NORTHERN LIGHTS - Don't Miss A Chance to Organize Your Base

Written by John Anderson

The NDP - the so-called conscience of the country, and the reason Canadians have public healthcare and other treasured social programs—is falling fast in the polls leading up to the federal election, likely to take place before copies of Social Policy Magazine arrive in your mailbox. They are paying the price for propping up Justin Trudeau’s minority government for nearly three years in exchange for valuable but enigmatic pharmacare and dental care programs.

The NDP’s failure to follow fundamental organizing principles has cost them. The first principle: you need to be visible.

When door-knocking, a common mistake by new organizers is being too quiet in the neighborhoods. In Toronto, organizing is predominantly done in large apartment buildings that sprawl throughout the city. Countless times during field training, I’ve found new organizers whispering between doors. “I thought that went well,” they’d whisper, hoping for my agreement. I’d make a habit of replying, “Why are you whispering?! We are ACORN—we have nothing to hide! That did go well—everyone is joining!” The fact is, whispering makes you seem suspicious. The louder and more positive you are, the more people notice you and the organization. You want to make it hard for them to forget you were there.

The same goes for neighborhood organizing. Win or lose, visibility is a must for growth. You can win a campaign demand by simply calling a city councilor or bureaucrat and getting them to place a trash bin at a messy transit stop. They might send someone out the next day to do it. But if no one knows you had anything to do with that change, you’ve lost an opportunity. A better practice is to do an action - one that everyone sees. You mark your territory on both the issue and the solution, setting yourself up to take credit for the success with a bit more work. A visible action also allows the community to participate and take ownership. Every time someone who went to the action walks by that transit stop and sees the bin, they’re reminded that ACORN is strong and that collective action works.

Bottom line: if you’re not visible, you miss the chance to organize your base.

Scaled up to Ottawa, the NDP has been busy working behind the scenes, pushing the Liberal government to implement their programs—a herculean task. The problem? Few have noticed the significant policy wins.

Another organizing adage: keep it simple. If people don’t understand what you’re working on, the issue you’re pushing for, and the solution you’re demanding, good luck getting their support. How you cut the issue is paramount to winning over the masses and getting your message out. How you explain your policy demands matters.

Now, keeping it simple is easier said than done. The programs the NDP has championed and delivered through a Liberal minority government are more complex than some neighborhood organizing examples.

The Canadian Dental Care Plan is being phased in, gradually expanding coverage until everyone in households earning under $90,000 qualifies. In the end, it’s a strong program that benefits millions, but it’s not straightforward.

The National Pharmacare Program is also complicated. Some drugs are covered, others are not. Some provinces already had pharmaceutical coverage, and the national plan expands those programs.

Even so, despite their complexities, it’s a large issue for the NDP that these programs are so widely underappreciated and misunderstood.

The NDP used its leverage to win something significant for working-class Canadians. The problem is that no one can point to a moment when they saw them do it, and few can explain the programs in layman’s terms. Following basic organizing principles could have helped the NDP get the credit they deserve. Complicated or not, you need to be visible and understood, or you’ll be forgotten fast.

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