Herding green cats

"It's like herding cats!" - That's one of the favourite sayings at my house where we have 6-year-old twin daughters and my wife runs a home daycare business.

If you've never heard the expression "herding cats" just watch this wonderful ad from a few years ago by consulting firm EDS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8

Imagine trying to take a mob of cats and herd them like cattle, getting them all running in roughly the same direction to arrive at the right place at the right time. Not a task for faint of heart or weak of will.

Managing a political party is a lot like herding cats. You're basically dealing with a horde of highly opinionated, independently-minded individualists each with their own ideas on how things should work and what's the best way to do things. Somehow you've got to get them all moving and working together if you're going to arrive at your intended destination: getting elected. At the same time you've got to respect the independence and free spirit of the individuals in your herd. Good party leaders have to be good cat herders.

The big risk is the fine line between being a cat herder and being a shepherd. Harper and Ignatieff are shepherds. They treat their party members like sheep - dumb animals with no independent will or individuality. They drive them and employ party enforcers to act as sheepdogs, nipping the heels of those who stray. The new code-phrase for this in the Conservative and Liberal folds is Party Discipline. It a phrase I quickly tired of hearing prior to my eventual flight from Iggy's sheep pen. The result of Liberal/Conservative Party Discipline, of course, is their MPs, candidates and party members lose their cat-ish ability to react quickly and think on their feet.   

So why this little dissertation today on cats and political parties? I'm glad you asked.

Yesterday I received, as most of you no doubt did, the announcement that nominations are open for the 308 individuals who will carry the Green banner into the next election. Now the wind has carried rumours to my sensitive little political ears that: 

a)  there has been some urging from Green central to the riding associations to get this over and done with reasonable dispatch, and;

b) in response some riding associations are grumbling about this annoying intrusion on their grassroots democratic freedoms

Herding cats.

The riding associations are of course right. Having Party HQ twist their arms into speedier nominations is an intrusion on their individual democratic freedom. Likewise me ordering my daughters to eat their veggies infringes on their individual freedom. It's still good for them.

When a party has its candidates nominated well in advance of the election the candidates can begin forming their campaign teams,  the campaign HQ can begin establishing the national campaign logistical frameworks and working with the candidates and their teams on strategy, messaging, logistics, etc. In short the entire party has more time get get prepared so when the election actually comes, the whole party apparatus is ready to spring into action like a well-oiled machine. It's the key to victory.

In the last election Stephane Dion's Liberals were caught without a full slate of nominated candidiates. It was symptomatic of the larger disorganization and lack of election readiness within that party which strongly contributed to the electoral thrashing they received. The key to Liberal and Conservative victories throughout their histories has been effective organization.

This is the lesson the Green Party needs to learn from its opponents. I am given to understand this kind of election preparedness has not been a Green Party hallmark in past elections. Perhaps, as with the grumbing over the push to complete nominations, it stems from a fear of loss of grassroots freedom. Nobody wants the Green Party to succumb to Igg/Harper-style Party Discpline. What everyone needs to realize is you can have organized party discipline without having Party Discpline. It is possible for the cats to move as a herd without turning into sheep.

The next election could come at any time. Believe it. And believe as well that it is absolutely essential for the future of the Green Party as a credible force in Canadian politics that we, at the bare minimum, hold our gains from the last election. Accomplishing that means getting organized. It means that, as difficult as it feels, the cats are going to have to give up a little piece of their autonomy, listening to and accepting some direction from the cat herders.