The women were making Joe Fresh clothing, a low cost garment brand owned by the Canadian corporation Loblaw Comapanies Ltd. It sells Joe Fresh garments in their supermarkets across Canada, including Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Independent, and Zehrs Markets – but their cheap clothes aren’t worth the human cost.

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That’s because the CAW and the CEP have asked Public Response to use its award-winning member engagement system, Live Convention, to live-stream the founding of the newest, and largest, private sector union in Canada.

“This is a historic moment for the labour movement and these two great organizations, and we are delighted to have been invited to be part of it,” said Steven Staples, President of Public Response.

Live Convention is a high-profile solution for putting conventions online and engaging a widespread membership. Many organizations are using social media and webcasts to reach their members and the public, dramatically increasing the impact of their conventions and other special events.

Last summer the CAW engaged eight times the number of people attending its convention using Live Convention. In 2010, the CEP was named “Best Cyberunion” by the Canadian Association of Labour Media (CALM) for live-streaming its convention.

Public Response is a digital agency that services leading non-profits and trade unions in the fields of online engagement and government relations. Its goal is to help clients inform, inspire and empower others to achieve social change.

To learn more about Live Convention and watch a clip, visit http://www.publicresponse.ca/live-convention

That’s why the Ontario Federation of Labour has set out to use this political moment to “change the conversation” on austerity, and Public Response is delighted to be part of their new project: The People’s Budget.

We have joined the Ontario Federation of Labour’s team to mount an ambitious project that includes widespread media coverage, strong public online engagement, and inspiring public meetings across the province.

Please share this graphic on Facebook to help spread the word about The People’s Budget.

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The People’s Budget launched on Monday, February 25, with an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen by OFL President Sid Ryan and former Clerk of the Privy Council Alex Himelfarb.

The campaign also released a “green paper” on the budget and set forth a social media campaign to encourage people to visit the website, www.thepeoplesbudget.ca, and to share their ideas on how we can use the next budget to make Ontario better for everyone.

We hope you will take part in this exciting project.

The Public Response team

Visit the CRTC website to oppose the application (2012-0687-1 Sun News General Partnership). Deadline is February 27, 2013!

Start here:

Click this link to go to the CRTC website:
https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/Intervention/Submission-Soumission.aspx?lang=e&EN=2013-19&ET=N#SE0

Follow the steps.
Enter the following and click on “Next.”

• Choose “I agree”.
• Choose “Option 1″.
• Choose “2012-0687-1: Sun News General Partnership”.
• Choose “My Comments are in Opposition”.

Enter the comment:
(cut and paste, or edit the following)

I do not request to appear at the public hearing.
I oppose Sun News Media’s application for mandatory distribution on analog and digital basic service in Canada (Reference #2012-0687-1). Sun TV is explicitly biased and provides unbalanced coverage of issues. Canadians should not be forced to pay for this channel.

Continue:

• Choose “Do not want to appear”.
• Choose “I agree”.
• Choose “No” (you are not a designated representative).
• Enter your contact information.
• Select “I will be sending a copy of my comments to the applicant and to any other person that the Commission has directed. I agree to provide proof to the Commission upon request”.
• Click on Submit!

Check out what others have been telling the CRTC.

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We had a great group of participants from awesome organizations, such as a leading progressive research group, a sexual and reproductive health rights group, a women’s peace organization, an international humanitarian organization, a leading union in North America, a progressive news organization, and a peace research and advocacy group.

We shared ideas and insights on how to build contact lists, how to engage donors online, the different technologies available to us, and how to test and track results.

It was an inspiring day and we can’t wait to see our friends’ next fundraising campaigns!

Are you interested in attending an Online Fundraising Workshop, designed for people running small non-governmental organizations that need to raise more money from individual supporters, in your city? Let us know!

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has agreed to meet with Chief Spence and a delegation of First Nations chiefs on January 11, 2013.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/04/pol-idle-no-more-friday.html

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Here at Public Response, we love Dropbox, which is a cool file-hosting program that works with Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile. It provides 2GB of free cloud storage, meaning that your files, videos and photos are stored remotely online. You never have to worry that something will happen to your computer because all of your files are kept safely on third party servers.

Dropbox’s other great advantage is its neat synchronization feature. You can work on a file from your work computer, home computer, mobile device or online via the Dropbox website, and Dropbox will automatically update the file EVERYWHERE – even across Macs and PCs. This means that you can work seamlessly from any of your devices without ever having to email yourself a file again – which is pretty great!

Dropbox also makes it easy to share your folders or files with your clients, colleagues or friends. Its share features allow you to select the item you would like to share and send a link to it via email to the person you would like to share with.

We like to use this feature to send large PowerPoint presentations or videos, which may be too large for email, to our clients.

A cheap and effective way to increase your open rate is through email.

