Glen Murray Proposes Ontario Liberal Party Reforms
Dec 14th, 2012 5:40 AM
Member-Led Process Would Look At Leaderships, Nominations, Policy, Participation
For immediate release
TORONTO - As Premier and Ontario Liberal Leader, Glen Murray would reform the Party with members leading the way to decide leadership, nomination, policy and easier, more affordable participation.
“When you join the Ontario Liberal Party, you should be joining a modern, 21st century organization that’s easy for you to talk to with your ideas, that listens carefully, that makes sure you can participate and that you can afford,” Murray said.
Glen Murray’s plan lays the groundwork for a 21st century Ontario Liberal Party. It includes:
• Reducing the cost of participating in out-of-town meetings, policy conferences and Annual General Meetings - members would be asked to discuss ideas such as a travel subsidy funded by a 25 per cent contribution from all the non-refundable entry fees in the current leadership race.
• Committing to regular town hall meetings with members when the Leader or MPPs visit ridings for fundraising or other events, and creating a central online registry for booking visits by the Leader and MPPs.
• Deploying technology so members can participate in policy development and campaign training online and they can stay in the loop about what’s going on in the Party and government through one central web portal.
• Asking members to consider alternatives to the current system of nominating candidates - right now in vacant ridings, the Leader can choose a candidate without a riding nomination meeting.
• Calling for the membership to consider a One Liberal, One Vote contest for subsequent Leadership races.
• Creating a policy “wiki” where members can contribute and share their ideas for Ontario.
Glen Murray would bring in an Ontario Liberal government that builds on the current government’s successes in areas such as education and health care, and add reforms that will do more for modest- and middle-income Ontario families and students and help dynamic start-up companies create good jobs.
Glen Murray’s leadership campaign of ideas and action is built on renewal for Ontario families and our economy:
• Tax cuts for the middle class and small business
• No-money-down university or college tuition
• Cities and towns that work
• Smart government that listens with a modernized Ontario Liberal Party - including a stronger voice for the North.
For more information
Emily Kirk
647 668 1076
emily.kirk@renewliberal.ca
-30-
BACKGROUNDER
GLEN MURRAY FOR LEADER
MAKING LIBERAL MEMBERSHIP MATTER MORE
The Challenge
As our next Premier, Glen Murray wants to renew Ontario and empower Ontarians. As our next Liberal Leader, Glen Murray wants to reform the Ontario Liberal Party and empower our members.
Glen Murray’s reform plan for Ontario means bringing more decision making to local communities and the North and providing more economic power for modest- and middle-income families through real tax relief and No-Money-Down tuition. Glen Murray’s reform plan for Ontario will empower innovators to create jobs and boost investment through focused incentives and tax reform. It means empowering and trusting Ontarians through a smart government that listens.
It’s also time to bring more reform and empowerment to our Ontario Liberal Party.
Ontario Liberals work hard; we work together, and we succeed - together. Glen Murray wants an Ontario Liberal Party in which every member matters even more - everyone who gets involved can make an even bigger difference and all can be sure that their voices and ideas are heard and that the Party is listening.
Glen Murray has listened to the ideas of many members all over the province. He believes it is time to engage all members in a reform of our party’s structures and rules - guided by the belief that more power can and should be held by the grassroots members.
Building On Success
The Ontario Liberal Party is one of our province’s great successes. Under the leadership of Dalton McGuinty and with the hard work of Liberals across the province, we have won three successive elections, including the first back-to-back Liberal majority governments in Ontario in decades.
These victories have enabled Liberals to work to make Ontario better. Our policies have brought us the best schools in the English-speaking world with higher test scores and lower class sizes. We’ve improved medical waiting times and built new hospitals. And we’ve steered our economy through the worst recession since the 1930s in the midst of an ongoing global storm.
Now it’s time to introduce the next generation of Liberal improvements in Ontario. To do this, Liberals need to make sure we have the tools to keep our bond with each other, in the Ontario Liberal Party.
Making Liberal Membership Matter More
When you join the Ontario Liberal Party, you should be joining a modern, 21st century organization that’s easy for you to talk to with your ideas, that listens carefully, that makes sure you can participate and that you can afford.
Glen Murray’s plan lays the groundwork for a 21st century Ontario Liberal Party. The first step is to make sure your reform suggestions count.
The Process: Member-Led Reform
At the first meeting of the Executive Council after his selection as our Leader, Glen Murray will propose that a broad-based “listening, learning and leading” process be undertaken with members about the changes, improvements and direction that we as a party, wish to take, together.
