Two key architects of the federal NDP’s success spoke in the Political Management and the Media course. Brad Lavigne, National Campaign Director for the party during the 2011 election, traced the growth of the NDP from its nadir in the late nineties to Official Opposition status, revealing the key tactics, metrics and performance measures Jack Layton used along that path. He demonstrated the lessons they learned from each early stumble and how it lead to subsequent successes.
Kathleen Monk, formerly Director of Strategic Communications for Jack Layton and now Executive Director of the Broadbent Institute, addressed the communications skills that Layton and his team deployed across the same period. She described the television news production skills she brought to his and the Caucus’ positioning, and the strict discipline and focus that she helped impose on a group not famous for that professionalism previously. Both veterans of the Layton years observed that among the toughest requirements, and source of the most painful internal battles, was the triage that such discipline imposes — managing the anger and disappointment of those people, issues and ridings that do not make the cut for the Leader’s time or the party’s resources.