OTTAWA — One of Barack Obama’s chief campaign strategists has told Canada’s New Democrats to get started right now with on-the-ground organizing for the 2015 election campaign.

Jeremy Bird, who served as national field director for the Democrats in the 2012 presidential election, was in Ottawa on Thursday to give the NDP his advice for winning over the voters.

In an interview with the Star, Bird said his advice boils down to the importance of building a solid base of support — often one voter at a time — with “nitty-gritty, grassroots” organizing effort well in advance of the actual election campaign.

“It’s something I’ve seen the NDP pretty committed to and I just stressed to them to continue that commitment.”

A solid, sophisticated grassroots campaign can beat slick, political marketing tactics, said Bird, as the Obama organizers discovered when up against some formidable Republican campaign tactics over the past decade.

Republicans were pioneers in bringing consumer-type marketing to the political realm about a decade ago — much as the Conservatives in Canada have been at the forefront of micro-targeting and data-mining techniques here.

But Bird said that the reply to political marketing is good old-fashioned community organizing.

“Too often you see, as you see with the Conservatives here, is this idea that we can create a slick message with market-tested research and deliver it to folks,” Bird said. “The way to combat it in a more effective way is something that’s participatory, that’s two-way, that treats voters like citizens and not just markets . . . and finds people where they are.”

Andrew Cash, who represents the NDP for the Toronto riding of Davenport, said he didn’t need any convincing to do this type of campaign work right now. During the ice storm and the frostbite-level temperatures over the holiday break in Toronto, Cash was still going door-to-door, talking to constituents.

“For New Democrats, ingrained in our tradition is the door-to-door knocking canvassing and encouraging people to get involved in our movement on a real, one-on-one basis,” Cash told the Star. “That’s sort of how we built our movement. This isn’t necessarily sexy stuff. This is the on-the-ground grunt work.”

New Democrats and Liberals have been seeking campaign advice from Obama’s strategists in the U.S., many who are now taking lessons learned from politics and applying them to the private sector.

Bird, for instance, who was described as “Obama’s secret weapon” by Rolling Stone magazine, has launched a firm called 270 Strategies, which helps companies and organizations build grassroots campaigns.

Bird says that Canada’s multiple-party system presents a more complicated challenge than the two-party fights in the U.S. He says that Canadian elections are more like primary campaigns, with the wider array of candidates and voters moving back and forth between camps.

Apart from their session with Bird, the NDP is using its two-day strategy session in Ottawa this week to shine a spotlight on the issue of “affordability” — a theme that keeps coming up at the doorsteps, Cash said.

“People are being nickeled and dimed. People are feeling stretched,” he said.

NDP caucus chair Peter Julian said the focus will be on issues like exorbitant automated bank machine fees and credit card interest rates and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair will expand on that theme when he launches a cross-country tour next week.

The NDP is intent on reclaiming its title as the champion of consumers, a mantle the Conservatives tried to steal in last fall’s throne speech, in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government promised a consumer-first agenda.

But Julian says Conservatives are just “paying lip service” to the matter while giving “free rein” to banks and companies that routinely gouge consumers.

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As well, the NDP will take on what Julian calls “pay to pay” — the increasingly common practice wherein companies charge a fee for those who want to receive paper versions of their bills.

Affordability will also be linked to the NDP’s push for expanding the Canada Pension Plan and rolling back the age of eligibility for old age security to 65 from 67. And it will tie in with criticism of Canada Post’s surprise pre-Christmas decision to end door-to-door mail delivery in urban areas and hike postage rates.

With files from The Canadian Press

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