[fvc-wat-disc] Strategy Meeting on Thursday, 19 May 2016
Bob Jonkman
bjonkman at sobac.com
Mon May 23 14:37:30 EDT 2016
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For anyone who wasn't able to attend our Strategy Meeting on Thursday,
here are the minutes. They're also online at
http://www.fairvotewrc.ca/meetings/2016-strategy-and-executive-meeting/
=====
Fair Vote Canada Waterloo Region Chapter
Strategy and Executive Meeting, 19 May 2016, 7:00pm
Location: Sharon Sommerville’s dining room, 85 Westmount Road South,
Waterloo, Ontario
Attending:
* Sharon Sommerville (Co-chair)
* Bob Jonkman (Co-chair)
* Aden Seaman (Treasurer)
* Donald Fraser
* Paul Nijjar
* David Dirks
* Stuart Chandler
* Sean Haberlin
* Byron Weber Becker
* David Arthur
* Barbara Campbell
* Cathy Campbell
Regrets:
* Kevin Smith (Secretary)
* Jennifer Ross (Member at Large)
* Shannon Adshade (Member at Large)
1. Introductions were made
2. Update – Meeting with Minister Monsef on Wednesday, 25 May 2016
* Jennifer Ross and Sharon Sommerville of /Fair Vote Waterloo/,
and Kelly Carmichael of /Fair Vote Canada/ will meet with the
Hon. Maryam Monsef, Minister of Democratic Institutions on
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
* Meeting for 30 minutes as a delegation of /Fair Vote Canada/.
* Kelly Carmichael is the Executive Director of /Fair Vote Canada/.
* Jennifer Ross is the Treasurer of the /Fair Vote Canada/
National Council.
* This is to be a frank discussion on the process of Electoral
Reform.
* /Fair Vote Canada/ must not force the Liberals in the direction
of Fair Vote views; instead, this delegation will bring a
moderate voice to the table.
* Proposal: The local group (/Fair Vote Waterloo/) feels the
All-party Parliamentary Committee (APC) makeup is not democratic
enough.
* The APC is to make recommendations to parliament.
* The Liberals will strike the All-party Parliamentary Committee
(it has not yet been formed).
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ believes that a decision to create a fair
voting system should be made by a fair committee.
* Committee creation procedures are detailed in Standing Orders in
Council.
* The APC is to complete reports from local electoral districts by
1 October 2016, and is to report to parliament on 1 December 2016.
* The APC will consist of six Liberals, three Conservatives, and 1
NDP member. There will be one Bloc Quebecois member and one
Green Party member (Elizabeth May) who are not allowed to vote
or make motions.
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ believes the APC should create a Citizens’
Assembly to make determinations, then take those findings to
Parliament. We realize that will not happen here.
* What is the purpose of the Town Hall meetings?
* /Fair Vote Canada/ and /Lead Now/ have a good working
relationship.
o /Lead Now/ started in 2011 to lead online discourse in, e.g.
the environment and democracy. There are about 500,000
people involved.
o /Lead Now/ had an active team for strategic voting,
providing education and doing canvassing. This was good
training for Electoral Reform.
o /Fair Vote Waterloo/ will not be canvassing, but people can
be a member of both organizations.
o The NDP is also involved in canvassing.
o /Fair Vote Waterloo/ will be sharing information tables with
/Lead Now/ at the summer festivals.
o Canvass districts are being divided by organization.
o The NDP has resources for canvassing: poll maps, membership
lists; Sean Haberlin wants to share resources.
o Postcards for support were sent to the NDP House Leader.
o Postcards sent to Minister Monsef will be forwarded to the
MP of the sender (so better to send it to your MP in the
first place).
o /Lead Now/ also has postcards and canvass material.
o Q: Are /Fair Vote Waterloo/ and /Lead Now/ cross-promoting?
e.g. Canvassing events, summaries of events.
A: We don’t want to use the mailing list for non-Fair Vote
material, but OK to put these items on the Web site, social
media. Discussion on mailing list policy to be deferred for
another meeting.
3. Objectives
* How many opportunities do we have to make our pitch?
* We hope that Minister Monsef will come to Waterloo Region.
