Head Tale

I’m sure each of the candidates has a strong team of experienced hands guiding their team’s strategies and other activities. But, as with my post yesterday, I want to highlight a couple things that I think set Ryan’s team apart from the rest of the field.

Of course all the teams have lots of people who’ve been around for a long time (or were “born in orange diapers” as one person put it.) But, simply as a reflection of the number of new members he’s brought in, I suspect Ryan’s team similarly contains more party outsiders (or recent newcomers) than any other campaign. These outside experts bring new eyes which encourages new ideas and new approaches. That in turn is, I think, a big part of the reason Ryan’s team has been so successful in so many important areas – from fundraising to social media to innovative policy proposals.

I don’t want to sound elitist (which means this next statement is guaranteed to sound incredibly elitist!) 😉 but Ryan’s also attracted what is probably the most highly educated team . I joked to someone recently that I hadn’t seen so many Masters degrees and Doctoral degrees (including the candidate himself of course) since I was in grad school! 😉 But this does translate to tangible benefits – it means a big part of your social media efforts are guided by someone who has a PhD in Computer Science, you get statistical analysis by someone who has a PhD in that area and so on and so forth.

This isn’t just about playing “count the letters after the names” though – Ryan has people on his team who have amazing backgrounds and experience in graphic design, communications, event planning, translation and more – much of it gained outside of traditional politics.

The final element of what makes Ryan’s team special is its size, both in terms of sheer numbers and geography. My colleague, Aaron Genest, has already discussed the size of Ryan’s social media team – 60+ people who are interested in helping with all manner of digital initiatives from tweeting & re-tweeting to help amplify our key messages to creating original viral content to building & testing smartphone applications. In terms of geography, Ryan isn’t just relying on support from people here in Saskatchewan but from supporters across Canada and beyond. High-profile endorsements from Federal MP’s like Libby Davies and Niki Ashton are part of this but personally, I’ve found it amazing to sit in on online conference calls featuring everything from a team member in a cafe in Mexico City to a volunteer riding on a train between Montreal and Toronto to seeing regular input from a volunteer in Norway!

That’s all well and good (and, as part of Ryan’s team, I feel a bit self-serving to cite his team as a reason I’m supporting him!) But that’s just his current team.

What’s even more exciting to me is the team that I think Ryan will be best-positioned to lead should he emerge as the victor in this race!

Whereas Erin Weir and his team have decided to take a fairly aggressive approach to other campaigns (let’s just say no volunteers from any other campaign have challenged me to a charity boxing match!) and Cam Broten had personal attacks made by his volunteers questioned by Ryan at a recent debate, Ryan and his team haven’t done anything during this race (at least as far as I can see) that would leave hard feelings with members of other teams. (To be fair, neither has Trent Wotherspoon or his team. In all truth, Trent has probably been the most statesman-like of any of the candidates throughout from what I’ve seen. And I won’t even worry about that quote being used out of context!) 😉

But I do think Ryan’s relentlessly positive approach will serve him well, not just as he convinces the membership he is the best choice but, should he emerge victorious, especially as he works to unify the camps into a single-purpose, focused team after the leadership race is over (a huge failing of the last leader IMHO).

Next – #8 – His Book