When I worked at the National Citizens Coalition, I thought
it was an organization solely dedicated to fighting for economic and political
freedom.
However, it turns out the NCC was also something else: a
training ground for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Or so says journalist Susan Delacourt in her excellent new book,
Shopping for Votes: How politicians Chooseus and How we Choose Them, which details the history of political marketing
in Canada .
In the book Delacourt writes the prime minister’s “stint
with the National Citizens Coalition from 1997 to 2001 had taught Harper a
thing or two about how to lob political ideas into the marketplace. From its
humble beginnings as Colin Brown’s protest against government spending in the
1970s, the NCC had grown to be a powerful grassroots ally to conservative
politicians in Canada .”
She also quotes former Conservative marketing expert Patrick
Muttart as saying, “Throughout my time with him he would personally reference
(NCC) campaigns that he ran. He ran an organization that was in the business of
erecting billboards, running direct-mail campaigns. So I don’t think we’ve ever
had a prime minister who had direct personal experience being a marketer.”
Muttart added this marketing skill was a crucial difference
between Harper and his predecessors.
And I have to say, I agree with this assessment.
When Harper was at the NCC, the organization was a political
marketing machine without equal.
Although a relatively small group – we had at our height
about 40,000 supporters – the NCC managed to raise millions of dollars to fund both
national multi-media advertising campaigns and high-profile constitutional court
challenges.
What’s more, we also knew how to attract media attention and
how to craft a message so that it resonated with the public.
Of course, none of this was easy; it took a lot of hard work
and lot of dedicated people to make it happen.
It also took leaders with vision.
In fact, the NCC’s success was largely the result of two men:
David Somerville and Arthur Finkelstein.
David was Harper’s predecessor as NCC president and a man of
incredible energy and drive, who almost single-handedly turned the NCC from
basically a “hobby gone berserk” into a professional organization.
And the smartest move David ever made was to hire Arthur
Finkelstein, a tough-as-nails, American political consultant, who also happened
to be a genius. (Arthur was recently inducted into the political consultantHall of Fame.)
It was Arthur who taught us how to write effective grassroots
direct mail fundraising letters, how to deal with an often hostile media, how
to write catchy political ads, and how to wage war against politicians and
union bosses.
So given all this, it’s not surprising that Harper picked up
a trick or two while at the NCC.
Maybe we should have billed him for the lessons!
