Carleton - Mississippi Mills NDP

Plan our work, Work our plan

2012-05-15T06:48:00.001-04:00

The riding executive has been busy putting together a plan for 2012. We expect to share our plan with you in June, at a riding meeting. We hope you will approve and you will say ‘this plan is made for you and me’. If that sounds like a segue to a song, then your are correct. Check out the video and get a glimpse of our work in progress by looking on flickr in the CMM group(http://www.flickr.com/groups/cmmndp/).

In solidarity,

John Hansen
Vice-President Federal

PS – The flickr group is a private. Once logged into flickr just send a message, with your real name, asking for access.

Update from the Ontario Provincial Convention

2012-04-25T21:50:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone, I just wanted to give a quick recap of some of the highlights from the Provincial Convention in Hamilton earlier this month.

The convention was a great success, setting new attendance records for the party thanks to all of the new members who have joined us over the last year and providing an opportunity to reflect on our successes both federally and provincially across the country. There was notable enthusiasm amongst delegates and a key theme was the success and growth of the NDP from coast to coast over the last few years. This enthusiasm was also mixed with a great deal of concern over the direction Ontario and Canada are heading and the impact of austerity budgets on our most vulnerable citizens, on household budgets and on the social fabric in Canada. The product of these juxtaposed themes was a resolute determination to come together, stay positive and work that much harder to build a better future for Ontario and the country. I'm sure that delegates from across Ontario will be bringing that message back to their ridings and building the movement for the upcoming elections.

Guest speakers such as Matt Hebb, Campaign Director for NDP Premier Darrel Dexter in Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador NDP leader Lorraine Michael shared success stories and advice on how the NDP can and is forming Government across this country, while on friday night K'naan addressed the convention on the topic of youth issues, human rights and social justice before performing several songs for the delegates.

Andrea Horwath's leadership, dedication and electoral success were recognized by delegates from across the province who overwhelmingly affirmed their faith in Andrea as the right leader to move our party forward in the coming years. Andrea addressed the convention concerning both the recent success of the party and the challenges facing us, most immediately in the form of the Liberals new budget and the difficulties of making a minority government work for all Ontarians. Delegates also got to spend some time getting to know the NDP caucus a little better and I must say we have a great bunch of men and women working for us in Queens Park at the moment!

Elections were held for the new executive in which Neethan Shan became our new party president, while Darlene Lawson and Jacob Leibovitch were re-elected as party Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

In the eastern region Jaime Masse (left) and Elaine MacDonald (right) where also re-elected as regional reps. You can find a full list of the executive at: http://ontariondp.com/en/party-executive

Larry Rousseau raising a point on a resolution.

Of course it wouldn't be an NDP convention without policy debates and the delegates considered resolutions on a wide range of topics, with a strong focus on pension reform and old age security, the protection of a meaningful right to collective bargaining and organizing in the work place, support for public, community focused healthcare and services, and improvements to public education.

Capping off events was Thomas Mulcair's address to the convention on Sunday. Thanks to our own Federal Treasurer and videographer Sue Jones, I can spare you the description and share the speech word for word in the following video's:

Part 2

Part 1

Photos and editing them into this post are thanks to our Federal Vice President John Hansen.

If anyone is interested in learning more details about the convention we have literature, resources and first hand accounts available, so please feel free to contact us either by leaving a comment below or by emailing us at: CMMNDPAdmin@gmail.com

In Solidarity,

Morgan Goddard

CMM NDP President

Electing the Next Prime Minister

2012-03-31T11:32:00.001-04:00

Here we were, 5:30 Friday morning, driving to the NDP leadership convention in Toronto. Our first stop, was of course, Tim Horton's to get a caffeine fix. The 4 of us fit comfortably in Honda Civic.

Okay, it was a tight fit, with 2 of us over 6 feet, but think of the great gas mileage we were getting per person. Somewhere around 2 litres/100 kilometers per person.

This would be my first convention. I thought I’d just take some pictures to document the process and enjoy the spectacle of the event. And a spectacle it was. I figured I would remain detached from the entire the process. The new leader would be who ever was selected and I could live with that person as leader. Boy was I wrong on several accounts.

The first thing that struck me about the convention was how friendly and talkative every one was, regardless of which candidate that was being supported. During the course of 2 days my voice went hoarse with all the discussions I was engaged in. I met Peter Ferguson, a federal NDP candidate from London and his friend, Doug I think (see pictures – blue hair). Peter and Doug where best of friends, but one was a Top supporter and the other was a Mulcair supporter.

Our car full of people supported our home town candidate, Paul Dewar. Paul, in my opinion, delivered a great speech at the convention, highlighting inclusivity of his platform to all Canadians and how he was going to drive the party over the next 6 months. Unfortunately Paul dropped out after the first round of voting.

The voting from the beginning was split with people voting the next leader and people voting strategically for a favourite candidate, realizing a good showing in this leadership race positions them better in caucus after a new leader has been chosen. Peggy Nash and Nathan Cullen were 2 such candidates, that survived the first round of voting, that were really dark horses in the race.

The media had it right. In the end it was race between the traditionalists and the progressives. The interesting point was that traditionalists and the progressives defied stereotyping. I met young people, party members for 30 plus years, people from all over the country, and trade unionists who were in each camp. Neither camp could be said to contain just people from Quebec or mainly trade unionists.

I ended up being a strong Mulcair supporter, after a lot of sole searching. I also ended up being completed exhausted by the experience, but meeting a lot of great people and having thoroughly wonderful time.

To see the slide show in full screen – see 2012 NDP Leadership Slide Show
For a light hearted look at the convention see – Rick Mercer’s spoof video of the convention

Federal Leadership Convention- March 23rd - 24th

2012-03-21T21:27:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,

The leadership convention is finally here and 6 months of campaigning will culminate in the election of our new federal Leader this weekend.

