Head Tale

Ryan Meili announced this morning that he’ll be running in Saskatoon-Sutherland in the next provincial election.  Jurist has details including a bit about the fact that this field will be a big one, just like Regina-Coronation Park, with four people seeking the nomination. 

I thought this might be a prime opportunity to do a post I’ve been thinking about since, well, since June 6, 2009 – a Top Ten list of my personal highlights from Ryan’s leadership run last year.  Some of these are things I’ve talked about on this blog before, some are things I haven’t. 

10.  The Power of Social Networking (The Real Kind, Not the Virtual Kind)
I started paying attention to the leadership race right around the time that Ryan announced as the fourth candidate in the race somewhere around early February 2009.  Seeing he was a doctor in Saskatoon who was around my age, I sent an e-mail to a good friend from high school who’d gone on to be a doctor to see if he knew Ryan.  I’m paraphrasing but he basically replied: “Yeah, I know him.  Good guy.  Did lots of cool extracurricular stuff at medical school.  Got arrested in Quebec City.”
I think I’ve talked about how I was looking for something like the Obama campaign in the US and frankly (and no offense to any of the other three candidates who ran) wasn’t expecting to get involved in this leadership race in any way because none of them gave me that vibe that mixed a willingness to use technology, to inspire young people and a new way of doing politics that I was looking for.  That endorsement from a good friend of mine and mutual acquaintance of Ryan’s was enough to convince me that hey, maybe this guy might have some of those things I was looking for after all.  Little did I know, I would end up giving hours of my time, my money, my ideas and my energy to the campaign over the ensuing five months. 

9.  Ryan’s Regina Press Conference
After getting the positive word from my friend, I saw that Ryan would be having a Regina press conference to announce his candidacy down here (he’d already had one in Saskatoon.)  I took an (ahem) extended coffee break and snuck off to the Beet Root vegetarian restaurant where the press conference was to be held.  I wasn’t even 100% sure what Ryan looked like and introduced myself to a couple people, at one point thinking that someone who I think worked for the restaurant was Ryan!  His Regina campaign co-chair (who I also probably thought was Ryan ) introduced me to the real Ryan.  We had a brief conversation, talked about our mutual friend and a bit about the race then it was showtime.  I was feeling nervous through the whole press conference – I think mostly feeling out of place wondering “what am I doing here?  How did this happen?”  After things wrapped up, I bought a membership (the last time I had one was the last leadership race back in 2001).  Then that same Regina campaign co-chair drove me to my house so we could sign up Shea as well (an action that takes on some extra significance given the Lingenfelter membership scandal that happened later in the leadership race.  I’d actually asked if I could sign up Shea without her being there and remember being told very clearly, “Well, other times we might be able to do that but since it’s a leadership race, we better make sure we have your wife’s signature on the membership form.”)

8.  They Get It! (x2)
Somewhere in the middle of the campaign, I attended Ryan’s press conference at the University of Regina to formally unveil his campaign videos.  I’d seen them already but seeing them on a big screen in front of a room of supporters and journalists made me realise that Ryan truly was a candidate for the modern age, that he “got it” in a way that none of the other candidates appeared to – at least in terms of the impact that online services could have on a campaign and doing things in a decentralized, bottom-up rather than traditional top-down fashion.  It’s a minor detail but I also realised Ryan got it in a different way too.  After the press conference, a bunch of us were heading down the stairs from the top floor of the Education building and I observed that all the guys in dark suits looked like a scene out of Reservoir Dogs.  And the greatest thing about it was that they all got the reference and started riffing on the idea, quoting favourite lines from the movie and so on.  “Yep, these aren’t your granddaddy’s politicians!” I remember thinking to myself. 

7.  Getting a 24-Hour Ban from Wikipedia After Getting into a Revert War with Someone Over What Details of the Lingenfelter Membership Scandal Were Fair Game For His Entry
That’s pretty self-explanatory but there’s another detail about this ban that I can’t talk about on the blog, even after a year’s passed.  It’s nothing illegal or anything but something that will have to wait for the book I write after I retire in thirty years!

6. Putting My Librarian Super Powers To Good Use
I spent a couple afternoons at the Saskatchewan Archives tracking down photos and music to use in Ryan’s convention opening.  It was a brilliant way to open the video (mucho kudos to Simple Massing Priest for the idea) and the video still gives me chills…

The day before the Leadership Convention began, Shea and I each had a long day of work then a busy afternoon and evening hitting a bunch of Mosaic pavilions.  When we registered for the Convention at Evraz Place, I’d been thinking we might hit a few more pavillions around there.  But Pace was getting cranky and Shea & I were both getting to the point where we just wanted to go home and crash knowing that we’d also be having a very busy weekend.  But then I bumped into someone from Ryan’s campaign who reminded me they were doing one last phoning bee at Ryan’s Regina HQ.  So when I got home, the guilt of knowing that this was my last chance to do something helpful made me walk in our house, explain how I felt to Shea, then turn around to immediately head back downtown (it helps to have a *very* understanding wife at times like that!).  After the phoning bee, we went to the lounge in the Regina Inn and in some ways, it was the victory party.  No matter what happened that weekend, we all took a moment to celebrate an amazing campaign. I ended up sitting next to Ryan at our table and once again, was amazed at the level of candor he showed, discussing the race and his thoughts on the future.  Of course, that night also resulted in photographic proof that I was wearing these shorts in public so maybe I would’ve been better just staying home?  Or I somehow jinxed the campaign with my poor fashion sense?  

