As of this writing, David Eby’s British Columbia New Democratic Party and John Rustad’s Conservative Party of B.C. are, according to the latest polling, in a statistical dead heat in their respective bids to form the next government in our province.
The 2024 British Columbia New Democratic Party (B.C. NDP) campaign has faced criticism for its perceived ineffectiveness and inability to connect with the broader concerns of British Columbians, in a campaign that has clearly not resonated with a broad swath of voters, leaving the B.C. NDP campaign in the doldrums.
Despite Premier David Eby’s personal appeal — which he emphasizes in campaign materials, with images of his family and messages of hope for future generations — the B.C. NDP campaign has failed to effectively counter the momentum that has been building for weeks for John Rustad’s upstart, unschooled B.C. Conservatives, failing to effectively respond to critical issues like the rate-of-inflation cap on rents, which Rustad has said a B.C. Conservative government would repeal and revoke.
Today on VanRamblings, we will seek to address one of the primary weaknesses of the B.C. New Democrat’s current campaign for office.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at the B.C. NDP’s poorly designed and executed advertising strategy, and the B.C. NDP’s broader inability to engage with British Columbians.
On Friday, we’ll offer some prescriptive fixes for the B.C. NDP’s failing campaign.
David Eby’s 2017 campaign office opening, attended by more than 400 constituents and supporters
Campaign offices located in a neighbourhood within the Riding
There was a time when the New Democratic Party was a grassroots party.
No longer, it seems.
In 2024, as a “cost saving measure” the B.C. New Democrats have chosen not to open easily accessible neighbourhood riding offices available to the public. Instead, the NDP campaign team made the wrong-headed decision to create campaign offices that would accommodate candidates running in six different ridings.
David Eby in attendance at his tiny “campaign office” — which he shares with 5 other NDP candidates
In 2024, David Eby shares a tiny, largely inaccessible and out of the way campaign office, a campaign office outside of the ridings of Vancouver-Yaletown NDP candidate Terry Yung, Vancouver-South Granville NDP MLA Brenda Bailey, Vancouver Quilchena NDP candidate Callista Ryan, Vancouver-Little Mountain NDP candidate Christine Boyle, and Vancouver-West End MLA, Spencer Chandra Herbert.
Seems the B.C. New Democrat brain trust arrived at the conclusion prior to the outset of the 2024 B.C. NDP campaign that John Horgan’s 2020 B.C. NDP online campaign proved to be such a wild success — with the B.C. NDP electing 57 MLAs — clearly, an online campaign out of necessity, arising from the fact that in 2020 the world was in the throes of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the prevailing wisdom:
“Hey, it worked once, and worked very well. Let’s try it again in 2024, and save ourselves some big bucks in the process, money we can pour into media buys.”
What tragic, non-thinking, utterly wrongheaded campaign destroying nonsense.
In case you were wondering senior B.C. NDP campaign folks, in 2024 we are no longer in the midst of a deadly pandemic.
Sure, COVID is still around, but for the most part, folks have stopped wearing masks, and getting together in enclosed spaces has once again become de rigeur.
Stalwart members of the New Democratic Party would relish the opportunity to get together with the friends they’ve made in their riding over the years — camaraderie and human contact counts for something, y’know. But the brain trust running the 2024 NDP campaign, well … they’ve got better ideas, it would seem. Alas.
In each of the four David Eby campaigns VanRamblings has worked on, in 2011 and 2013 managed by the incredible and monumentally-skilled Kate Van Meer-Mass, and in 2017 by the equally wonderful Gala Milne (no 2020 campaign manager required, arising from the pandemic), here’s how things worked, effectively and well.
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- We’ll use 2017 as an example. Gala Milne, as we say above, very effectively managed David Eby’s 2017 campaign for office. Danika Skye Hammond co-ordinated and inspired the 400 outside volunteers — who were out door knocking from early morning til 8pm, as well as those delivering pamphlets and other campaign literature, and arranging daily, well-attended burmashaves — while Chris did the same for the 200 inside volunteers, operating the phone room 9am til 9pm daily, responsible for ensuring David Eby signs were delivered four times a day, while overseeing inside volunteers.
- In addition, there was a media team (social media, photo and videographers), a fundraising team, office staff, and a crew who kept the troops fed.
At David Eby’s campaign office opening in 2017, four hundred constituents and supporters attended at the campaign office, collectively with thousands of dollars in their pockets to donate to David’s campaign. The enthusiasm for David’s re-election was palpable — 400 people who would spend the next four weeks getting the vote out, and supporting David Eby’s re-election bid in any way the could.
in 2024, at David Eby’s out of the way campaign office opening, constituents were not invited to attend at the tiny space outside of the riding. Only the candidates, their spouses and their children, and campaign staff were allowed to attend.
What a godawful B.C. NDP campaign mistake, foregoing the invaluable and necessary opportunity to inspire constituents, and to raise thousands of dollars.
In 2011, 2013 and 2017, David Eby’s campaign office was a magnet for community participation in his election, and later for re-election.
You could feel the enthusiasm and good will from inside the campaign office wafting out into the street, and from there throughout the neighbourhood. Hundreds of people came by, dropped into the office, chatted, ate some of the food Susan Walsh prepared (Susan — whose husband Michael Walsh, the lead film critic at The Province for 40 years, passed on January 3rd this year — was told her services would not be required this year, a cruelty beyond all measure, in our estimation).
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- VanRamblings worked a 4-hour front desk shift midday Monday through Friday, and sometimes on the weekend, this in addition to attending burmashaves, going door knocking, delivering literature, and distributing David Eby campaign signs. David Eby’s campaign office was abuzz with activity at least 12 hours a day. Folks came in off the street to ask questions, to see if arrangements could be made to meet with David — such requests almost always accommodated.Constituents picked up their David Eby campaign sign, or two.
- And most wonderfully of all, people came in off the street — even people who didn’t live in the riding — to drop off $200 in cash, or $500 in bills, which they were only too glad to hand over in support of the re-election of “that wonderful young man, David Eby.” Of course, as we together filled out all of the proper forms — campaign staff would have been apoplectic if we didn’t follow Elections B.C. donation guidelines — we must have raised five to ten thousand dollars each week of the campaign, just from folks walking in off the street.
This was grassroots, community-involved election campaigning at its very finest.
But not in 2024. No siree. The B.C. NDP campaign team is saving money, don’tcha see, while destroying grassroots, riding by riding constituent enthusiasm for their candidates, where everything is done online.
We ordered two David Eby campaign signs 9 days ago. When they hadn’t arrived by last Thursday, we contacted the office (by e-mail, of course, because there’s no talking to real human beings in the 2024 B.C. NDP campaign), and here we are on Wednesday, October 2nd, and no David Eby signs for VanRamblings to put up.
Should the British Columbia New Democrats lose this election — which seems to be a real possibility — it will have occurred, at least in part, as a consequence of the arrogant and condescending decision by the senior B.C. NDP campaign team to “combine” campaign offices, rather than opening an accessible campaign office in each constituency, a maladroit decision of immense and regrettable proportion.
Politics is a people business. The B.C. New Democratic Party campaign for office in 2024 seems not to understand this fundamental principle of politics.
