John,

It has been well over a year since the 2019 general election in Canada, and our critics believed by now, we would have packed our bags and went home.

Our critics could not have been more wrong. The PPC is still fighting, and we are only growing stronger!

2020 has been a difficult year for everybody, and of course, political parties were not immune to these challenges. Establishment parties all jumped at the opportunity to receive government subsidies to support their bloated organizations. In contrast, the PPC made difficult but prudent financial decisions and managed to weather the storm and come out stronger on the other side.

Our staff agreed to pay cuts, we eliminated all non-essential spending, and, thanks to our dedicated financial contributors, we were able not only to maintain operations, but we were also able to hire two new full-time staff members.

Many are curious about what is being worked on at PPC HQ since the 2019 election. A lot of work goes into the general upkeep of a political party: maintenance of social media pages and email inboxes, negotiations for contracts of important services, database organization and cleanup, completion of filing requirements with different entities, development and implementation of fundraising initiatives, just to name a few. There were many basic tasks that were overlooked in the whirlwind that was 2019 that we needed to catch up on.

In addition, over the past 13 months, our small staff has been working diligently on a number of projects, plans, and strategies to better prepare our Party for the next election, whenever it may be. Today we are proud to make announcements to our members in regards to some of these plans and projects, most importantly, the EDA Amalgamation Plan!

1. EDA Amalgamation Plan

The path to Parliament begins with us applying what we learned from the last election; in regards to how we structure our organization, and how we can better prepare ourselves for the next election.

While the PPC was able to establish EDAs and Candidates in almost every riding across the country last year, HQ is aware that many EDAs found it difficult to be effective and successful.

We have listened to feedback from our EDAs and members and it is clear that the cookie-cutter EDA model that the establishment parties use is not suited to our Party given our situation and personnel.

It is important to consider that when we were building this structure in late 2018 and throughout 2019, we were rushing towards the deadline that was the 2019 election. After 2 years of organizing, we now have a much better understanding of our organization— its personnel, its strengths, its weaknesses. With this experience, and feedback from our EDAs, former-Candidates, and members, we developed the EDA Amalgamation Plan.

Today, we are pleased to announce to everyone our innovative EDA Amalgamation Plan as a means to provide a more practical structure, custom-made for our Party.

The basic concept of this plan is to amalgamate EDAs in areas where riding density is high enough in order to cut down on Elections Canada filing requirements and more efficiently use our limited personnel. We will unite experienced/dedicated volunteers to allow them to work together actively as a team as opposed to independently in their separate ridings. These changes will make our organization more nimble and efficient while allowing our personnel to better focus on the things that matter: promoting the party, expanding local membership, selecting an excellent candidate, and raising funds for the next election.

EDA Amalgamation will occur during the Annual General Meetings for our PPC Associations. In the coming months, members will receive an email with more details about EDA Amalgamation and an invite to attend their local PPC Association’s AGM. During these meetings former EDAs will be dissolved and Boards of Directors for the new Regional Association will be elected. All active members will be able to participate in these meetings as electors and/or run for positions on the new Board. Given current circumstances, all AGMs will be held over video conferencing with Zoom.

Many EDAs for larger ridings in more rural areas will be unaffected by the Amalgamation Plan and will remain independent due to logistical complications that would result from amalgamating associations covering a massive geographical area. AGMs for these remaining independent EDAs will be conducted over the same timeline if they have not been held already.

Once our Regional Associations have been established, and our independent EDAs have been updated, we will move forward with candidate selection with new criteria and an updated selection process that will be announced early 2021. It is our goal to have as many candidates in place as soon as possible in order to be prepared for a snap election as early as spring 2021.

2. Social Media Update

While remaining active on Twitter and Facebook, Maxime Bernier has increased his activity on Instagram and he recently joined Parler. We have also increased our activity on the PPC Instagram page.

If you haven’t already, follow Maxime and the PPC on Instagram and Parler! Here are the links:

Maxime Bernier Instagram
People’s Party of Canada Instagram (English)
People’s Party of Canada Instagram (French)
Maxime Bernier Parler (English)
Maxime Bernier Parler (French)

I also encourage everyone to check out our YouTube show, The Max Bernier Show, to hear intriguing and thought-provoking discussions with our leader Maxime Bernier!

The Max Bernier Show can be found on our Official PPC Youtube Channel:

Official PPC Youtube Channel (English)
Official PPC Youtube Channel (French)

Finally, we have received some criticism that we do not communicate often enough with our membership, particularly in regards to organizational matters. Today’s newsletter is our first step in addressing these concerns. We will provide a similar newsletter in the first quarter of 2021 with a further update on what is being worked on at PPC HQ and what is coming up next for the PPC!

Consider pitching in $3 today so that we can hit the ground running when lockdowns are lifted.

Thank you so much for your continued support!

Cheers,

Daniel Tyrie
Executive Director,
People’s Party of Canada