Liberal

PHOTO: Yvonne Jones arrives on Parliament Hill

Victory in Labrador: Liberal donations at work

Monday night’s by-election victory in Labrador was a model of political campaign organization.

It was also proof that all donations — from a $5 gift in response to our emails, to regular monthly Victory Fund contributions, or even a $1200 gift as a Laurier Club donor — can make change happen.

Let’s start at the beginning.

On the afternoon of March 14 news broke that Peter Penashue had resigned after taking 28 ineligible contributions last election.

Within 90 minutes, all the key individuals from our National Office, Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador federal executive and the Labrador Riding Association were connected and organizing.

Such a quick and efficient response would simply not have been possible without the stability provided by our generous riding, Victory Fund and Laurier Club donors.

The election wasn’t even called and Yvonne Jones wasn’t nominated yet as our candidate and the Conservatives had already started flooding the riding with advertising. But we didn’t hesitate. Because of the strong financial support from Liberals across Canada, within days we too were able to get our message into Labrador newspapers and on radio with Big Land FM.

Liberals provided the riding association and campaign team with the resources and encouragement it needed to win. And contributions from Liberals also helped Justin Trudeau and Bob Rae visit Labrador to give the team valuable support.

The biggest lesson of all is this: we came together as a team, we worked hard as a team, and we helped Yvonne Jones get elected as a team. This victory belongs to all of us.

Thanks to all Liberals, from coast to coast to coast, for their collective support and ongoing engagement.

The Liberal Team

Important news from the National Office

I want to tell you about an important change at our National Office.

After three years of outstanding leadership, National Director Ian McKay has stepped down and we are now seeking a new National Director.

When our Party faced the extraordinary challenge of rebuilding after the 2011 federal election, Ian seized the moment.

He oversaw the organization of a technologically innovative Extraordinary Convention in June 2011 that gave the Party time to rebuild before choosing a new leader.

He then led the team that organized one of the most important and successful gatherings in our Party’s history, the Ottawa 2012 – Liberal Biennial Convention.

And finally, he oversaw the most open and inclusive leadership race in Canadian politics.

Ian McKay’s accomplishments have enabled our Party to bounce back and be where we are today. The National Board of Directors recognizes Ian’s legacy and thanks him for his professionalism, leadership and hard work.

The National Board of Directors is now seeking qualified candidates for the position of National Director. Matt Certosimo, National Membership Secretary and Chair of the Human Resources committee will oversee the process.

Reporting to the President, the National Director works with the National Board of Directors, its committees, the Leader and the Leader’s office, as well as the PTAs and ridings to lead the Party’s strategic process in terms of both planning and execution, ensuring that those entities have the levels of support they require, as the Party further builds and mobilizes a volunteer-driven, campaign-ready, national organization. Working with the Chief Revenue Officer and the President, the National Director also oversees the fundraising efforts of the organization.

If you believe you have the skills and experience to be the Liberal Party of Canada’s new National Director, please email jobs@liberal.ca by May 31. A job description and requirements for the position are available upon request.

With an upcoming biennial convention and federal electoral campaign, the Liberal Party of Canada is well positioned to be the Party of choice to build a better Canada for all Canadians.

Thank you.

Mike Crawley

President, Liberal Party of Canada

TV ads in hockey games or jobs for youth?

Earlier this spring, the Harper Conservatives faced a choice in their spending plans.

They could invest in jobs for unemployed young Canadians (especially summer jobs for students).  Or they could waste your tax dollars on expensive television advertising about their so-called “economic action plan” which is obviously a miserable failure as far as young people are concerned.

They chose the ads.  Hundreds of them.  Running day and night.  Nauseatingly repetitive. Costing many millions of tax dollars for production and for air-time.

Not counting production costs, just one television ad during “Hockey Night in Canada” costs $95,000 for 30-seconds on-the-air.  For that amount of money, the government could instead trigger more than 30 summer jobs for jobless students.

In other words, for each second — that’s right, every second — those brutal Harper ads are on the air, another unemployed young Canadian could have had a job, but is going without.  And your tax dollars are paying for it.  It’s a travesty.

And that’s not all.  Imagine what it costs to run Mr. Harper’s ads during the Super Bowl and the Oscars and the Juno’s and the Stanley Cup Finals!  Mega-bucks!

Conservatives say it’s no big deal.  They tell jobless young Canadians to stop whining.  Canada is doing better than the rest of the world, they claim, so we should all be happy.  But look again.  Canada is falling behind.

Under Stephen Harper, Canadian economic growth has been sub-standard for years.  The only  period in our history that’s been worse was the dismal era of R.B. Bennett.   Many other countries — the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, and others — will exceed Canada’s mediocre growth expectations this year.

And for youth, the reality in most of Canada is still recession-like circumstances.

There are 231,000 fewer young Canadians working today than before the recession began in 2008.  Their jobless rate is running at a stubborn 14.5%, twice the rate for other Canadians.  That means more than 411,000 youth are out of work and actively looking for a job.

And that doesn’t include close to 180,000 others who have dropped out of the job market, because they don’t see much hope right now, not under this uncaring government.

The official statistics for youth unemployment are uniformly worsening in every indicator across the board.  Yet Mr. Harper is content with just the handful of summer jobs that his aloof and isolated government has funded, while his costly ads continue to contaminate the hockey playoffs.

Floundering from one disappointing mess to another, Stephen Harper seems increasingly walled-off from reality.  He seems to be in way over his head.

Ralph Goodale

Deputy Liberal Leader

Congratulate Yvonne: Sign the card!

Yvonne Jones was just elected as MP for Labrador and now we know what we’ve always suspected: our message of positive change is more powerful than Conservative attacks and cynicism.

Let’s thank Yvonne and everyone who helped on her campaign for showing us what hope and hard work can do.