Rebuilding the Liberal party

Steve Pinkus, Désirée Mcgraw and Rachel Bendayan, National Post, May 21, 2011

Getting involved:

Founders

Carolina Gallo La Flèche,
Westmount-Ville-Marie
Brett House,
Niagara West-Glanbrook
Kent Hovey-Smith,
Trinity-Spadina
Désirée McGraw,
Notre-Dame-De-Grâce-Lachine
Matthew Ramsden,
Ottawa Centre
Robert Valdmanis,
Westmount-Ville-Marie

Questionnaire for Liberal Party of Canada National Executive Candidates

Tom Chervinsky, VP External – Young Liberals of Canada

People. What concrete steps will you take as a member of the Party Executive to increase the inclusiveness of the Party and expand the diversity of its membership?

Create real opportunities for engagement for Young Liberals, which is a draw for many youth looking to influence the direction of Canada
Provide materials and training for Young Liberals on strategies for engaging traditionally excluded communities which will lead to more diverse recruitment.
Create a multicultural outreach committee tasked with building new programs to encourage diverse recruitment.
Develop a relationship with national representatives of student and youth multicultural groups.

Policy. What specific actions, policies and initiatives will you undertake or advocate as part of a concerted effort to ensure that the Party presents a strategic and compelling platform to the Canadian electorate that responds to Canada's most pressing needs?

Include student issues groups such as Make Poverty History and STAND Canada in signature Young Liberal events, including Camp WannaBeFree, Summer Fling, and Atlantic Caucus, in order to help Young Liberals develop more comprehensive policy and form stronger relationships with like-minded student organizations.
Work with YLC VP Policy to organize a YLC issues committee of grassroots Young Liberals, focused on engagement with student and youth issues groups.

Party. What tangible priority efforts will you launch to increase the participation of Party members in every level of the Party's decisions, operations and structures to increase accountability and the democratic link between the central Party and the riding organizations?

Focus on putting tools and information in the hands of our clubs and members so they can build our organization from the grassroots up.
Create real opportunities for Young Liberals to take on new responsibilities and positions of leadership
Develop a ‘culture of Yes’ which looks for ways to support new initiatives by members and helping to remove obstacles from their participation
Support the role of Young Liberals as a key part of recruitment and progressive policy development within our party.

Candidate responses to questionnaire