From the BC Young Liberals to the fledgling Alberta Party to the scrappy campaign of NDP leadership candidate Nathan Cullen, Canadian politicos and reformers are a significant chapter in NationBuilder's early history. Last Saturday, Waye Mason of Nova Scotia became part of another NationBuilder story: a new wave of first-time candidates (see "Social Media Mayor" Alex Torpey, Jackson's Derek Dobies and Florida's Christian Ziegler) shaking up local elections and established power structures through grassroots organizing.
In the Halifax council races, Waye, a music promoter and college instructor with a deep history of open government and community activism, took the five-way District 7 race by just over 100 votes against stiff competition. Waye and his team are true NationBuilder power users and they've got the results to show it: he bested a 13-year incumbent and a rival who had the backing of a party machine.
Waye says he had to create an entirely new political infrastructure with NationBuilder.
"We built a team from scratch, reaching out to people from my community involvement, like when we fought to keep our schools open, from the arts community and the from the business community. NationBuilder was key to mobilizing and coordinating, especially where we captured supporter data for volunteering, donating and taking signs. NationBuilder allowed us to manage building an entire election team from scratch, with no pre-built political network.
"The site also allowed us to have a professional looking website and really present as credible contenders."
And while Waye might be new to elected office, he's got some company in Halifax. Mike Savage, the city's mayor-elect, also used NationBuilder in his landslide win on Saturday.
