Progress Alberta's Town Hall, Jan 11th 2018

This town hall was set up by Progress Alberta, Jan 2018. It was about trying to win the upcoming provincial election.

Videos of the main talks (and one of the split-group talks) are now available:

* Duncan Kinney’s opening remarks
* Professor Melanie Thomas’ presentation on electoral behavior
* Zain Velji’s overview of the tactical challenges for progressives
* Brendan Wade’s thoughts on keeping conservative power off-balance

## Melanee Thomas, Political Science Professor

First she looked at the context of the 2015 election, and said these features (which "cut across the political spectrum") would continue to be relevant for the next election:

**Economic Voting:**

* if the economy is good, then re-elect the current people
* if the economy is bad, go for the challenger

**Prairie Populism, leader evaluation:**

* Notley was a populist
* for the people, against the powers that be
* advocate for "the little guy"

She then went on to say she's worried about losers' consent:

* The losers are displeased. Strong partisans, ideological extremists react/feel strongest. Threats against Notley are much more common than against previous governments. More than twice as much per recording period.
* malaise among progressives due to long streak of losing. Lots of progressives think the 2015 success was a circumstantial fluke or something, that the success can't be replicated

Rather, she says, shifting power from one party to another should be seen as normal in a working democracy. Not a fluke, not unworthy. And we are the majority.

She says "political parties in the center don't win". Voting has to be a choice between alternatives. And when we study the population, we see there aren't enough people genuinely in the center to appeal to, so it isn't worth it.

She recommends a book called something like "Analytic History of Canadian Political Parties".

It's good we have two choices.

We have to get used to both winning and losing.

Be unapologetic about "having a seat at the table".

## Zain Velji, Political Strategist

How he defines Jason Kenny:

* hardworking
* organized
* scale-able (as in, he seems to cultivate more people who are like him, he self-replicates in a way)
* strong license to advocate ("nobody bats an eye" if you advocate for him, but if you go out and advocate for NDP, you get pushback)
* moderating (he says extreme things, but then back peddles to make it more moderate)

What we learned from the recent Nenshi election:

* bots and trolls shifting the Overton window, inject dog whistles, labels
* supposedly, the bots started the "Nenshi is arrogant" meme. This was wildly successful, and became the number one descriptor critics used of him from then on.

Polls are "weaponized". That is, people do a poll, doesn't mater how accurate, but then they get air time to give their own explanations which are basically just talking points, propaganda.

"Local news is eroding".

"Big money will do the dirty work".

Challenges:

* we sucked at value based arguments, we just used facts
* losing the war on emotion VS fact
* vote splitting
* lack of "social license to advocate", it's uncomfortable to advocate progressive
* lack a clear message on what we're doing right

Solutions:

* networking (he says women are good at this, and so recommends connecting with them)
* create an engagement "ladder" (people can start by doing easy stuff)
* be nice to everyone
* on-ramps, let people join late, be welcomed in
* "fortify the middle"
* "embrace the underdog status" (even though the Premier, the mayors of Edmonton and Calgary, are all Progressive)

## Jenn Prosser, Community Organizer

"One vote at at time".

Some features of good interactions on political subjects:

* Sharing info, not debating.
* Questions

She recommends the Thigpenn model, which led to the Snowflake model of organizing, which Bernie Sanders turned into "Barnstorming" or something.

Don't clutch power, give decision power to people, to do what they think is best. Allows local fit.

If you want to change minds, it's more productive to talk to "undecideds", don't waste time on people who are hardcore against you.

Ask about the impacts on individuals. How is their idea helping them, their community? Drill down to the personal.

"Raising expectations", we should have more hope that we can win.