It’s not often that you can take credit for being the first to do something notable in Canadian history. (Well, you could if you counted things like “first person to walk backwards down my street playing a kazoo and waving a Hamilton Tiger Cats flag.” But, to borrow a definition from Wikipedia, that’s not really the kind of “notable” that’s actually notable.)
Anyhow, that one notable thing that I was responsible was the idea of doing what would be the first-ever political money bomb in Canadian politics. Since then, other Saskatchewan-based politicians have tried them and I suspect there may have been other smaller, more local ones held since then as well.
But that original one for Ryan Meili’s provincial NDP leadership campaign is still one of the biggest and most successful ones ever held. Except now there’s another contender for that title.
I was recently made aware of a Money Bomb that the Wildrose Party of Alberta is running to raise funds for their leader’s summer promotional tour.
If you’re not familiar with the Wildrose, they’re a relatively new political party that sprang up in 2007 as a blending of some former Reform/Alliance supporters and various libertarian/right-wing elements of the Alberta political scene who thought the dominant Conservative party weren’t. just. conservative. enough!
They’ve created a money bomb and, at least in terms of pure dollars raised, topped the Meili campaign by a few thousand dollars making them the most successful money bomb in Canadian history.
(I’ll try not to sound defensive when I point out that ours was for the candidate in a leadership race instead of raising funds from supporters of an entire party, that they have an advantage of a much better web site and there are obvious inequities in terms of the fundraising potential between presumably wealthy Alberta libertarian/business-types and presumably not as wealthy Saskatchewan socialists! 😉 )
Anyhow, the staffer from the Wildrose party who contacted some of the people involved in the Meili Moneybomb for further details was sincerely complimentary towards the things Ryan did with his campaign in terms of using new technology and I will return the compliment in a slightly backhanded fashion.
Anything that helps shake up the hegemony of the Alberta Conservative Party is a good thing. I’d love for it to come from the left (or much more likely, the centre – the current Liberal leader reminds me of Dr. Meili in many ways!) but the reality of Alberta is that they’re much more likely to go ever further right if that’s even possible!
Unfortunately, the success of the Wildrose Money Bomb may not be enough to overcome some serious other challenges the party is currently facing – financial and otherwise.
(Just heard that Dr. Meili will be speaking in my hometown of Indian Head on September 17 at a fundraiser for the local NDP candidate. If you’re in the area, come on out!)
