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Director's Welcome
With a potential federal election looming and an election here in BC imminent, environmental groups and other progressives are getting serious about how to use these opportunities to create lasting change. We at Hollyhock Leadership Institute are excited by the explosion of new initiatives and energy here in British Columbia. Here are my picks of the most juicy pre-election efforts:
Both the Western
Canada Wilderness Committee and Sierra Club are out
door-knocking with environmental voting messages. Get Your Vote On is talking to youth
voters with music, and are co-sponsoring a hip hop show for Earth Day at the Commodore with
Greenpeace, Sierra Club and ForestEthics.
Hollyhock Leadership Institute helped bring together a dozen environmental groups in BC to select four key environmental policy priorities. These organizations will be reaching out to their members with these messages.
On the democracy front, I urge you to find out more about Electoral Reform and the Single Transferable Vote system. The debate will get more informed as the Vancouver Public Library profiles the issue in two gatherings April 19th and 26th.
At our breakfast strategy session on 'Communications during the Election', David Beers alerted us to a new election special The Tyee has launched called Election Central. This is a one-stop shop for election coverage, commentary, and conversation which will be updated with daily seat predictions. Of course the new free dailies are a good opportunity for pitching stories. And watch for blogs and other online news sources to be increasingly driving media coverage.
And a reminder that we all need to work on voter turn out, because if current trends continue, fewer than half of eligible voters may vote on May 17. Congratulations and thanks to all of you out there working to energize and mobilize citizens around issues you care about so we can reverse this trend and educate the public on issues we care deeply about.
On that final note, make sure you take care of yourself as you do all this fabulous work- see this month's personal ecology tips for reducing stress.
Karen Mahon
Executive Director
Hollyhock Leadership Institute helped bring together a dozen environmental groups in BC to select four key environmental policy priorities. These organizations will be reaching out to their members with these messages.
On the democracy front, I urge you to find out more about Electoral Reform and the Single Transferable Vote system. The debate will get more informed as the Vancouver Public Library profiles the issue in two gatherings April 19th and 26th.
At our breakfast strategy session on 'Communications during the Election', David Beers alerted us to a new election special The Tyee has launched called Election Central. This is a one-stop shop for election coverage, commentary, and conversation which will be updated with daily seat predictions. Of course the new free dailies are a good opportunity for pitching stories. And watch for blogs and other online news sources to be increasingly driving media coverage.
And a reminder that we all need to work on voter turn out, because if current trends continue, fewer than half of eligible voters may vote on May 17. Congratulations and thanks to all of you out there working to energize and mobilize citizens around issues you care about so we can reverse this trend and educate the public on issues we care deeply about.
On that final note, make sure you take care of yourself as you do all this fabulous work- see this month's personal ecology tips for reducing stress.
Karen Mahon
Executive Director
With Julian Griggs