Lead by the Constitution Committee of the Executive Council, this activity will be as broad as possible and the results will be reported to the first Provincial Council after the selection of the new Leader on changes to the Constitution of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Just as happens now, proposed changes will be made available to the membership at least 45 days prior to the Annual General Meeting, where they can be put to formal consideration.
The culmination of the process will come at the next AGM, where Liberals from all over the province will gather to consider and enact the Party reforms they support. Special provisions will be made to ensure that as many Liberals as possible can attend, and that those who cannot have a means of expressing their democratic voice in the reform of our party.
Choosing Our Leader
On January 25 Ontario Liberals will meet at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens to choose our new Leader, and Premier, in a vote by delegates chosen by each riding and ex-officio delegates.
Glen Murray wants a government that listens. We all want an Ontario Liberal Party that listens to all its members, wherever they live in our province. It’s time to open up our Party and reform it by choosing our subsequent Leaders differently.
As Premier and Ontario Liberal Leader, Glen Murray would make sure that next time the Leader is chosen it will be by all party members in a One Liberal, One Vote contest.
The system we’ve used - and will use this time - was fine up to now, but it’s time for Ontario Liberals to look to the future. We should always look for ways to enable broader participation for our members, and One Liberal, One Vote is a good way to do this.
Liberals from everywhere in Ontario should be able to participate fully in all aspects of leadership selection - not just those who are able to serve as delegates and can afford the trip to the convention.
As Leader, Glen Murray would put the One Liberal, One Vote plan to party members at the next Annual General Meeting, with ample opportunity for consultation.
He sees two versions of One Liberal, One Vote for Ontario Liberals to consider.
• One model would see all Liberals vote directly for Leader with a preferential ballot.
• Another model would see all Liberals vote directly for Leader through a series of run-off elections over a period of two or three weeks.
Digital voting would enable Liberals to participate at low-to-no cost.
It’s up to Ontario Liberal members to decide on how to reshape the Party. But as Leader, Glen will advocate for One Liberal, One Vote.
Choosing Our Liberal Candidates
As Leader and Premier, Glen Murray will drive more power to communities. For Ontario Liberals, this can mean more power to ridings and their membership.
Right now, if there’s no candidate in a riding the Leader can appoint one without a nomination meeting. This rule was put in for a good reason - all parties are sometimes subject to one-issue interest groups trying to hijack a broader political party with their own candidate, and there should be input from all parts of the party. But is there a better way to deal with this than having the Leader decide from Queen’s Park?
Glen Murray wants Ontario Liberals to consider whether overseeing candidate choices could be handled better by “Green Light” Committees at the local or regional level -Ontario Liberals working together to make sure we have the best, winning, candidates across the province.
Reducing The Cost Of Participation
It can cost a lot of money for a committed Ontario Liberal to travel from the far reaches of our province to a place like Maple Leaf Gardens for a convention or Provincial Council or AGM. We want Ontario Liberals to get together - none of us alone is as strong as all of us together. Glen Murray wants Ontario Liberals to consider how to make participation more affordable.
Is there a better way, for example, to provide consistent funding for Ontario Liberals who need to travel to meet? At our next AGM, we could consider how to develop a travel pool fund, how to manage this and how to keep if fair, so that Ontario Liberals across Ontario can participate and our membership can keep growing. If Liberals support this idea, can we even build it into the current Leadership process? By taking just 25 per cent of the contribution leadership campaigns are making to the OLP, we could have a travel pool of up to $250 per delegate for those facing significant travel costs.
Enhancing Policy Participation
Glen Murray is running a compelling, policy-driven campaign of ideas. It’s based on bringing forward the ideas he’s been hearing Liberals talk about for years: relief for the middle class, better access to tuition, unleashing innovation, a real voice for the North. As leader, Glen Murray will open up more avenues for Liberal voices to be heard in the formation of policy.
For example, exploring how we can use “wiki”-technology to develop policy and make sure more people are listened to and engaged - Ontario Liberals can have a policy conversation online and new ideas can be tracked, improved and refined together. It works in the business world and in universities and colleges, and it can work as our Party grows our ideas too.
Stronger voices matter, but so do open ears and an open mind. Glen Murray will listen to Liberals, and take the ideas of individual members and MPPs and candidates seriously in forming government policy.
