NDP election readiness memo
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Transcript of NDP election readiness memo
Memo TO: Hon. Jack Layton, Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada FROM: Brad Lavigne, Campaign Director, New Democratic Party of Canada DATE: Monday, January 17, 2011 SUBJECT: State of Election Readiness On behalf of the Election Planning Committee, I submit this memo outlining the Party’s election campaign readiness at this time. In summary, the Party is prepared to wage an aggressive federal election campaign at any time. I have given the staff team here the readiness date of mid-‐February to be ready to go on your signal. FINANCING The debt from the 2008 election campaign has been paid off in its entirety. Financing has been secured that will allow the Party to spend the central legal maximum, estimated at approximately $23 million, in the next campaign. The Election Planning Committee has adopted a campaign budget -‐ the largest in our Party’s history. PLATFORM & ANNOUNCEMENTS The platform has been through a number of edits by the platform group. Announcements are being costed and cross-‐referenced with Department of Finance figures. We will get the next level of input from the Caucus at the Strategy Session later in January. LEADER’S TOUR The Party has secured air and ground transportation for a leader’s tour. Decaling of planes and busses can be done on short notice. A full 35-‐day tour has been drafted and our advance team is scouting announcement locations now. CAMPAIGN HQ & STAFF The Campaign Headquarters in our downtown building has been completely renovated and is ready to host the largest campaign staff compliment our Party has ever seen. We have just a few positions that still require filling, but I am confident if a campaign becomes imminent we will be in a good position to hire the final. We will be holding a Campaign HQ launch party be House returns ADVERTISING We have been working for many months with our French and English language ad firms. Tomorrow we will film the next round of ads for English markets, while the French ads will be filmed in the coming days.
CANDIDATES We are in the final stages of completing our slate of candidates. We are on track to have 308 candidates vetted and nominated by the end of February/early March. POLLING & FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH The Party has recently completed a comprehensive round of polling and focus groups. The results are promising, allowing the Party to plan a growth campaign – one in which we will re-‐elect each of our incumbent MPs while electing a large number of next tier seats. Of the next tier of seats for us, 2/3rds are currently held by the Conservative Party. In these ridings Liberal voters, particularly women and young people, want to defeat the Conservatives but do not like Mr. Ignatieff. They do like you and are very willing to vote NDP. The research suggests that our base has solidified behind your leadership, while the Liberal base is very unimpressed with Mr. Ignatieff and volatile. There is growing sense that Mr. Ignatieff is not going to be involved in federal politics after the next election and therefore the Liberals will be involved in another leadership race. As a result, more and more former Liberals are looking to us to defeat their local Conservative MP. NEXT STEPS The final phase of planning will take at a urgently called Election Planning Committee meeting to take place after the Caucus Retreat in Ottawa on January 28 and 29, 2011. -‐ Brad