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Fundraising is a cycle. It comes and goes. People give a lot before an election and then they slow things down. We rely on a donor base that is not as wealthy as the other parties in other instances.

The potential remains. In 2015 we’ve broken records in terms of the amounts raised and donors who give to the party. These people are still in our universe, and it’s up to us to re-energize them, re-engage them and get them on board.

What’s one of your favourite Jack Layton memories?

When I first started travelling with Jack, he was an early adopter of the BlackBerry. In the days where most people didn’t have a smartphone, he had one. And so I remember that one trip, I was travelling with him, we were going to Vancouver.

I had my cellphone with me — it was just a regular, standard cellphone. Sitting next to each other on the plane and he’s working on his BlackBerry. Three days later I’m back in the office to open up my email to realize that he was sending me emails while I was travelling with him. So after that I got myself a BlackBerry.

He was keen …. He really pushed hard on us adopting these new technologies. When he did that I thought it was pretty funny.

He was a charismatic leader and he died too soon. People have fond memories of him and his legacy and what’s important is that his legacy lives on. The project that we started continues.

What does the NDP need in a new leader?

There’s no perfect prototype. Individuals bring that human factor that makes people want to follow them. And that’s not really quantifiable. We’ll have to wait and see.