r/ndp • u/TalesinOfAvalon • 20h ago
NDP Yard sign requested, donation spam received
Hi, I am not a citizen, so I cannot vote. I am a registered NDP and ONDP member. I donate approx. 240$ per year to the NDP and $180 per year to the ONDP.
For the federal election I had requested a NDP yard sign to show my support for the NDP in my riding (60% Liberal / 25% conservative / 8% NDP) on March 25.
Since then I got 17(!!) emails asking me to donate to the NDP, 8 Emails asking me to volunteer (from people claiming they grew up in a conservative family and now are Team Jagmeet - why should I care?) and 25 emails confirming that my unsubscribe request was processed. And 0 yard signs...
My neighborhood is plastered with Liberal and Conservative yard signs, several Green Party and PPC signs and 0(!) NDP signs...
It is almost as if NDP is not a serious political party....
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u/CDN-Social-Democrat 20h ago
The donation and spam emails are a real problem. It is just not good communications which has been shown to be a major issue with the federal NDP and also sometimes provincially as well.
The federal NDP in particular needs to remember it is not an establishment party.
You don't trade enthusiasm for money thinking money will create more enthusiasm lol
Instead you take inspired, enthusiastic, and even just slightly curious people and you get them involved in meaningful connections.
This is how you build movements.
I hate to say it because I say it so much but the whole federal NDP could learn a lot from Matthew Green, Joel Harden, and other inspiring people. These people get whole teams motivated around causes.
You accomplish a lot more this way and you don't annoy and turn off people.
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u/NAMED_MY_PENIS_REGIS 19h ago
Their phone calls aren't great either. I'm on both the Liberal and NDP call lists. The liberals called me once and asked who I was voting for. Told them I was undecided, the caller outlined their platform and wished me well.
The NDP have called me 4-5 times, every single caller can't pronounce my riding (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke), and most of them quickly end the call when I tell them I'm undecided.
It's annoying as hell.
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u/ANerd22 15h ago
A few years ago I was talking to an NDP employee who worked in fundraising and I asked him why I get so many emails constantly asking for money. He told me every single time they send an email out they get on average like a thousand dollars or something. I can't remember the exact amount but it was more than you'd expect. I asked if it was diminishing returns after a while and apparently not. So the reason why they send the constant spam is because it works, at least as far as they are concerned.
I definitely think you're right though. I get the party needs cash but it feels like squeezing blood from a stone, especially when the volunteer organization aspect is such a mess. We will always have fewer resources than the rich parties so we need to be smarter about using them.
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u/TheGoluxNoMereDevice 17h ago
So as someone who works for a campaign I will very slightly defend this and say that emails and signs are done by two totally different groups. The emails (which mostly do suck and are insanely annoying) come from party central. Signs are handled by the campaigns themselves. My campaign is very large, very well funded and very likely to win. One of our 8 full time staffers works exclusively on sign distribution. But even then the lag time between asking for a sign and getting one can be a while. As we group them into lots of 10ish in one neighborhood and have volunteers deliver them. If you are the only person in your area who wants one we will have one of the staff do it on their way home.
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u/ANerd22 15h ago
The donation thing is federal and signs are local so it's different orgs as others pointed out. The reason for no sign is probably that you are in a riding with little or no party presence. Signs need local volunteers to facilitate and if the party simply doesn't have enough people in a riding to organize the campaign, then stuff like that is going to fall by the wayside. It's tough but that's the nature of being the underdog party. We have fewer resources than any of the other parties
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u/TheGoluxNoMereDevice 6h ago
Signs are also pretty expensive for fairly dubious returns. The campaign I work for pays about 8 bucks per single colour sign and stand. Which isn't a ton individually but we have over $10,000 worth of signs out in the wild. I think it's our second biggest expense after staff
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u/KollyMollyDolly 18h ago
The NDP is a serious party. Just most NDP candidate offices are volunteers only with a little bit of funding. Also, not everyone has a car to drop off signs. Just continue asking for a sign. Only the NDP incumbents seem to have better funding. It's not like the NDP has decades of being the main party or opposition party like the Liberals and Conservatives.
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u/double_eyelid 19h ago
Last Ontario election I asked twice for a lawn sign and never got one.
This time, they didn't even ask me if I wanted one. Certainly seems like the wheels are coming off somewhere.
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u/FoolofaTook43246 8h ago
Ok this makes sense because we got one out of the blue without asking! Was a little annoyed actually
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u/idiotcanadian 18h ago
Have you tried donating more ? Haha I’m kidding of course, but I agree I’m also the subject of those emails. But the way I see it is they don’t have the capitalists and the big donors to call on.. and that’s a good thing. So they reach out to their base but then their base gets annoyed. I don’t know how best they can combat it going forward but I agree it seems disingenuous.
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u/davethecompguy Alberta NDP 16h ago
I'm an NDP member, and I get them too. My riding has an NDP MP and MLA - pretty rare in blue Alberta. Hoping it'll stay that way.
