The Challenge

In 2001, anti-environmental legislators swept into power in British Columbia. The May 2005 provincial elections presented a huge opportunity to re-inject environmental values into the political scene. Only problem was, BC environmentalists were not used to playing grassroots politics. The year leading up to the election was a critical test of the BC environmental movement's ability to pull together and hoist itself off the political ropes.

The BC environmental community needed to quickly master the fundamentals of grassroots environmental politics. The province's leading green groups rallied together and launched "Organizing For Change" -- a coordinated set of policy proposals, candidate endorsements, public opinion research, media outreach, and a targeted "ground game" to turn out the vote in key legislative ridings. (For all you Americans who aren't fully versed in Canadian political jargon, a "riding" is a legislative district.)

The Solution

ONE/Northwest was a key player in the Organizing for Change effort. Our BC Program Manager Jodie Tonita joined her fellow BC "capacity builder" colleagues from Hollyhock Leadership Initiative, IMPACS, and the Environmental Support Centre to coordinate the whirlwind of environmental action around the election season. In addition to helping coordinate a complex collaborative process, we provided the BC environmental community with a several key pieces of technology:

• A private, password-protected website for sharing critical campaign documents -- from polling results to "how-to" guides.
• Several public websites that tracked government environmental actions, presented the community's legislative priorities, and publicized legislators' comments about environmental issues.
• A tool for quickly "enhancing" environmental groups' membership lists with all-important riding information, which allowed groups to target their outreach efforts.
• Information on building membership lists and using them in ways that respect BC's strict privacy and elections regulations.
• An email discussion list for coordinating day-to-day communications among a geographically dispersed team.

Organizing For Change mounted a strong showing. Environmental issues were top-of-mind issues in the election. Strong get-out-the-vote efforts in Vancouver and Victoria helped propel two of the greenest candidates the province has ever seen into office, where they joined a re-energized opposition party. And the BC environmental movement showed that when the going gets tough, the smart get organized for change.