* We should be prepared to make deputations to the APC and at the
Town Hall meetings.
* Raj Saini (Kitchener Centre) and the Hon. Bardish Chagger
(Waterloo) have stated their commitment to /Fair Vote Waterloo/
bring Minister Monsef to Waterloo Region.
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ should give a presentation to Minister
Monsef and the APC.
* Deputations to the APC and at the Town Hall meetings are
separate events.
* There could be as many as seven opportunities: Five at each
Electoral District Town Hall meeting; to Minister Monsef; and to
the APC.
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ will offer to help with the Town Hall
meetings: Approaching MPs; Working with MPs.
* Town Hall meetings were promised by the Prime Minister.
* “How can I help with the Town Hall?” is a good approach.
* Public Education:
o Media: Needs education.
o Mainstream media is still dismissive of Electoral Reform and
Proportional Representation.
o The media piece is huge…
o Letter Writing Committee will continue to monitor Letters to
the Editors and write responses, will focus on local media.
o /The Record/ is not interested in exploring the issue — John
Roe (Editor at /The Record/) was looking for an OpEd article
to explain the issue. The OpEd article was submitted by
Sharon Sommerville, but it was not published.
o /Fair Vote Waterloo/ should make phone calls to local media:
CTV, CBC, radio, print media.
o Donald Fraser and Bob Jonkman will form the Media Outreach
Team.
o The Media Outreach Team will pitch the idea by e-mail: “How
can we help you put this (Electoral Reform) out to the
community?”
* Broadening the support base:
o Interest is shown during canvassing, but canvassers don’t
have follow-up resources.
o /Fair Vote Waterloo/ needs an Outreach Worker
+ “Here is something you can do… ”
+ Outreach Worker will staff summer festival booths and
attend meetings.
+ Aden Seaman will be the /Fair Vote Waterloo/ Outreach
Worker.
+ Bob Jonkman and Sharon Sommerville are willing to share
their phone numbers and e-mail addresses as outreach
contacts.
+ Logistics: Have a handout with info for /Fair Vote
Canada/, /Lead Now/, the /Broadbent Institute/.
+ Aden Seaman will create business cards for information
handout.
o Outreach to other groups?
+ /Lead Now/, NDP are already on board.
+ Green Party? Other groups?
+ Someone to coordinate outreach to Co-ops?
+ Byron Weber Becker will gather a list of Co-ops from the
Province’s web site.
4. Town Hall meetings
* Not much direction has been given.
* Town Hall meetings will either be information sessions or
feedback sessions.
* Which Members of Parliament will hold Town Hall meetings?
* Local constituents should contact their MPs to request Town Hall
meetings.
o Bob Jonkman will contact Harold Albrecht
(Kitchener–Conestoga).
o Sean Haberlin will contact the Hon. Bardish Chagger
(Waterloo).
o Byron Weber Becker will contact Raj Saini (Kitchener Centre).
o Pitch as “I can help you.”
o Need Cambridge contacts: Shannon Adshade? Donna Reid?
o Need Kitchener South–Hespeler contacts: David Weber?
* How to prevent Town Hall meetings from being dominated by people
advocating their favourite voting system?
* We need broad education and public outreach.
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ can make public presentations in local
electoral districts a few days before the Town Hall meetings.
* … but /Fair Vote Waterloo/ may be dismissed for having a bias.
* The media may also dismiss /Fair Vote Waterloo/ for having a bias.
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ should have available a one page document
on the advantages and values of Proportional Representation, but
not the mechanics of voting systems.
* This one pager should include sample ballots.
* We can offer to media outlets a summary; Bob Jonkman will post
on the /Fair Vote Waterloo/ web site the OpEd article written by
Sharon Sommerville.
* David Dirks will investigate making that summary into a video.
5. Meeting with the Hon. Maryam Monsef, Minister of Democratic
Institutions
* Minister Monsef may be coming to Kitchener-Waterloo.
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ should make a presentation to her.
* We would like Minister Monsef to make a presentation to the
public.
* What is the relationship between the All-party Parliamentary
Committee and Minister Monsef?
o The Minister is separate from APC.
o The Minister will review report published by APC in December.
o The Minister will then propose legislation to parliament.
o The Minister is not bound by the APC report.
