By Angela Hall
The office is cramped, the work is all-consuming and the slim budget allows for a full-time staff of just one. At 36, Duff Conacher is in his element.
Co-ordinator of the advocacy group Democracy Watch since it began in 1994, Conacher campaigns on everything from ethics in politics to better bank service and encourages Canadians to flood MPs with letters, his political tool of choice.
Democratic reform may not be glamorous, with more hours spent drafting news releases than doing TV appearances, but the straightforward and soft-spoken lawyer presents his case with conviction, backed up by research from across the country.
“A lot of the issues we deal with are rather abstract,” admits Conacher. “We’re not dealing with ancient trees being cut down or baby seals being hit over the head, we’re dealing with underlying democratic process issues.”
Democracy Watch’s modest $50,000 annual budget, funded entirely by donations, is reflected in the office. Tucked into a fourth-floor room on Nicholas Street, Conacher operates from one corner partitioned off by bookshelves and grey room dividers, while another two work stations sit empty and await a fatter budget.
Though a short-sleeved shirt is more common than a shirt and tie, when Conacher talks about work he’s all business. He’s intent on setting out the facts, and his passion about shortcomings of banks comes across in a calm, scholarly fashion and a quiet monotone.
It’s hard to imagine the Cambridge, Ont., native once cared more about shooting hoops than reforming democracy. A self-described jock until his third year of English literature at Queen’s University, the tall, blond, athletic Conacher played football and basketball and ran track – fitting for someone whose grandfather is CFL and NHL Canadian sports hero Lionel “The Big Train” Conacher. But in 1984, he and a friend began to follow issues such as apartheid and the Ethiopian famine. He soon trekked to Nicaragua, an experience that shaped both his future law studies at the University of Toronto and his lifestyle.
“I traveled in Central America and that was enough to convince me we all own too much stuff up here in North America,” says Conacher. “In the jock world it’s buying gear for sports, and I’m just not a gear head. If I was interested in kayaking I’d rent a kayak.”
His idealism heightened when he returned home and got a job with American consumer crusader Ralph Nader. The two eventually co-wrote Canada Firsts: Ralph Nader’s Salute to Canada and Canadian Achievements, which highlights feats in everything from comedy to science. The $60,000 proceeds allowed Conacher and fellow “Nader’s Raiders” Aaron Freeman and Craig Forcese to get Democracy Watch off the ground.
These days, Conacher’s occasional office mate is Mini Alakkatusery, the part-time worker in charge of the Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition, an alliance of more than 100 anti-poverty, consumer, labour and small business groups brought together to lobby for better banks and to oppose mergers.
While the two joke about the “horrors of last fall” when they tackled banking, Conacher agrees he was burned out by Christmas.
“It was just crazy,” says Conacher of a schedule last fall that saw him travel to 14 Canadian cities to speak out against the proposed mergers. “When you’re in a campaign, your commitment has to be total or you lose. The other side has 100 times your resources, 100 times your relationships with the key decision makers and 100 times your ability to lobby. And the only way you win is by mobilizing enough voters to counter the undue influence that a few corporate lobbyists can have.”
The coalition, now funded by the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, distributed 100,000 sample letters calling for a stop to the mergers. One of the letters is on its web site. The thousands of letters to make their way to Parliament made the difference in the merger debate, insists Conacher.
“(Politicians) generally ignore petitions because they know anyone can sit down with the phone book and write with their wrong hand and fill out tens of thousands of petitions,” he says. “But a handwritten letter saying that my bank has treated me poorly . . . that has an effect.”
Michael Fitzpatrick, senior parliamentary producer for Global News, says while he “wouldn’t want to overplay” the role of the coalition in stopping the bank mergers, Conacher’s campaigns are well-informed.
“He’s accurate in the sense he calls into question true questions,” says Fitzpatrick. “What is the role of a bank in society? What will the impact of a bank merger be?”
One of Conacher’s biggest coups came in June, when Finance Minister Paul Martin’s policy paper called for banking changes. Most of what it proposes – the right to a low cost account, an independent ombudsman, disclosure by banks of their business lending statistics – are changes the coalition and Democracy Watch called for in their own reports dating back to 1994.
Questioning the extent of the coalition’s impact is one of few topics that cause Conacher’s quiet voice to rise in obvious frustration.
“The ideas just didn’t come off the top of his head,” says Conacher of the finance minister. “No one else was making the proposals we made.”
He is still pushing for mailings to MPs to ensure the changes are made , but he’s happy with what’s happening.
“Now, we’re just trying to make sure if (Paul Martin) makes any movement it’s in our direction as opposed to the bank’s direction, because the banks are still lobbying to reverse what is in the policy paper. If all this stuff is law, they’re going to have to treat everybody a lot better than they do right now or they’ll end up in court all over the place for violating the bank act.”
Conacher re-charges his energy by biking and playing tennis or ultimate Frisbee around his home in the Gatineau Hills, but he knows periods of relaxation don’t last long.
One of the biggest challenges for Conacher is keeping his issues in the public eye, says John Chenier, publisher of The Lobby Monitor.
But, Chenier concedes, Conacher could be the guy to get it done.
“You can assume there are two types of leaders. Charismatic and persistent. Duff is certainly in the second category and in many of these instances that’s the type of leadership you need,” says Chenier. “Duff would be like a gnat or a flea. He doesn’t necessarily influence people except when he bites you in a particular spot.”
As far as Conacher is concerned, he’ll continue to make his presence felt. He insists the work is a privilege and the salary and long hours are not a concern because he doesn’t have a family.
The campaign on money in politics will be in the forefront this session in Parliament and the battle for bank accountability will continue. Conacher’s book More Canada Firsts hits shelves in mid-November. All or nothing, says Conacher, is the way to go if you decide to be a public activist.
“Who wants to go through a 30- to 35-year career and never have changed anything?” he asks.
“There are a lot of advocates here in Ottawa who are just sort of biding their time . . . But this isn’t just a job. I wouldn’t want to just do it and say ‘oh, we tried but we lost again.’ If you want to burn out, do that for a while. You’ll still work hard, you just won’t work hard enough to get over that hump and win.”