How To Build a Better MLA

Recently an Alberta Party member contacted me by e-mail to ask me what I would do, as leader, to help our Party get MLA’s elected, because that “is my biggest concern and that is how we will get REAL change accomplished in this province,” he wrote. “As leader, you would have a major role and effect in/on this effort. This is a pragmatic question and I am looking for a frank and pragmatic response.” - Jeremy

I responded to him last week, but now have decided to share my answer with all of you through my blog post this week. So here it is…

Hi Jeremy,

Their are many, many good people already working as volunteer board members, elected local government representatives, school board reps and community association presidents, etc. These are people that are already working on behalf of their friends and neighbors, already have a trust factor established and have governance experience. These are the folks that I think we should ask to consider offering themselves as candidates on behalf of the Alberta Party. Ideally we could set up a matrix that could guide our CA's as they move to candidate identification and selection.

Immediately following the election of our leader on the 28th my intention would be to start by connecting with community league/association presidents and local elected officials from across Alberta - many whom I know through my experience with the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, and setting up discussions with them as to who they think are the respected, connected, experienced volunteers and community activists in their regions.

Then we work to connect our Constituency Associations (CA’s) with the folks that we've identified. If we can connect with these people, they will already bring the organization and network from having already been elected in some capacity for some kind of community service. This would also give us a huge leap forward in organizing on the ground.

I believe that many community volunteers and locally elected officials have waited years for an opportunity that our Party is presenting, they are not going to put themselves forward for the PC's (you have to wait your turn for that) and they don't identify with the Alliance, therefor a progressive party like ours, with a clear framework could be very attractive to them.

It has been my experience that there is a whole host of people across Alberta that have been biding their time, waiting for a political party that represents their values so that they can offer themselves as candidates. They have been serving their communities in elected positions and are ready to take on a new role, with the right Party. The opportunity is here, and we need to go find them.

That is one aspect of my outlook on your question.

I also think that we need to continue the home hosted meet and greets. During my leadership campaign I have been in dozens of homes as the guest of the owner, it is amazing how people respond when they have been invited into someone’s home to meet a person that represents something that they believe in and are willing to risk their personal credibility on.

As a result of these home hosted events we have signed up many, many new Party members. I think that our team has surpassed two hundred new members so far, and just brought 41 more on board this past weekend.

During the home hosted events we start to build the organizing team for the local CA while supporting the potential candidates as the leader. We literally build the Party by going into peoples homes and doing the work of community organizing, one neighborhood, and one community at a time.

Finally, we focus on information exchange with all of our candidates, both from our central office and from the office of the leader. I envision a regular tele-conference or video conference with all of the candidates and the leader during which we examine and discuss hot topics, emerging trends and such, while sharing best practices and learning with one another.

My background is one of community organizing and advocacy, I would work with the Party to bring that experience to bear to help find, select and support our team of MLA's and the CA's that select them, to be successful.

I see my role as leader being a phased approach to helping build our party. Initially we continue the path that I've been on of criss-crossing Alberta, meeting people where they are and building the Party on the ground. Then we move to election readiness planning, CA and candidate support, training and education. Then finally we move to the campaign, where we have good support regarding messaging, local support and communications.

Finally, I would suggest that part of our candidate support process would be based on my experience of having worked with a group of people across Alberta to introduce an Elected Officials Education Program. I would like to see us introduce an intense training program so that our candidates are fully informed as to the job duties of an MLA, understand the primary issues of the day, including Bills in front of the ledge recently and of course, the Alberta Party policy and perspectives. We need to present a viable option that we will be ready to govern if we are asked to serve Albertans.

By engaging on the ground in helping our CA’s find, recruit and educate potential candidates, ideally those that have governance experience and then working with them to understand the role, educating them on the issues and supporting them while they continue to meet and greet people, where the people are, I believe that we should be able to have a very credible, very strong team of candidates to offer Alberta.