Sorry Dan, I just couldn't resist, but your recent rejection of Brant for Victory Fund money makes me feel a little less guilt. I'm sure this just was an off-night and that you've had better rounds on the bull at past Stampedes though.
This past Saturday, the youth campaign in support of the Green Shift, Go Green Vote Red was launched in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Navdeep Bains and YLC President Cory Pike were on hand to lay out the details of the campaign and the youth campaign website (see photos below). The website (www.gogreenvotered.ca/) has a great video by Stephane talking about the value of the Green Shift to youth and importantly there are also Videos of Liberal youth who tell us why they believe the Green Shift is the policy Canada needs for the 21st century. I encourage all young supporters of the Green Shift to submit their videos as well (instructions can be found here) – you could even win a VIP trip to Ottawa for having the best French and/or English video! There are other prizes as well. You can also join the French and English facebook groups for this campaign, find out how to share the plan with others, and even follow where the Go Green Vote Red Tour will be going after its initial launch in St. John’s this past weekend. There will be more stops I’m sure than what’s listed now so keep checking back to see if it will be coming to your area.
Through this campaign the Liberal Party is showing once again that it values and promotes the views of youth. It doesn’t seek to hide or minimize them or make the youth into puppets of the senior party. And the Young Liberals of Canada and other young Liberal groups across the country consistently pull their own weight in coming up with innovative initiatives like this in return. I think it’s clear that the Liberal Party is the best home for youth across the country as it is only there where youth have a real voice and have their ideas accepted by the party at large. I’m sure the Liberals will succeed in convincing a large majority of youth to Go Green and Vote Red!
On Thursday, July 17th, approximately 100 Liberals from all over came out to the National Women’s Liberal Commission (NWLC) event “Make Your Mark” in Toronto to celebrate our federal candidates, engage young women, and discuss how we can all work hard to make sure that women have an equal voice in politics. It was a great night of fun as well as serious discussion. I wasn’t the only blogger there either, as Jason Cherniak and Will Norman (Liberal Bag) came to show their support as well (see photos below).
Importantly, many federal Liberal candidates were also in attendance, including the guest speaker, Critic for Status of Women, Maria Minna. She reminded us of the absolute necessity of throwing out Stephen Harper who’s taken us back decades on women’s issues. Canada lags far behind the rest of the Western world in terms of female representation in federal politics and that it’s well past time for women to have equal representation in the House of Commons so that their voices can be heard loud and clear. Thankfully, Stephane Dion and the Liberals firmly committed to bringing gender equality to the House of Commons and so far is more than exceeding his commitment to run at least one-third female candidates in the next election.
The NWLC also raised money through this event to go to their organization and they showcased their awesome new merchandise and their campaigns designed to encourage more women to run for office. The NWLC remains absolutely crucial to ensuring that women make their mark in the party and in the House of Commons. The fact that the Conservatives don’t have such a commission (not to mention not having a youth commission either) just shows how little they care about gender equality.
The night’s events also saw the promotion of the OWLC Liberal female youth mentorship program that I’ve spent a lot of time organizing as OWLC VP Young Women (if you wonder why blogging has been slow of late that is at least part of the reason – hopefully I’ll have more blogging time this week). The mentorship program pairs up established female Liberals (e.g., MPs, Senators, Liberal women’s club Presidents, and senior young Liberals) with younger women between the age of 14 to 30. The program has been met with great success thus far and I hope this is one way we are building the next generation of strong women in the party.
It’s only a matter of time before Liberals together are going to break the glass ceiling and shatter it into a million pieces so that it can never be built up again.
Pictures from the Night's Events....
OYL Communications Director Zac Spicer and LPC(O) Central Region President Jason Cherniak - Facebook bff's!
NWLC Commissions Assistant Monika Drobnicki (the night's MC and the event's organizer)
Unknown Liberal and OYL Eastern region coordinator Krista Balsom who drove 5 hours to model the new t-shirts
So this past weekend I went up to Huntsville for the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) AGM, which also includes the Ontario Women’s Liberal Commission AGM on the final day. I thought the weekend was a huge success, but there's always few improvements that could be made for next time.
I always prefer to start with the bad and end with the good (which heavily outweighed the bad) so here goes. First of all, I was not very pleased with how some sessions were scheduled. I believe Aboriginal issues are quite important, yet the LPC(O) scheduled the Aboriginal Commission AGM for 5:30 PM on the first day (Friday). This was obviously at a time at which many people had not yet arrived in Huntsville yet so maybe people who might have attended could not. Secondly the OWLC AGM was scheduled up against a policy session on social justice hosted by Ken Dryden on the Sunday at the very end of the AGM. Issues of social justice have always been of extreme importance for many Liberal women and this kind of scheduling first of all meant that women had to choose between discussing social justice issues (and hearing a great speech by Dryden) and attending their own AGM. Also there were many people, particularly candidates and MPs who would have liked to have attended the OWLC AGM but had to be back in their ridings for events on Sunday so they couldn’t stick around for an AGM that only began close to 11 AM on the Sunday. Next time, I very much hope that either the OWLC AGM occurs as a separate event altogether or takes place earlier in the weekend and NOT up against an important policy session. I also hope the Aboriginal Commission gets to hold their AGM later in the weekend when more people are there. I hope that those of us who feel passionately about this will make their voices heard and that there will be better scheduling next time.
But that’s it for the bad, there are lots of great things to report. First of all, I am extremely pleased to announce that I am now officially the new VP Young Women of the OWLC. I greatly look forward to working on behalf of young Liberal women and female members of the Ontario Young Liberals (OYL). Feel free to check out my campaign website: http://www.danielletakacs.ca/ let me know what you think of my ideas.
I was also extremely pleased to see that my riding of Brant was awarded the top award for the South-West Ontario region (22 ridings) based on a combination of new memberships and fundraising. Congrats to Lloyd St. Amand, Joy O’Donnell (past riding President) and Andrew Hunter (Current riding President) for the award (and to my Brant Young Liberals for boosting the membership rolls and forming a new chapter that I founded earlier this year!). As for other elections, congrats to Jason Cherniak for his victory as the Central Region President, I’m sure he’ll do a great job for the region.
Then there were the events/sessions. The first night there was an excellent reception hosted by the OWLC which Stéphane attended and refused to leave until everyone that wanted a picture got one. The attendance at the event was massive and it was good to see some recognition for such a great organization. The next day Bob Rae gave a fantastic run-down of where the Liberals stand on the platform (we will be ready any time, rest assured) and some of the great ideas that will go on the trail. I know the Liberals will have an excellent platform to bring to Canadians. There were also some great policy debates on some of the more important issues of the day and other sessions on the policy process itself, campaign preparation and fundraising. All very worthwhile. Tom Allison’s’ presentation on campaign management was especially good, as always. He is definitely a person at the top of his game. The Liberals are vey lucky to have him on our side.
Of course one of the main highlights though was Stéphane Dion’s excellent speech to the 700+ Liberal delegates in attendance. It was the best speech I’ve seen yet. Made some good jokes, hit all the right issues and got us all fired to take the Liberal message to the people to win the next election. Saturday night there were some excellent parties held by different candidates and the one hosted by the OYL, all hugely packed.
To finish off the weekend was the OWLC AGM. We had fantastic speeches from National Women’s Liberal Commission President Nicole Foster-Woollatt, departing OWLC President Michelle Simson (the new candidate in Scarborough South-West), incoming OWLC President (Liana Turrin), MPP and Minister of Children Services and Women’s Issues Deb Matthews, MP Carolyn Bennett, and some excellent discussion for the year ahead. I am very excited for the first meeting of the new executive.
