Campaign School

If Toronto had only listened when they told us “Winter is Coming”.

On March 31st help the Academy of the Impossible and Truth Mashup celebrate the premiere of the Third Season of Game of Thrones! If you find yourself longing to be in Westeros and can’t wait for the new season to start, this will be the place to be. Join us for pre-show entertainment, whether you want to watch the cast of Drunk Feminist Films talk all things Westeros, explore the Game of Thrones universe WesterosCraft with Liam O’Donnell or just joke around with the Truth Mashup guys about the politics of it all, we’ll have you covered. Plus while we all wait for the show, drinks will be provided by the awesome folk at Junction Craft Brewery! Come join us for the best Game of Thrones viewing party around.

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Campaign School at the Academy of the Impossible presents practical and tactical media training for activists, advocates, and party apparatchiks.

Engaging the public often means engaging the media. Unfortunately the media is neither monolithic, nor necessarily in a position to fairly or accurately communicate your message.

Fear not! There are measures you can take to sound smart, credible, and most importantly convey your message to the public via journalists, mainstream, and social media.

This participatory workshop will involve discussion and improv to help you build confidence and skill when it comes to strategic communications and media relations.

Facilitated by Steph Guthrie, Dan Speerin, and Jesse Hirsh, the workshop will employ the expertise of all present to help all present perform to the best of our abilities when engaging the media.

Open to all with an interest in intelligent and effective communications. Regardless of your previous experience we can all enjoy a Saturday afternoon helping each other refine our media relations skills.

Cost: $50 sliding scale, nobody will be turned down for economic reasons

No need to register, just show up.

David Herle, Canadian political consultant and Principal Partner at leading polling and research firm, The Gandalf Group, will visit the Academy of the Impossible's Campaign School to share his experience and insights.

A regular CBC commentator and Policy Options contributor Herle has been active in the Liberal Party since his youth, and was a key strategist for the Paul Martin leadership campaign. During the 2004 election, as prospects for the Liberals began looking poorly, Herle was a strong advocate of demonizing Martin's primary opponent, Stephen Harper. Although this strategy was criticized by Conservatives as inaccurate, it resonated enough with Canadian voters for Martin to salvage a minority government. Prior to supporting Paul Martin, Herle worked on John Turner's leadership bid.

David will discuss how he got involved in politics, what it's like working on electoral and leadership campaigns, and the roll that polls have and continue to play in politics.

Adrian Montgomery, political strategist, senior advisor, and Chief Investment Officer of Tuckamore Capital will step into the Academy of the Impossible for a discussion on what happens behind the scenes of electoral campaigns. Adrian has been active in the political process for almost his entire life, working closely with politicians in all levels of government.

A friend and supporter of the Academy, Adrian will share what it was like to ride campaign buses with Mike Harris, John Tory, Tim Hudak, and many other Conservative politicians.

Prior to joining Tuckamore Capital in January of 2010, Adrian worked at Rogers Media Inc., and helped establish alliances with the NFL, IOC, and FIFA World Cup. Adrian also sits on the board of Special Olympics Canada.

Join us for a discussion of what's involved in the day to day minutiae of the campaign, inter-campaign organizing, what's happening on the municipal, provincial, and federal scenes, and how campaigns and political communications are evolving.

Did Prime Minister Stephen Harper really choke on a hash brown? On June 7, 2011, his Members of Parliament appeared convinced as they posted the news item to the social media platform Twitter. Or at least they did until their party admitted that a hack of its website circulated the fake news item. More than embarrass the party, the hackers revealed the circuits of its automated communications; a system that exemplifies how campaign management software controls their communications.

Harper’s ‘breakfast related’ incident opens a window into algorithms now possessing our media. Algorithms subtlety shape the way we are approached and interpreted as consumers -- of both products and information -- as democratic citizens, and even as friends. The search results we get from Google, the content we find in our social media feeds, the forms of political engagement we encounter, and even the ebbs and flows of the economy are all influenced by various software algorithms.

Fenwick McKelvey, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Washington, explores our dependence on algorithms through two related case studies. The first examines the issue of ‘network neutrality’ through the lens of Internet routing software. Transmission rates now depend on algorithms that detect and manage certain traffic patterns. They allow Internet Service Providers to tier Internet speeds and require customers pay to access these speeds. McKelvey sheds light on how some of this software works, how it has been employed by Canadian ISPs and how it could alter our very experience of the Internet.

George R.R. Martin has created a fantasy world in his series A Song of Ice and Fire that with the popularity of the HBO show A Game of Thrones has drawn in a growing number of us who are curious as to what will happen when winter comes.

Fiction and narrative is inherently a reflection of the time in which the author lives and thinks. Therefore what can we learn from A Game of Thrones as it applies to contemporary politics. What meaning can we find from the metaphors found in these books and shows that can inform our own world.

Join us to discuss, analyze, and riff off the parallels between the seven kingdoms and our own society. Why does this particular narrative have such wide appeal, and where will the franchise go from here.

As our Campaign School enters it's summer season, let us reflect on the advance of winter in Westeros and extrapolate what that means for our own political environment, and the contests we expect to come, whether federal Liberal leadership, or U.S. Presidential election.

Those elected to Toronto City Council for the first time in 2010 found themselves under the media microscope more than any of their municipal politician predecessors — while the downtown councillors were also put in a position of being on the opposite side of the mayor.

Kristyn Wong-Tam has successfully navigated these circumstances and more for the past 18 months. For the next edition of Campaign School, the Ward 27 (Toronto Centre-Rosedale) representative will share details of how she ended up in this position after years of experience in both activism and entrepreneurship along with advice on how others can potentially follow in her footsteps.

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The next Toronto politician to share his experiences at Campaign School will be government management committee chair Paul Ainslie. The city councillor for Ward 43 Scarborough East has also become known throughout the city — thanks to his executive role in the Rob Ford administration along with an active Twitter presence.

New and returning students will hear about Councillor Ainslie's progression from executive assistant to elected official, how the attention paid to City Hall has changed during his career there and what he has achieved as a representative of an often-overlooked corner of Toronto.

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Metaviews presents a participatory series dedicated to sharing insights into political participation — from running for office, to rallying around a cause, to engaging in punditry through all forms of media.

Sessions will consist of debating, dissecting and discussing best practices, strategies and the necessary steps to succeed in having a voice heard in the political arena.

Campaign School will look at the emerging issues in both government and society, evaluate what it takes for a candidate or issue to click with voters and review lessons learned from recent political history. Whether you have entertained taking a run at public office, or just want to be a more engaged observer, each session will have something different to offer.

Peggy Nash, the Member of Parliament for the Parkdale-High Park riding, will sit down for a chat at Campaign School about her career in and out of politics — which recently involved running for leadership of the federal NDP.

A high-profile labour official before she was first elected to Parliament in 2006 — a victory that was partly credited to being more sympathetic to the artists in the copyright debate — Nash lost her seat in the 2008 election, only to win it back in 2011. New and returning students will gain plenty of insights from all of her campaigning experience.

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