Hi Friend,
I’ve had some time to reflect on campaigning during COVID-19. And, as the federal election buzz gets louder and louder, I want to share with you my biggest takeaway: physical distancing changes everything we know about campaigning.
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Door knocking |
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Rallies |
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Meet and greets |
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Debates |
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Town halls |
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Sign-waves |
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Fundraising events |
These kinds of in-person activities just won’t work in a pandemic. We’ll need new tools, and a lot of creativity to build a robust, remote campaign by fall.
Our challenge is daunting. As a grassroots party, we’ve always relied on our ability to go out and talk with our neighbours about the issues that matter most. These open and in-person conversations are what have earned us support and momentum. Now, as COVID-19 prevents us from doing what we’ve always done best, we need to adapt fast – before the Liberals call an early election.
We are already hard at work crafting and testing COVID-19-responsible ways to campaign locally. But the reality is that the digital tools and ads we’ll need to reach Canadians are pricey. Can you please support this work? Even a small donation makes a difference right now.
I know we’re up to this task. Our EDAs will find creative and safe ways to stay connected as we gear up for the election. New digital tools will help to get more Greens elected to be a bigger voice in Parliament for decisive climate action.
I know this because I saw our inventiveness this past year. I saw it as Greens safely waved signs with QR codes to advertise on the street. As we met on Slack, Zoom, Facebook and Instagram for town halls. As our volunteers organized “digital door knocking events.” And as we achieved our best-ever Ontario result in the Toronto Centre by-election in the midst of the second wave.
Now, we need to take our lessons learned and get ready to do it again. And win. As EDAs across the country get ready to make the digital switch, your donation goes to help them run remote campaigns and reach people at home.
I know we can be strong in this election, with an impressive array of digital tools, if we get ready now. Let’s meet this moment together.
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Sonia Berlima |