Justin Trudeau stole a John Diefenbaker line Wednesday, when he told a Calgary audience that the only thing protecting Alberta Liberals are game laws. But the concern of senior Conservatives goes far beyond the purloining of old jokes — the fear is that Mr. Trudeau’s star power will upset the Tory Party’s undisputed dominance in the political fund-raising game.
The Dauphin’s campaign launch passed without incident. The speech was vanilla, delivered in slightly too high a register, and with some curious lines. “I do not position myself as a man with all the answers — in fact, I think we’ve had quite enough of that kind of politics,” he said, as if not having the answers is a virtue for a potential prime minister.
Yet, for the Trudeau campaign, the event was an overwhelming success because it was gaffe free and the pictures of the candidate and his family were worthy of Hello! magazine.
Within an hour of the speech 600 people had volunteered their time on the Justin.ca website. With that kind of drawing power, it will only be a matter of time before Mr. Trudeau is sucking in tens of thousands of dollars in donations.
The Conservatives pioneered American fund-raising techniques a decade ago — collecting a little money from a lot of people on a recurring basis. They have eclipsed all the other parties combined for years. In 2011, they raised $22.7-million from 110,000 donors, compared to $7.4-million from 38,000 people for the NDP and $10.1-million from 50,000 for the Liberals.
The Tories have been adept at mining the anxieties and outrage of their political base — typically, the angry middle-aged man — with targeted campaigns that inflate the indignities being perpetrated on the nation by their political rivals.
The Liberals have had problems matching that passion for the cause, perhaps because they haven’t had a cause in recent years.
But in Justin, it seems many people who are not necessarily Liberals feel they have a someone they can get behind. Even Conservative former prime minister Brian Mulroney has been saying nice things about Mr. Trudeau, telling the National Post editorial board that he’s a “fine young man … he’s well educated and flawlessly bilingual. What’s not to like about that?”
Volunteers are lining up to offer their time, which, as all political organizers know, leads to money. Young people — the so-called Generation C (for connected, as in digitally), who may not have money of their own, are offering to help target the female Grey’s Anatomy-watching set, who do have spare cash and are well disposed toward the young Mr. Trudeau.
The harried, suburban, middle-income swing voter was the intended target of Tuesday night’s speech and it is no coincidence that Mr. Trudeau’s next two campaign stops are in the suburbs of Vancouver (Richmond) and Toronto (Mississauga).
For anyone who tracked Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008, the way things are unfolding for Mr. Trudeau has a very familiar ring. The then presidential candidate married technology and an extensive field organization of 18-29 year old foot soldiers.
Mr. Obama established a relationship with younger voters through Facebook and My Space by talking about things that concerned them. But he didn’t rely on them to vote or donate *— he used them to inspire and rally others through initiatives like the Neighbor to Neighbor program. Over one million calls were made by people who wanted to promote Mr. Obama to their neighbours on laptops and desktops from their own homes.
Further, the internet was used to collect data about potential voters — short online polls led to more detailed postal surveys and the information was then collated to send voters messages tailored to their own beliefs and interests. The money raised *— $650-million by the campaign committee alone — was then spent on television campaigns promoting “Change We Can Believe In” — a spending advantage that propelled Mr. Obama into the White House.
Mr. Trudeau’s team is the best in the business — Gerald Butts has been a key figure in the election and re-election of Dalton McGuinty since 2003 — and has learned the lessons of the Obama campaign.
We already know Mr. Trudeau has stamina and he will be relentless in visiting every airport hotel and suburban convention centre in Canada urging soccer moms to “Be Part of the Change.”
For all we know, change may mean betting the nation’s tax revenues on Lotto Max. But as long as no-one asks too many questions, Mr. Trudeau appears to be well on his way to not only winning the Liberal leadership but re-filling his party’s depleted coffers.
Source: Conservatives fear Justin Trudeau could create Obama-like surge: Ivison | Full Comment | National Post
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