* What is the way to approach Minister Monsef to influence the
outcome?
o Build on what the Liberals have been doing.
o Affirm the eight principles guiding Electoral Reform
introduced by Minister Monsef.
o Present Electoral Reform as a value-based decision.
o Your views are consistent with these values and will lead to
this outcome.
* Elizabeth May has stated that she will participate in the
All-party Parliamentary Committee.
* We invite Minister Monsef to speak for 30 minutes, followed by
questions from the public for 30 minutes.
6. Deputations to All-party Parliamentary Committee
* The All-party Parliamentary Committee may come to
Kitchener-Waterloo.
* Raj Saini and the Hon. Bardish Chagger are working on bringing
the APC to KW.
* Pointers: How to make a deputation?
o Make them like you.
o Make it short and to the point.
o Know your material.
* Sometimes the Committee doesn’t travel. Deputations have to go
to Ottawa, or use video links.
* Draw on people with influence, eg. Frank Valeriote.
* Michael Chong (MP for Wellington–Halton Hills) is likely to put
on a Town Hall meeting.
7. Summer/Fall Outreach
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ should hold a workshop on how to do
deputations.
* Festivals, events. We will have info cards for handouts.
* Bob Jonkman to put events list on Discussion Night announcement.
* Separate message for a list of events and a request for
volunteers to the Announcement mailing list.
* Donald Fraser is making a graphic of election results to be used
as a handout.
* Have a ^1 /_4 page listing Town Hall meetings and presentations.
* Let us know about opportunities for outreach.
* /Fair Vote Waterloo/ can have an information table at Victoria
Park and City Hall at no cost.
* Maybe have an info table at Speaker’s Corner?
* Get Minister Monsef during Democracy Week (11-17 September 2016)?
* We will set up an e-mail distribution list for the Action Team.
* Spending money?
o Use Facebook “Boost Post” or Google’s “AdWords” for outreach?
o Paul Nijjar will investigate.
* Social Media
o Aden Seaman reports that the http://fairvotewrc.ca/ website
gets 10,000 hits per month.
o Web site items are automatically sent to Twitter, which are
automatically sent to Facebook. Bob Jonkman reports that the
Facebook items get comments, but isn’t on Facebook often
enough to respond.
o Sean Haberlin reports that Reddit gets discussions; the
activity he sees already reflects his views.
o Should /Fair Vote Waterloo/ start a thread on Electoral
Reform on Reddit?
Minutes taken by Bob Jonkman.
=====
On 2016-05-19 03:21 AM, Bob Jonkman wrote:
> Hi Everyone: Just a reminder of the Strategy Meeting tonight
> (Thursday) for Fair Vote Waterloo members.
>
> The Hon. Maryam Monsef, Minister of Democratic Institutions has
> announced the creation of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on
> Electoral Reform. This committee must table its report by 1
> December 2016.
>
> The Government asks the committee to invite Members of Parliament
> to host town halls with Canadians across the country to consider –
> together – how the principles should be reflected in our electoral
> system.
>
> We must begin preparations to be involved, in whatever ways are
> appropriate, in the five town halls that will be held in Waterloo
> Region. The Fair Vote Waterloo Executive Board and interested
> others will meet to share ideas and look at developing a plan.
>
> Everyone is welcome to attend this meeting!
>
> Some things for us to consider before meeting: * Objectives * MP
> town halls * Meeting with Minister Monsef in KW * Deputation to All
> Party Committee in KW
>
> *What*: Fairvote Waterloo Strategy and Executive Meeting *When*:
> Thursday, 19 May 2016 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm *Where*: Sharon
> Sommerville's dining room *Location*: 85 Westmount Road South,
> Waterloo *Map*: http://osm.org/go/ZXna8VEB--?m= *Event*:
> http://www.fairvotewrc.ca/event/fairvote-waterloo-strategy-and-executive-meeting/?instance_id=58652
>
>
*Facebook*: https://www.facebook.com/events/870974459713118/
>
> Parking on Douglas, use the back door if you like.
>
> --Bob Jonkman Co-Chair, Fair Vote Canada Waterloo Region Chapter
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