The Inspiration for a New Democracy
Here’s what started the TDG
I was in my sixth year as an active volunteer of party politics. I was starting to see some cracks in western democracy, but I just couldn’t put the pieces together.
A couple of years earlier, I met Herb at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast club. I found Herb a friendly and intelligent fellow. Then he asked me for a social outing at a restaurant. Semi-strangers asking for my company doesn’t happen to me often. I found Herb a master of good dialogue. As time went on, I found him to a person of integrity and high energy. He was someone who should be in politics. We could say that I introduced Herb to my political party, but he may have already had these ambitions: if not through me, he would have found another way. His family was selling their successful agricultural business, and Herb was looking for another life challenge.
About a year later, I was working on Herb’s campaign in an internal party election. He was seeking the party nomination to represent the party in the general election. We had a team of about eight key people and maybe another 15 in smaller roles. That’s enough workers to win these local internal party elections in Canada.
Our main strategy was to have Herb visit as many party members as possible. We had access to the party members’ list, a…