Party And Local Riding Finances
Glen wants everyone’s ideas to be heard. He wants us to discuss and decide on ideas covering everything, and especially party financing. It’s important to get this right so we can keep fighting - and winning - to make the changes that build Ontario.
Members have told Glen and Glen believes we all must consider some fundamental choices:
• Do we need to change the way our party handles the contributions due from Provincial Liberal Associations to the Central Party, especially for unheld ridings?
• Should we create regional pools to allow for regional "war chests"?
• Is it time to broaden our understanding of what it means to be an Ontario Liberal? For example, the Liberal Party of Canada now has a “supporter” category in which people can get involved but don’t have to contribute. Is this for us or are there other alternatives?
Connecting Ontario Liberals Everywhere
Glen Murray believes it’s important not just to renew our Ontario Liberal Party, but to reconnect its members with each other. One way to do this is by making sure we meet and talk to each other regularly.
As Leader, Glen Murray would make sure that eight times per year, Regional Vice Presidents, working with Area Coordinators, submit progress reports to the Executive Council with their ideas and concerns. Glen would have a representative at these meetings that would bring these reports directly, and he will respond.
As Premier, Glen Murray will also make sure that he, as well as Cabinet Ministers and MPPs meet regularly with party members. These meetings can be scheduled when the Premier and others travel to ridings for fundraisers and other events - our Party leadership should schedule regular town hall meetings with members so we all can hear first-hand how Liberals feel we’re doing.
A Better Party To Build A Better Ontario
The goal is clear - as Premier and Ontario Liberal Leader, Glen Murray would make every voice in the Ontario Liberal Party count, whether it’s through One Liberal, One Vote, listening at the next AGM, making participation more affordable or deploying online technology.
As Ontario Liberal Leader, Glen Murray would:
• Create an online forum for Provincial Liberal Association Presidents, Area Coordinators and Regional Vice Presidents to share feedback and information within the Party and an additional forum for them to share ideas with each other - deploying Ontario Liberal Party staff to ensure prompt responses.
• Create an online forum for CFOs where they can quickly address as well as ask their own questions and get responses, so they can complete their work more effectively.
• Set up an online centre to organize requests for MPPs or guests at fundraisers for Provincial Liberal Associations - this is now a time-consuming job but an important one and technology can help us do it better.
As Leader, Glen Murray wants to address the comments he hears most from Ontario Liberal members - they want to know what is going on in government but it’s not always easy to find out. We can make better use of fRed - organizing it to make sure our membership can easily track the releases, events, legislation and work our government is doing as well as a week in review for an overall look at what the government has done each week. A lot of this information is available now, but not always easy to find in one place. And unlike emails, having a central information site means information wouldn't get cluttered in your inbox and would be available whenever you want it.
Online AGMs And Provincial Councils
Helping with the costs for our membership to reach meetings is one way to encourage participation. Another way is to use technology better.
Our plenary and breakout sessions should be available online to those who register, so they can really participate - they should see the sessions, be able to ask questions and vote.
Election-Ready Leadership And Liberal Team
Our next Ontario Liberal Leader will not just become Premier. The Leader will also have to make sure our Party is ready to fight - and win - an election that could come right away.
As Leader, Glen Murray has a plan. As the only leadership candidate who has run a government, he knows that to win it’s important for the leadership to collaborate with the party when developing ground strategy and campaign manager training, listening to the workers on the ground who have the direct experience.
Glen Murray’s campaign training committee would include at least one person from each region who has been a campaign manager to work with the group to develop a comprehensive plan.
Our plan for the next election is simple - deploy new technologies and ideas stemming from research by the Party, at the same time as we work with experienced managers who can tailor it to our different regions and ridings. Even though we’re all Ontarians, there’s often a difference between what works in Toronto and what works in Timmins or Tecumseh.
Ontario Liberals are good at winning elections and we should share our experience with each other. We should set up an online portal where campaign managers can share what works and what needs to be worked on. Ideas and information should also be shared online among regional staff, GOTV chairs and fundraising chairs. The best way to take advantage of what we’ve learned is by sharing what we know with each other.
Glen Murray’s leadership campaign of ideas and action is built on renewal for Ontario families and our economy:
• Tax cuts for the middle class and small business
• No-money-down university or college tuition
• Cities and towns that work
• Smart government that listens with a modernized Ontario Liberal Party - including a stronger voice for the North.
• Government that listens - and a Party that listens to YOU.
For more information
Emily Kirk
647 668 1076
emily.kirk@renewliberal.ca
-30-