We always advise our clients to send their supporters an email as their direct mail campaign is shipped out. The email should be simple and clear: let your supporters know what your campaign is about and encourage them to check their mailbox in the coming days. You can even include a photo of the envelope or your team putting the appeal together, like this one.

The email helps build excitement around your mailing and people will be on the lookout for it, reducing the chance that it gets ignored or lost among their junk mail.

Want to learn more online and offline direct mail techniques? Sign up for our upcoming online fundraising workshop.

December 8, 2012
By Christopher Holcroft
iPolitics

We have seen the future of Canadian politics — and it isn’t pretty.

After what many observers called the nastiest, least-substantive election campaign in American history, Canadians would be wise to avoid righteous condemnation. Our own political landscape has been transformed already in ways that make it resemble our neighbours to the south.

Consider: we are no longer immune to the fierce onslaught of negative political attack ads during, or between, elections. We are no longer free from troubling speculation about the legitimacy of our voting process. We seldom hear a political exchange that rises above partisan rhetoric.

Still, there are voices in this country calling for our politics to become even more like America’s by weakening election financing laws intended to limit the influence of private interests on Canadian campaigns.

While many Americans breathed a sigh of relief when their presidential campaign finally ended, their political discourse will continue to be marred by divisive, often offensive rhetoric — the kind that some have suggested contributed to the targeted shooting of an Arizona congresswoman, an assault which also killed six people — and a polarized populace seemingly incapable of coming together to address significant policy challenges.

Several prominent Canadians have been sharing their concerns about the direction of our political culture in recent weeks. Academic and former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has expressed alarm over the trend of politicians treating each other as enemies rather than adversaries. Pollster Allan Gregg recently lamented a public discourse that is dominated by dogma rather than rational thought. Alex Himelfarb, former clerk of the Privy Council, has criticized the “politics of propaganda”.

Yet the continuing divisiveness of our politics is at odds with the inclusiveness of our national character.

Philosopher John Ralston Saul, in his excellent book A Fair Country, describes Canada as an ever-widening circle, welcoming people in. From these roots we have developed into a tolerant, empathetic and peaceful people. Historically we have resolved our differences through words, not weapons, and endeavored to reach decisions via negotiation, not confrontation.

Unfortunately, too many members of our political class appear unwilling to pursue a more thoughtful and respectful style of politics, reluctant to embrace their inner, polite Canadian.

Take for example, the last federal election. Candidates from all parties, across the country, were invited to sign a civility pledge that would commit them, in the words of the pledge, to:

• making themselves available for public debates and all-candidate meetings;
• forswearing personal attacks on political opponents, and;
• advocating for a respectful and substantive exchange of ideas.

One hundred and fifty candidates took the pledge; 13 of them were elected. This represents a small minority of the candidates who contested that election.

Clearly, we cannot depend on our politicians alone to change a system within which most remain willing to operate.

Instead, we seek leadership from Canadians who consider themselves citizens first, who judge ideas on their merits and who are ready to embrace good policies regardless of their political origin.

After all, it was an Ontario Tory who gave us Confederation, a Prairie social democrat who gave us public health care, and a Quebec Liberal who gave us the Charter.

Overcoming the politics of anger, fear and division sometimes feels like an awesome challenge, but we find inspiration in Canadians who view democratic citizenship as a sober responsibility, worthy of a considered and serious approach.

They include members of civil society organizations studying and facilitating greater civic engagement, teachers who volunteer their time organizing student parliaments, the hundreds of Torontonians who showed themselves ready and willing to wait hours to give a three-minute deputation on last year’s contentious city budget, and the thousands of Montrealers who marched in the streets, night after night last spring, in support of the principle of democratic participation.

Yes, our politics may be broken, but not necessarily beyond repair. In fact, many Canadians are trying to fix it. Let’s join them.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

© 2012 iPolitics Inc.

Christopher Holcroft can be reached at christopherholcroft@hotmail.ca

Christopher Holcroft is a writer and advocate for citizen engagement, civil discourse and civic literacy. During the 2011 election he launched civilelection.ca, an initiative to encourage candidates to sign a civility pledge. In 2008, he founded Empower Consulting to provide communications and advocacy services exclusively to non-profit organizations. He has a degree in political science from the University of Toronto.

• What are the basics of direct email online fundraising?

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• Which online tools will I need and how do I choose?

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• How can I track my results and improve my fundraising ability over time?

CHOOSE YOUR DATE: 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013 or Tuesday, January 22, 2013 | Ottawa

PRICE: $435 per person +HST ($400 each for 2 or more participants from the same organization)

LOCATION: Under one Roof
251 Bank Street, Ottawa ON K2P 1X3
9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

TO REGISTER OR FOR MORE INFORMATION contact: Sandra Boisvert, campaign consultant 613-565-9449 ext 22 or sboisvert@publicresponse.ca

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