Ottawa The real business of the convention is on Saturday. Members from the host city come pouring into the hall. Delegations line up and chant there way into the building. The convention t-shirts are everywhere, saying “Protect Our Homes.”
The morning speakers were led by Alejandro Ruiz-Vargez, chairing her first convention, though she had often moderated parts of several others in the past in Toronto and Oshawa. She struck all of the right chords before introducing a series of mostly Ottawa-based politicians who were organizational allies from the city council and the parliament, as well as a leader of the elementary teachers’ union and the provincial housing advocate, all of whom were warmly received with a chanting ACORN welcome. All were also visibly delighted to be there which was a testament to the progress of the organization in the capital and throughout Canada. One clear political “tell” that they have actually worked closely with ACORN and that it in fact matters as much as they claim was their shoutout to the current and former directors of the ACORN Ottawa office.
In the evening at the banquet, Marva Burnett, the former ACORN Canada president and current ACORN International president opened the session’s remarks with huge support as she brought greetings from the fifteen country affiliates and 300,000 members around the world. The main speaker was the new head of the federal New Democratic Party, Avi Lewis.
The NDP has had some troubled elections that have diminished its federal presence in Canada. As the conservatives have gone farther to the right, many NDP stalwarts in recent elections have voted for the Liberals to block the right, in a somewhat similar version to the way French presidential elections have gone. Lewis was on a rebuild mission. He has the credentials since his grandfather was a founder of the party and its predecessor.
His speech was surprisingly effective. He was wildly complimentary of ACORN and its role on issues, campaigns, and door to door work. Later in his remarks, he offered to hit the doors with ACORN in the hopes that members might return the favor someday. He was advocating a bottom-up grassroots reconstruction of the party focusing on listening. He promised that the issues in their platform would come from the base. He was very effective hitting the marks on ACORN issues like housing affordability and grocery and electricity price increases. To huge applause he praised recent victories around many issues, especially the maximum heat bylaw, declaring that heat was a human right, echoing the morning speakers. He named checked the head of the Ottawa office three organizers back. It was no surprise that he got a standing ovation during his speech at one point and at the end. He earned it and did a good job.
Of course, nothing compares to the announcement of the raffle winner and in a surprise it was from a city councilor where the newest chapter has been organized in Moncton. The top seller had moved something like 1767 tickets which was amazing. It may have been late in the evening, but the line was fifty deep to parade across the stage in the members’ fashion show. A new twist was many of them dancing to the music to wild hoots and hollers.
One leader told me during the afternoon who was attending her first convention that Marva had always told her there was nothing that could compare to an ACORN convention. She hadn’t believed it. What could be so special? Now that she was here, she was over the moon, and would never miss another. There’s nothing like it!