Hindsight, and advice for the future
Published Monday November 17th, 2008
Politics Former party official offers wisdom on how to rebuild the federal Liberal party
OTTAWA - The New Brunswicker who once ran the federal and provincial Liberal parties has dissected Stéphane Dion's failures and offered suggestions on rebuilding the inner workings of the party.
A no-holds-barred analysis by Steven MacKinnon, the former national party director and the man who ran New Brunswick's Liberal machine for Frank McKenna, was just published in Policy Options, a public policy magazine.
MacKinnon prescribes the way forward for whoever takes over the party in May, but the article opens describing how Dion's strategic errors began at the outset of his leadership.
When Dion took the stage as the party's new leader in Montreal's Palais des Congrès in December 2006, his first rallying cry was "let's get ready for the next election."
Then he did everything but.
MacKinnon writes that Dion's failures and missed opportunities included: not tapping his leadership rivals or their teams for talent or campaign structure; ignoring the work of a transition group that had already laid out the nuts and bolts of a new database, hired professional fundraisers, solicited volunteers and prepared rules for nominating candidates; and, keeping policy development within the leader's office.
But the decision that most haunted Dion, and some Liberal MPs who lost their seats in this fall's election, concerned the attack ads.
The party's advertising team had predicted an onslaught of negative ads from the Conservatives, who were awash in cash from their supporters, and had already set aside money to deal with it.
The Liberals planned to launch an ad campaign to introduce the new leader and contrast his vision against Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.
But Dion opted not to respond in kind when the Conservatives soon launched what became two years' worth of ads carrying the devastating tag line "Dion: not a leader."
Fast forward two years, to the news conference a week after the election, at which Dion vowed "the Conservatives will never be able to do to another leader what they did to me."
"Had he chosen to listen to his party's advertising experts in December 2006, the Conservatives would not have had an unfettered opportunity to 'do' it to him," MacKinnon wrote.
MacKinnon recalled watching Dion's post-election news conference and feeling "very sad" that Dion allowed the ads to frame him in voters' minds, putting him on the defensive and unable to highlight his "positive vision for the country."
"It's very unfortunate that this recognition came so late," MacKinnon said.
He also criticized Dion for his pact with Green Party leader Elizabeth May.
The two agreed not to run candidates in each other's ridings, and the Liberal leader also supported May's inclusion in the televised leaders' debate.
Those steps legitimized a "far-left" party and incumbent Liberal MPs and other Liberal candidates in tight races suffered. Some lost by narrower margins than the Green vote in their riding.
MacKinnon's advice for rebuilding the Liberal party is inspired by looking to the United States, but not to the success of Barack Obama.
Rather, he argued it was former Vermont governor and Democratic leadership contender Howard Dean who established the model Obama successfully followed.
Dean operated on three principles: make politics accessible through use of the Internet; leverage that approach to raise money; and take the fight to political rivals everywhere, ceding no ground.
MacKinnon argued that any new Liberal leader will have to resist pressure to focus on short-term gains or a few regions where support is strongest, and postpone the hard work of party renewal.
A 308-riding approach, grassroots policy development and open nominations for candidates will be key, he said.
Is the next election winnable?
MacKinnon says "emphatically, yes" because most Canadians' political values are still best reflected by the Liberal party.
MacKinnon, who is a principal in the Ottawa office of Hill and Knowlton, a global public affairs firm, left the party's head office after the December 2006 convention that chose Dion, a move he planned no matter who the party chose as leader.
He is now on leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff's campaign team, but said he wrote the article before deciding who he would support.
MacKinnon expressed confidence the party membership will test the leadership candidates to determine how they will rebuild the party organization and finances.
"Liberals are going to add politics to the job description," MacKinnon said.
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