What we can and should learn from Conservative Tom Flanagan

Tom Flanagan, U of C Political Science professor, and former Harper campaign manager has put together a top 10 list of sorts. It is his list of the 10 things the Conservative party must keep in mind and/or focus on in order to supplant the Liberals as Canada's 'natural governing party'. The article can be found here: globeandmail.com: Thou shalt not lean too far to the right

We, as Liberals need to learn from this too. Our biggest failures in my humble opinion are in (Tom's list numbers) #1 Unity, #7 Toughness and #8 Grassroots Organization.

If you don't think Unity is a problem, just check out all the coverage before and after the by-election in Outremont, where everyone and their dog was going after Dion (and Kyoton).

We fail on Toughness because the Conservative party will always out-mean us. By this I mean the evil/dirty trick and good attack ads. We need to be tough and not be afraid to point out the major flaws in Conservative ideology.

We fail miserably and are playing a giant game of catch-up when it comes to Grassroots Poitics. Just as Prof. Flanagan says, the Liberal party also must be "a party that is easy for individuals to join, encourages donation and volunteerism and is committed to winning elections one voter at a time." If we fail in the ground game, we're sunk.

We've got the best brand and the best policies, but that will mean nothing if we have the worst organization and the fewest donations.

We need to do this. Who's in?

A.L.