Sheila Copps - Running for President of the Liberal Party of Canada

A Manifesto from Sheila Copps

A Time to Give the Liberal Party Back to the Grassroots

I want to state at the outset that I have been a proud Liberal for a lifetime – through thick and thin. We all are all proud Liberals in the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC). But I also firmly believe that we must fundamentally change. We need a strong voice to facilitate that change.

The word “manifesto” comes from the Latin word manifestus, which means “clear or readily apparent.” It should be very clear by now to all that our party must drastically change to survive. It simply isn’t enough to wait for a new messiah to bring us back from the political wilderness. This is what we Liberals have been doing for too long.

I am running to be President of the Liberal Party of Canada. It is time to give the Liberal party back to its members and, most importantly, to all Canadians who share the principles and values that have made this country great.

We have been dining out for too long on former glories such as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Medicare and more. Along the way, we have compromised our party by allowing backroom strategists to turn it into an exclusive club. We need to restore it as an inviting and inclusive organization for party members and Canadians.

The rules governing the LPC are voluminous and highly complex. They clearly demonstrate the sheer “thud factor” of over governance. We have become an organization that is over-controlled. To demonstrate and amplify: The constitutions of the Conservative and NDP parties are both less than 20 pages. The Liberal constitution is 94 pages! Most of it is designed to limit and control participation, freedom and desire to belong.

There is a strong message in this fact. When it is too complicated, too difficult and too expensive to become a member of any organization, we see the result.

This old-style back-room management has given us top-down controlled nomination meetings and party elections that are decided before they are held. These elections should be open and democratic.

Additionally, we have evolved into a party layered with bureaucracy, resistant to change, at odds with the foundation of our party members. When we are out of touch with our members, we are out of touch with Canadians.

For years we have run old-style, top-down “command-and-control” campaigns. For that we paid a terrible price. In the last election we lost our deposit in one third of the ridings.

To use a great Canadian analogy, we have spent too much time fighting among ourselves and now we sit in the penalty box. If we are to emerge from our current state, we must stop the in-fighting, start listening, and start behaving as a party that all Canadians will want to reconnect with.

The Liberal Party of Canada has successfully done this for 75 out of 100 years. The values of Canada, our beautiful Canada, that all Canadians love and cherish, found their voice in the Liberal party. Fundamentally, Canada is a liberal country.

To continue to earn the right to represent Canadians, we need to work in new ways to mobilize our potential support.

We need to build a vibrant, active party from the ground up. Riding by riding, we need to create opportunities to bring Canadians together to talk about the country that we want to build. We need to connect today’s issue-conscious, change-seeking Canadian with Liberals who have proven that they can implement progressive policies and build a nation.

Every riding association should have easy access to support from our national team. At headquarters, I intend to establish a national tour director with a mandate to promote high-profile visits to every riding. Already, I have received offers to help from John Turner, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Michael Ignatieff and Stéphane Dion. Adding all our former leaders to a speakers’ bureau, along with senior Liberals and visionaries, we would create a powerful resource to support each riding.

We need to empower our local candidates to be vocal and visible, so that we can get our message out and build momentum between elections. We need a spokesperson in every riding – sooner, not later. We must show Canadians that we are always ready to speak for progressive change, and available to work together for our common good.

In bringing people together to talk about their Canada, we must also take the conversations online to all Canadians. As a party, we currently work in small, disconnected groups. Interconnecting these through technology, we can operate as a unified organization to advance the interests of all like-minded Canadians.

I have never held office in the Liberal Party, but I have a long, proven and career-length track record of being a change agent on behalf of ordinary Canadians.

From the day that I breastfed my daughter on Parliament Hill to the day I left, I was linked to Canadians and their values. My record shows that I possess a good moral compass.

As President of the Liberal Party of Canada, I will work closely with and strongly lead our National Executive towards the following overall goals:

To make democracy, morale-building and exceptional modern-day communication a fundamental tenet of the Liberal Party of Canada.
To firmly establish a better power balance between our elected officials, our organization, and all Canadians.
To use technology to personally engage and earn the respect of all Liberals and all Canadians of all cultures – not only during an election campaign, but on every day, starting on January 15th.
To rebuild the Liberal Party of Canada from the ground up and to reconnect it with all Canadians.
To revitalize membership by re-engaging community organizations and networks all across the country through shared issues and values.
To recruit members in a way that is affordable. In politics, people come first.
To make the Liberal party more open, more welcoming and more accessible to all.
To rebuild and improve our fundraising from the bottom up, with primary funding coming from Canadians who see the Liberal party as a defender their values and futures.
To sustain and improve the existing Victory Fund and the Laurier Club drives as methods to fund our party by our members.
To engage the strengths of Liberals from every region of this great country and to set aside old grudges that have helped derail our party.

We all now have the benefit of clarity that comes after a bitter defeat. I believe winners never quit and quitters never win!

Canadians spoke to us in the last federal election. Our answer to them is simple: We will earn our way back into their hearts through hard work and determination, and by representing their desire for progressive change. We believe in a Canada that is free and fair to all. We can build it together.

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