Hey, Look At Me! I'm A Party Organizer!

In reading the September 7th news coverage of the OLO staff changes, specifically in the Globe And Mail, and the subsequent blog activity that skewered Toronto "party organizer" Carol Jamieson in a matter of hours, I couldn't help but take stock in my own importance to the Conservative Party of Canada. Indeed, I not only proudly carry a membership card, they also sent me an embossed, gold-letter Sustaining Donor card. How cool is that? However, to my dismay, I feel dwarfed by the towering impression of Carol Jamieson's "party organizer" marquee level of influence that she can seemingly wield at the drop of a hat or, at least, the firing of a few employees who are much closer to the inner sanctum than she.

"How does one become a party organizer", I kept thinking to myself. Lemme see.. Jamieson sits on the Board of Directors of the Etobicoke-Lakeshore Conservative EDA. I'm on the Ottawa West - Nepean board (listed is my legal name). She doesn't appear to occupy a chair and is simply listed as a Director at Large. I have no chair, except for the one under my ass at the monthly meetings. I am, however, the webmaster for the association's website. I'm not a geek, by any measure, but I know enough low-end tricks that I took the responsibility on with a passion and a purpose to re-design the site and launch a youth subdomain. In addition, I provide regular E-News mailings to the membership to keep them updated. ( Read our latest mailing here.)
But, still, no news outlet has ever looked me up for a comment on party affairs. Hell, I have friends at the Ottawa Citizen and they know my phone number.

My quest shall continue for the coveted, all-important, "party organizer" moniker.

To the cognoscenti, it comes as no great headline that politics is not glamorous. Mrs. Woody (a VP on our board as well as on the Provincial board) and I spent close to 5 hours yesterday with roughly 25 other volunteers, assembling lawn signs for our candidate John Baird. Inside the house, another half dozen dedicated friends finished stuffing envelopes for an event mailing. It was a job several of us didn't quite accomplish well into Thursday night. We managed to assemble 2000 signs and we still have more to do this Wednesday. Yes, we're getting ready for an election and, Newsflash, that writ is coming sooner than you think. Don't ask me how I know because I'm not a "party organizer". You'll just have to trust me.

It's been my experience, both in business and politics, that a membership body or an assembled staff comes with its measure of passengers and tourists. Not everyone dares roll up their sleeves and gets some snot in their nose. I've been involved in many efforts where the usual suspects will show up late and leave early just to be seen by others, while contributing the bare minimum. I also know people who honestly believe there's a job waiting for them at the end of a successful election campaign. They not only believe it, they expect it. Others use their board memberships merely to pad their resumes and validate their egos. As a functioning member of a campaign team and an EDA whose sole mandate is to create a condusive environment to win an election, I recognize this type of character but must work with it maintain our forward progress.

In my estimation, the Carol Jamiesons of this country are a liability for our party for two reasons:

She not only mis-represented her true party status to The Globe And Mail or she allowed that assumption to prevail and she spoke out of turn and her comments were uninformed. As an association director, it is unacceptable to criticize your party openly unless you're prepared to resign. With regard to her inference that this is an Alliance objective to take over the OLO (Good God, people! Enough already!!!), she may have since come to understand that at least two individuals had strong Alliance connections. My friend and former OWN candidate Sean Casey worked for years for Randy White while David Quist, a candidate in BC, also had Alliance ties. As a former PC, myself, I have little time for people with the "us vs them" mentality and I share a majority sentiment. But, again, one idiot allows us to make front page for all the wrong reasons.

So, while Stephen Taylor and Angry were duly and apologetically out of line from their initial take on the issue, the question of Jamieson's standing and her actions in that regard linger on.

As for the label of "party organizer". I sat for an hour yesterday in a Manotick Tim Horton's discussing details of an upcoming Ontario PC fundraiser with my good friend Lisa Macleod and others. And, come to think of it, I did move stuff around the garage to organize the storage of the lawn signs.

Hmm! Looks like I'm a party organizer after all.