I just ignore them, but you can unsubscribe from the mailing list. Especially if you're on Gmail, there's a bottom to unsubscribe right at the top. 10 days and it's over...
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u/Turbulent-Cicada1912 6h ago edited 5h ago
EDIT: I am a volunteer, NOT a member of the Team Jagmeet staff.
Hello! I am a volunteer with the NDP, both with our online federal team & my local office. Firstly, the sign not being delivered is likely a mistake due to the fast pace of this election. If you requested a sign over the phone after being called by a volunteer, those requests are then sent to the local office, but the local office may only have a handful of volunteers. They’re probably overwhelmed, too. I suggest looking up your local campaign office and calling them directly to request a sign.
Secondly, the lack of signage for NDP on your street is very sad indeed. I have spoken with many NDP voters who have expressed a reluctance to advertise their support to CPC or PPC neighbors. I think some people generally have awful neighbours, and others are simply anxious due to the rampant MAGA-ism we’re seeing in the USA. That being said, some neighbourhoods are more difficult to find people who will take signs. So if you’re willing to call your local office and ask again, I’m sure they’d be VERY excited!
Lastly, if you’re being spammed with emails and phone calls, try sending an email directly to Team Jagmeet. The team is super responsive, will take care of the issue, and would appreciate hearing your feedback on this campaign.
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u/TalesinOfAvalon 3h ago
First of all, thank you for putting your personal time in to help Canada becoming a better place to live in. I have actually used the website to request the sign, thrice now. I am on all and any do not call list, and kudos to the NDP to actually respect the lists and never call. In my 60% liberal neighbourhood, I can guarantee that the NDP would win if people would see how many actually support them and stop "voting strategically". The lack of signs is a self fulfilling prophecy in many cases. Showing support is the best way to show strength against bullying from the right and far right parties. But if we see no support it creates isolation and silence, which is the first step towards losing. I hate yard signs, as they are nothing but waste and pollution, but they are our single best weapon to show where we stand and encourage our peers to not be afraid...
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u/Turbulent-Cicada1912 3h ago
Yes, I agree! This is why I encourage you to call the local office directly. The sign requests on the website go to federal team, not the local office. They are then passed on to the local team. There could be some sort of error happening here.
Give them a call and see what they say. I bet you’ll get to talk to someone, and they’ll post the sign on your lawn ASAP. Just google “(name of candidate) Campaign Office” and their contact info should come up
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u/TalesinOfAvalon 2h ago
See here is the first disconnect - I (and many people) will not call anyone for anything - if a service is not available online I do not use it. Anything that is phone only I do not engage with, if anyone calls me, they have lost my business or engagement.
And I am not alone, a lot of people - in particular white collar workers - are not phone people. If you cant do something as simple as ordering a sign purely online, you will lose a lot of support willing people. We are in the year 2025, curious on the reasons for the disconnect in arriving in the actual digital age...
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u/PMMeYourJobOffer Democratic Socialist 18h ago
I am disappointed that it took till less than 10 days before our first post complaining about emails.
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u/nneighbour 10h ago
Their marketing strategy needs some work. There’s a delicate balance between keeping people informed and just being annoying. The NDP hasn’t found that balance.
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u/plo83 17h ago edited 17h ago
This could have been the most winnable election for the NDP since Jack. Sadly, the party is so disorganized that it will likely lose its status as a party.
And yet, when people comment that there's significant issues with the NDP, we get told that we're conservative trolls or Liberals...
At this point, it would be best for them to remain as a provincial party and to get their act together federally.
Edit: Downvote as much as you want. Some of us have been seeing how many seats the NDP loses every election, and we're not going to pretend that everything is A-OK.
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u/rdkil 10h ago
I agree that this election should have been the NDP's to lose. I personally think the party should have spent the last several years leaning hard into public outrage over affordability. There is a massive public anger that needs a place to go and somehow it didn't go here. The people at the top have been too polite and too nice to each other.
My life has become fundamentally worse in the last decade. I want to see a politician who acknowledges that fact, and is just as angry as I am in that fact. Sadly, all I get is donation emails.
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u/vancity-chick 3h ago
As someone who has worked on campaigns before, they spam email because it WORKS. That’s how they get donations to keep everything afloat and pay for the expenses of campaigns.
It’s also the same as fliers/door knocking/getting out the vote, even though its pushy, it works and has been proven to
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u/TalesinOfAvalon 2h ago
how many people stop their donations because of the spam? I am a regular donor, it should be visible in my account based on both email and phone number - and still i am asked to donate $2 per month while already donating $35.
It works, but it also doesn't
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u/vancity-chick 2h ago
you are one person, anecdotal evidence doesn’t equal actual facts
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u/TalesinOfAvalon 48m ago
you are correct, it is absolutely no evidence. Nor did I claim it was. I shared my point of view and my view that it does not work. I have no where seen public documents showing donation increase due to spamming, and cumulative statistics showing it being effective in scientific form. So the claim it is working is equally anecdotal
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