Grassroots Efforts Can Make an Impact

By Olena Wawryshyn

A small group of determined individuals in the federal riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore demonstrated during the recent Liberal delegate election meetings (DEMs) that grassroots efforts can make an impact politically. 

Liberal DEMs in federal ridings across Canada were held on the weekend of November 30-October 1 to elect delegates who will be voting for the party leader at the upcoming convention at the beginning of December.

In Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Liberal leadership hopeful Michael Ignatieff’s home riding, the party deployed tremendous resources to get as many Ignatieff delegates elected as possible.

Yet, despite these efforts, the Ignatieff camp managed to elect only 7 out of the 14 delegates in the riding.  Leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy ended up with 5 delegates, and Stephane Dion and Bob Rae with one each.

In large part, Ignatieff’s lack-lustre showing is a direct result of the ill will created in a series of events almost a year ago that culminated in the acclamation of Ignatieff as the Liberal candidate in Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

During this process, the party elite demonstrated a dispiriting affront to democratic principles and an egregious disregard for grassroots members. They gave them only 24-hours’ notice of the deadline for submitting nomination forms for those who wanted to run as candidates in the federal election. When two managed to fill out their forms in time, they found the doors to party headquarters locked when they went to submit them.

“Ignatieff alienated a substantial portion of the riding membership when he allowed himself to be ‘parachuted’ in as the Liberal candidate in Etobicoke-Lakeshore in the last federal election, said Etobicoke-Lakeshore Liberal party member Walter Daschko.

“Many of the riding’s members felt that Ignatieff, who has lived outside of Canada for close to 30 years, should have had the personal integrity to stand for election along with other local candidates who had hoped to run. Instead, Ignatieff looked the other way while party functionaries locked the doors prior to the deadline for submission of nomination papers.” Dashchko added.

At the DEMs, Ignatieff’s supporters were out in large numbers, but those in the Kennedy camp, among them many in the Ukrainian community came out in larger percentages says another Liberal party member Myroslava Oleksiuk, a former riding association membership secretary who was running to be a delegate.

Out of approximately 2,400 individuals in Etobicoke-Lakeshore who were eligible to vote, the Kennedy camp was able to determine that they had about 637 supporters in the riding. This number was approximated after extensive canvassing done in the weeks and months before the DEMs. Of these supporters, 266, or 42 per cent came out to vote says Oleksiuk.  Of the remaining 1,800 riding members, only 386 or just over 21 per cent, voted.

Thus, even though there likely could have been more members signed up to the party by Ignatieff's supporters in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, the higher participation by Kennedy's supporters gave them a proportionally high result in the final count.

The numbers voting at riding association meetings of the kind held by Liberals across the country a month ago are not large. Therefore, the participation of small groups of individuals can swing results significantly.

The success of the Kennedy camp on Ignatieff’s home turf is a lesson for those who cite the lack of ability to make a difference as an excuse for not getting involved in politics. Individuals involved in our country’s political process, even at the lowest levels, can still make a difference.