Operation: May Day! (A proposal to ensure Elizabeth is invited to the next televised leaders debate)

It has become obvious to me that the CRTC is not going to do its job by compelling the major broadcasting companies to include Elizabeth in the next debate, therefore it must be demonstrated to be in these companies’ interest to include her. The best way to compel a company to do anything is by providing it with a financial incentive. I think that we can provide this incentive in an indirect but potentially quite effective manner.

Polls & Petitions:
In the past we have seen opinion polls demonstrate that the vast majority of the Canadian public wants to hear from the Green Party even if they are not presently considering voting Green. We have also collected and submitted vast petitions to the major broadcasting companies, demanding to be included in the leaders debate. Both of these measures have proven ineffective due to the fact that, from the perspective of the broadcasting companies, they perceive no tangible consequences if they do not include the Green Party leader in this debate.
Our goal should be to develop and articulate this tangible consequence as swiftly and clearly as possible. Furthermore, work towards this goal must begin immediately!

Manufacturing A Consequence:
This can be easily accomplished by altering our previous initiatives only slightly. Instead of only asking people to sign a petition which in essence states “I believe the leader of the Green Party should be included in the next televised leaders debate” we will begin publicizing and encouraging participation in a poll/survey in which one of the questions will be: “If the leader of the Green Party is not included in the next televised leaders debate, will you consider canceling your cable/satellite television service – yes or no?” The effectiveness of this plan will not rest in the poll itself, but rather what is done with it and when. This is explained below.

The Process:

Tomorrow...
• We begin developing the online poll and composing a letter/email to send out to our members drawing the poll to their attention.
• We begin composing a small, cost-effective leaflet to publicise the poll to the general public.
• Research the top 10 companies purchasing advertising time on each of the major television networks and find out the names and mailing addresses of the executives in charge of Canadian advertising at each of these companies.

Phase two...
• The online poll is launched and our members are notified.
• Via the poll, we begin collecting information on member-volunteers who would be willing to hand-deliver at least one package of 100 leaflets in their own neighbourhoods. The advantages to this are: we induce poll participation in areas where there is already Green thinking, we save money on mailing costs, it requires very little organisation, and it presents our member-volunteers with a very quick and doable task.

The moment an election can be judged as imminent...
• We mail out the leaflet packages to our member-volunteer base along with an explanatory letter saying that the sooner the leaflets can be delivered, the better.
• We ask each local EDA to run an add in their local paper publicizing the survey.

The moment the next election campaign starts...
• Capture the results of the poll and courier the results to the following, ensuring that they are all aware of exactly who else has seen the results:
• Advertising Revenue, CBC
• Advertising Revenue, CTV
• Advertising Revenue, CanWest Global
• Cable Subscriptions, Rogers Communications
• Satellite Subscriptions, Bell Canada Enterprises
• Our list of advertising executives at their affiliated companies
• Continue to collect survey data, post the updating results online.
• Begin a Facebook group to further publicize the survey and email all of our members asking them to sign up to it.

Challenges:
This strategy could be described as edgy, but I would submit that this is exactly what the situation demands. By structuring the action as a poll it avoids being overtly confrontational and appears quite benign, however by continuing to collect the participants’ full names, email addresses, cities, provinces, and postal codes (as we have in the past), it retains all the persuasive force of a petition.
Another potential problem might occur if other parties or other party members start participating in the poll and boosting the “no” vote. I would argue that this is not a concern. The other parties continue to think of the Green Party as somewhat non-threatening –they are not likely to take any action of this sort and are even less likely to invest resources into any sort of organised action.
A more general concern might come to mind if, for whatever reason, more people end up voting “no”. This is also not a concern. The beauty of this poll is that the “no” number is really irrelevant –potential impacts/consequences will be calculated based on the “yes” number no matter what that number turns out to be.
Finally, will this poll make a difference? Yes. By distributing the results to the above mentioned parties, the chance of getting at least a few of them thinking about the results and calculating potential impacts is reasonably high. Then, if only one of the above parties expresses their concerns about potential financial impacts of the poll, it will be relatively easy for the broadcasting companies to make their decision to invite Elizabeth to the debates. They will be placed in a position of being able to avoid a potentially significant financial impact by simply doing the right thing.

Projections
- Estimated number of participants, based on the level of participation realised in the last poll: 50,000
- Conservatively estimated “yes” number: 30,000
- Broadcasting companies, etc. will estimate that 50% of “yes” respondents will follow through: 15,000
- Cost of an average monthly television subscription: $65.00/month or $780.00/year
- Potential impact to television service providers alone: $11,700,000/year

Potential Online Survey

Given that the Green Party of Canada (GPC) now consistently receives over 10% of public support and millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, do you believe that the GPC leader (Elizabeth May) should be included in the televised leaders debates in the next federal election – yes or no?
2. If Elizabeth May is not included in the next televised leaders debate, will you consider canceling your cable/satellite television service – yes or no?
3. Will you be voting Green in the upcoming election – yes or no?
4. Will you be convincing others to vote Green as well – yes or no?

Possible Leaflet Text

Take the May Day Survey!

Did you know that...

• the Green Party of Canada (GPC) is now garnering over 600,000 votes across Canada in federal elections? That’s a population roughly the size of Winnipeg!
• the GPC now receives 4.5% of the popular vote, entitling it $1 million of tax payers’ money every year?
• if the GPC received seats in Parliament based on its percentage of the popular vote, it would already have 10 - 15 seats?
• if in the last election the House of Commons reflected the popular vote, the majority of seats would be Liberal-NDP-Green NOT Conservative-Bloc?
• despite all of the above, Canadian television broadcasters might still exclude Elizabeth May, leader of the GPC, from the next televised leaders debates?

Help us gauge public opinion on these issues by taking the May Day Survey. Visit our website to learn more!

www.greenparty.ca

Who is Elizabeth May?

• Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
• Former director of the Sierra Club of Canada.
• A best-selling author.
• The best person to lead Canada to a sustainable and responsible future!