To all members who will be attending in person have a great time participating in a piece of Canadian history as we elect the leader who will take the NDP to their first federal victory!

Of course for those who cannot attend there are still many ways to participate in the convention and to vote for the candidate of your choice.

All of the tools you will need are available at: www.leadership2012.ca

From here you will be able to watch live video coverage of the convention, check the results of previous rounds and, most importantly, cast your own vote in each round of Balloting.

Advance online voting

This option is available until March 22 where you will have the opportunity to cast a single preferential ballot, listing your preferred candidates in order. This will automatically register a vote for your first choice in each round until they are eliminated from voting, at which time a vote for your second choice will be registered and so on until a leader is chosen.

Online and at Convention

Once the convention begins online voting will be one vote per round and you must log in with your voter ID and PIN to vote for your preferred candidate each round. (Your Voter ID and PIN can be found in the convention package that was mailed out to members a few weeks ago.)

The initial round of voting begins at 5:30PM on Friday March 23^rd, and the polls will remain open for one hour on Saturday Morning. At 10AM on Saturday the results of the first round and all pre-convention votes will be announced.

If any candidate achieves more than 50% of the vote they will be declared the winner and new leader of the federal NDP.

If no candidate achieves 50% then the candidate with the least number of votes will withdraw from the contest and others are given 30 minutes to decide if they wish to withdraw their name from the race.

After this the polls will open for online voting, and members will have 90 minutes to cast their vote for that round, so you will need to follow the email alerts or the convention video feed in order to know when to vote.

This process will continue until a candidate receives more than 50% and a leader is chosen.

Agenda for the Convention

Friday, March 23rd

12:00PM Opening ceremonies (Metro Toronto Convention Centre)

1:30PM - 5:00PM Candidate Showcases

5:30PM First round of voting opens

7:00PM Jack Layton Tribute

Saturday, March 24th

10:00AM First round and pre-convention ballot results announced

10:30AM Nycole Turmel Tribute

TBD Speech by New Leader

TBD Unity Party – Following New Leader's Speech on Convention Floor

TBD Unity After-Party – (Lower Ballroom - Sheraton Centre Hotel)

Best of luck to all of the Candidates!

If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me at cmmndpadmin@gmail.com

In solidarity,

Morgan Goddard

Information Evening - Thursday March 8th

2012-03-01T20:53:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

I would like to invite all members and supporters to an information night for the Carleton Mississippi Mills NDP Riding Association. We will be meeting at the Royal Oak on March Road in Kanata, Thursday March 8^th between 7 and 9 PM. This will be a casual affair so stop by at any time and please feel free bring a friend!

It will be a great opportunity to learn more about our leadership candidates, to discuss details of the leadership race and convention with fellow members and to learn more about the options available for members to cast their vote in this historic election to select the next party Leader and the first NDP Prime Minister of Canada!

We will also have information on the upcoming Provincial NDP convention in April and will be taking nominations for members who wish to participate in the convention as delegates.

We would also love to hear your ideas on how we can become a more effective riding association that is engaged with our community and better prepared to support our new leader in the fight to take

Canada

back from the conservatives.

I look forward to seeing everyone there.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me:

Phone: (613) 832-2913

Email: CMMNDPAdmin@gmail.com

In Solidarity,

Morgan Goddard

CMM NDP Riding Association President

Moving Forward in 2012

2012-02-02T22:35:00.001-05:00

We held our 2012 AGM a few weeks ago, and I apologise for not posting sooner on the results. The agenda included a discussion the events of the past year, focusing especially on the two elections in which we witnessed a strong growth in support for the NDP in Carleton Mississippi Mills, attracting thousands of new voters over previous elections.

We discussed the fact that since 2003 we have fought 7 elections in 8 years which has had benefits in terms of building campaign experience, but also some downsides such as activist burnout and reduced riding development activities. With serveral years until the next election we now have time to focus on growing the organization, but that means adjusting from campaign mode to more riding focused activities. Fortunately due sound financial management of our Campaign CFO's we have come out of the elections in the black on both the Provicial and Federal accounts, so we have some resources to help us build over the next couple of years.

We also elected our new Riding Executive for 2012. The results have been posted on a new tab labelled 'Riding Association Executive - 2012.' We will hopefully be updating the profiles of executive members with a little more infomation shortly.

I have added a number of new events to the events page for both the federal and provincial parties. The main ones are the Federal Leadership Convention in Torornto March 23-24th and the Provincial Convention scheduled for April 13th -15th in Hamilton. Please check out the events page for more details.

We are currently planning a local event for the end of February or early March to give members a chance to meet the new executive, listen to a guest speaker, discuss issues and plans for 2012, and get to know each other a little better. We will make the details available once we have them all.

In Solidarity,

Morgan Goddard
CMM NDP President

Carleton Mississippi Mills Annual General Meeting - 2012

2012-01-11T21:50:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder to all members and supporters, our upcoming AGM is scheduled to be held at the Mlacak Center, Hall ‘C’ in Kanata on Saturday, January 21, 2011from 2:30 until 4:30 PM.

We encourage everyone to come out and meet fellow members new and old, to review events of the past year, to make plans for the future and to select the Executive Committee for 2012. Voting will be reserved for members in good standing and memberships will be available at the meeting for those who wish to join.

New Blog for CMM NDP

2012-01-07T15:12:00.000-05:00

This is the new blog for Carleton Mississippi Mills New Democrats. We will be using this to keep our members and supporters informed of events and activities in the riding.

The blog is currently under construction and will be updated shortly.

Please check back in the future.