4.  The “Ten Reasons I’m Supporting Ryan Meili” Series of Posts
I still think it’s some of the best writing I’ve even done on this blog.  And it happened while I was in Montreal for CLA and I was so pumped to do it that I’d slip back to my room between sessions and in the evenings to work on the posts rather than going out and sightseeing like a normal person would! 

3. The Money Bomb
I don’t know if I ever officially taken credit for it on this blog.  But one of the ideas I suggested early on was a money bomb modeled on what had been done to great effect by a range of candidates in the recent US Presidential election.  Ryan’s campaign eventually did the money bomb and it was a great success – bringing in more than their initial goal of $10 000 from numerous (and many unlikely) sources.  I think it also had enough small donations that Ryan ended up with more individual donors to his campaign than any other candidate.  I’m pretty proud of bringing that idea to the campaign – how often can you say you’re the first person to do something like this in the entire country? 

2.  Ryan’s First Union Endorsement (Almost)
I was still fairly new to RPL when I got involved in Ryan’s campaign – maybe having just passed my six month probation?  Even though I was still new and finding my place, I decided that what Ryan was doing was important enough that it’d be worth sticking my neck out a bit.  I started doing more and more campaigning at work – mostly via our local – although that got me a couple cautionary words and a few more outright angry responses from other members who felt what I was doing was inappropriate.  That didn’t put me off and my actions culminated in me making a motion at a union meeting about a month before the convention that our local should officially declare our support for Ryan and also make a large enough donation to his campaign that we would show up on donor disclosure forms.  Just knowing I was going to make that motion got me even more angry e-mails from members who swore they were going to come to their first meeting ever just to vote against it (I happily note that not one of them did!)  I was still quite nervous based on that feedback and seriously considered skipping the meeting completely, thinking it was a waste of time and the vote would be 50-1 against.  I went and, probably as nervous as I’ve been speaking in public in a long time, made my pitch.  I started by pointing out that, whether you were an NDP supporter or not, there are only two parties that can realistically form government in Saskatchewan right now – one which is labour friendly and one which isn’t.  And of the people running for the leadership, I felt strongly that there was one candidate who would be the best for the province, for its people and yes, for libraries.  I hit on a couple main points that I hoped would sway people – Ryan’s SaskPharm plan which I thought would appeal to many of the older members of our union and also how this was a chance for our union to do something that fits with the library’s core values of social justice and inclusion. I sat down, shaking, and awaited the vote results, joking that my only request is that the totals not be announced as the scrutineers left the room.  They came back a few minutes later and…announced the totals.  “What the hell?” I thought until it penetrated my brain what they were saying – they had to announce the results because it was a tie!  We had a moment of confusion but eventually someone pointed out that with a secret ballot, the Chair doesn’t cast the deciding vote because that would reveal their preference.  So the motion was defeated even though it was a tie.  Even though I regret not pushing harder to get some pro-Ryan folks to the meeting (remember – I was thinking I was going to get killed so what was the point?), I took this as a major victory and the first real indication that – holy shit – Ryan might really and truly have a chance to win this thing!  Even after the membership scandal, it still seemed pretty unrealistic to think Ryan could overcome all the advantages Lingenfelter had going for him.  Plus, even I thought of Ryan as someone whose greatest appeal was in Saskatoon, that it was with young people, that it was a long shot candidacy.  And here was a group of (mostly) middle-aged women in Regina who were saying they were prepared not only to take a baby step of making our union a bit more politically active but also jumping right to the point where 50% of them were willing to join me in supporting a specific candidate!  In retrospect, it also made me realise that the most vocal negative voices were countered by the quieter, pro-Ryan people who would buy a membership from me in the coffee room or slip into my office to give me a cheque for the money bomb.)  Oh well – I wish I’d gotten 50+1 but I did get a pretty good article out of the experience! 

1. Where the hell did all these people come from?
I wrote about this in my year-end entry last year (question 16) so I’ll just copy that piece which details my single biggest highlight of Ryan’s leadership run.  (Funny how I mention in that post that I’d like to do a Top Ten list of highlights of Ryan’s campaign – it’s like I was doing the work ahead of time!) 

I was a bit dejected at the convention – there seemed to be so many Link supporters around, they were all wearing those bright orange t-shirts which made them even more visible and I just felt badly out-numbered.  “Ryan’s base is in Saskatoon.  Ryan’s base is younger people who probably can’t afford to be here.  Ryan’s base isn’t the party establishment who *are* here” I rationalized for what seemed to be the lack of supporters in evidence.  Then, it was Ryan’s turn to speak and it just seemed like supporters materialized out of thin air to line the entrance way to the stage.  I remember thinking, “Holy shit – where did all these people come from?”  as the first percussive beats of “Past in Present” started up.  Such a cool cool moment.

The clip at the start of this video doesn’t do the vibe in the room justice.  Pretty amazing!