from the party should have a call to action: to either call

their MLA, donate money, volunteer, or attend an event. We are a passion driven

organization and when that passion isnt directed it breeds frustration.

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The Media

The media is not our friend. In Alberta we have a distinctly hostile press that seeks to

fundamentally undermine us at every turn. Therefore, we need a strategy in order to

counteract and change this fact of political life.

In the last decade the idea of reporting for the public good has died a most brutal death.

With the corporatization of news outlets the days of the public good being key in the

minds of reporters are dead. Rather, it has been replaced with constant deadlines, the

need for copy, and an easily written story that a reporter can file.

The life of a reporter now is a brutal existence where they have to file five stories a day,

jump between different beats, and only one of these beats is political. This means there is

much less attention paid to politics and therefor us. This has a severe restriction in the

quality of the news brought to Albertans and less the need for reporters and more for

multi-capable copy-editors.

This means stories and ideas have to be simplified, made in a readily visible narrative,

and tailored to the particular relationship with the reporter. What used to happen was that

papers would take in news releases from organizations, research the story, interview,

write the story, review the story, and then review the story again at the editorial level.

This would take at least a day and a half.

Now this time has been compressed into less than two hours.

Our stories and our pitches need to be done on a person to person basis with long term

relationships based on trust. Simplified stories are the best ones to quickly explain and

then share to the greater public, and can be eased through this demonstrably shortened

news cycle.

Additionally, the news cycle is not only shortened, it is 24/7. A story can break at 2 AM,

and will be written on by 9 AM, meaning the normal work day for a political operative

or a volunteer involved in the process can be effectively skipped by the news cycle. One

of the principle goals of our organization should be to have the ability to have multiple

outlets to communicate out of and have an ability to cover for episodes where the

communication lines between the press and our caucus are not clear.

For example, the #CHHSLetsTalk campaign broke on a Monday at 12:30 am and within

eight hours went through its initial donor ($500). Seeing this, I pushed myself into the

centre of this student-led campaign by pledging the next $500. I coordinated with three

news outlets and utilized the different web and social media presences to then land

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myself in front of the news media in less than two and a half hours. I then was referenced

or featured in more than twenty media pieces, from radio to print to television.

Ive had the pleasure of working for Kent Hehr, one of the most savvy politicians we

have in our political organization, for the last year. We need to have him speak to every

candidate we have and have his strategies integrated in our partys organization

surrounding the media.

There are three core aspects we should focus on for media attention:

(1) Immediacy: the news cycle is now incredibly short. We need to have an operation

that turns on a dime and can influence reports at the immediate occurrence of a

story.

(2) Engage in long term lead generation. We want to drive and be involved in

narratives and that requires that we regularly create material that pulled in a larger

group. This normally is on social media. We can generate stories on paper, radio,

and television by communicating in non-traditional online releases of information,

communications to membership, and by involving ourselves in greater public

issues.

(3) Investing in party-side operations with regards to media relations.

Further, the way in which we engage the media is very MLA and caucus focused. This is

understandable due to them being our political leadership and often the most capable and

knowledgeable individuals on the case. They are also the ones that are quoted. This,

however, has caused an issue for our organization as it directs the entirety of the attention

of the media to individuals in the organization and not the brand.

This focus away from the brand has numerous problems. However, it can be partially

solved by a joint plan on supporting the shared brand and supporting the organization in

quotes, briefings, and other, long term efforts, along with the relationship building

between the party and the press.

Additionally, the party can create media stories. Through the use of social media, party-

based press releases, and consistently high quality communication, the party can start to

engage in the public discourse in an effective and professional way. These generated

stories can then be utilized by caucus to fit our MLAs into, deliver quotes, and showcase

the Liberal brand.

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Who is Vincent St. Pierre?

Vincent is a two-time national award winning blogger, award winning debater, past

president to two Liberal riding associations, president of the Calgary-Klein Provincial

Liberals, ex-president of the University of Calgary Liberals, Publicity Chair to the

Canadian Club of Calgary, and a campaign manager to a successful school trustee in

Calgary (2013). He is a blogger, history graduate from the University of Calgary (2014),

and deeply involved in the Alberta political scene.

An active volunteer for both the Liberal Party of Canada (since 2008) and the Alberta

Liberal Party (since 2011), he has chosen to be involved in the political process and with

Liberal parties since he was 17. As of the writing of this document he is 24.

From 2012-2013 he represented 24,000 undergraduate students on the University of

Calgary Board of Governors and before that represented some 7,000 students on the

University of Calgary Students Union.

He has been featured on CBC news, radio, and in print, championing liberal principles to

the Alberta public and being an advocate for the party in numerous instances.