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CQPJZG4KX-campaigns

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Slack Channel: campaigns (CQPJZG4KX)

Ingested: 2026-04-22 | Source: Slack workspace economicscience.slack.com Primary contributor: Ken Yang (UNYCKRMC6)

Channel Overview

This channel tracks UBI Works and Common Wealth advocacy campaigns — primarily petition drives, direct mail campaigns, Newmode actions, activist stories, and social media strategy. Ken Yang is the primary poster; Floyd and Liam chime in occasionally.

Key Campaigns Documented

Federal Election 2025 — Newmode Letter Campaign

Mail Your MP Campaign (Post-Election, Summer 2025)

  • Tool: https://ubiworks-v8.webflow.io/mail-your-mp
  • Supporters mailed physical factsheet + personal letter to their newly elected MP
  • Key volunteer: Tana (Victoria, BC) — coordinated Group A and B outreach
  • By July 7, 2025: 39 letters sent, 33/342 ridings covered (10%), 5 follow-ups from Group A
  • By July 24, 2025: 15% of Canadian ridings covered (51+ ridings)
  • Campaign evolved to include provincial and municipal reps: https://ubiworks-v8.webflow.io/mail-your-representative
  • Liam drafted 3 new letters for each audience level
  • Tracking: clicks on webpage files + verbal signals; volunteer Tana tracked who took action
  • Notable: activist in Don Valley West sent personal letter as financial analyst at risk of automation; MP is Rob Oliphant (Liberal), a minister of United Church of Canada
  • Activist in Yukon wrote hand-written letter to MP Brendan Hanley (forwarded by Tana)
  • Newmode founder Steve regularly cites UBI Works as example of activism
  • Supporter with 2 JUNOs engaged; first mention of direct mail campaign with them

AI + UBI Petition Campaign (2026)

  • Tool: https://ubiworks-v8.webflow.io/ai-ubi-petition
  • Background: Floyd proposed AI-focused UBI campaign in March 2026 (automation/job loss as need)
  • AI petition brainstormed with Liam, notes at: https://www.notion.so/ubiworks/AI-Activist-Campaign-31fa9ac7ed738002833ce3c88a4189d6
  • Ken generated 90 unique letters using GPT 5.2 and Gemini played against each other
  • Newmode v2 features: activity stream, map view of submissions by riding, conditional party messaging
  • Newmode fixed social sharing thumbnails after 4 years
  • Ken bridged UW, CW, Floyd’s and Ken’s Bluesky accounts to Mastodon cross-posting automation
  • April 2026: Added social media sharing to Newmode petition; A/B email subjects tested

Budget 2025 Campaign

Factsheet Campaign (2025)

  • Supporter in Julie Dzerowicz’s riding received response letter from her office
  • Activist shared factsheet to Chilliwack, BC Mayor
  • Supporter shared Hinton video to their MP and MPP — grassroots political influencing energy

Tanille Email Campaign

  • Response from supporters showed cross-party engagement
  • One supporter drafted letter to congregation targeting Senate Finance Committee
  • Includes members of multiple parties responding

Paper Petition Campaign (with Susan Abells of Basic Income BC)

BC Growth Campaign

Key People Mentioned

Ken Yang (UNYCKRMC6)

  • Primary campaign manager for UBI Works
  • Runs Newmode tools, direct mail, email campaigns
  • Manages cross-posting to X, Bluesky, Facebook, Mastodon
  • Partners with Newmode founder Steve

Tana (surname not given)

  • Volunteer from Victoria, BC
  • Coordinated Group A and Group B physical mail campaigns
  • Helped organize activist paper petition logistics

Susan Abells

  • Basic Income BC leader
  • Partner in paper petition campaign
  • Has access to Avi Lewis’ (NDP leadership candidate) campaign; met with him
  • Avi Lewis may have shot at Beaches—East York byelection seat

Liam Wilkinson

  • Drafted 3 letters for different audience levels (MP, Provincial, Municipal)
  • Active in AI campaign brainstorming

Floyd Marinescu

  • Proposed AI-focused UBI campaign in March 2026
  • Reacted positively to campaign milestones
  • Reconnecting with CEO network for CEO for Basic Income initiative

Marie Burge

  • PEI Demonstration Project — paper petition drafting materials

Eric Lombardi

  • Potential Ottawa event partner (June 2026, week of June 22)
  • His manager Melody connecting Ken with Shane Parrish (author of Build Canada SWF memo)

Shane Parrish

  • Author of Build Canada SWF memo
  • Lives in Ottawa; potential event collaboration

Campaign Insights & Lessons

  • Physical action is powerful: Hand-written letters, physical mail creates high signal — “seeing physical action is humbling”
  • Tracking gap: Can only track page clicks for physical mail; Tana created simple email notification step (low friction once someone already mailed)
  • Newmode partnership: Steve (Newmode founder) regularly cites UBI Works as activism example
  • Email routing matters: Freeland/Gould emails went to political office inbox (lower open rates); Carney/Ruby/Baylis went to non-political inbox (higher open rates — 90%)
  • Cross-partisan framing: Consistently emphasizing “not partisan — human issue” resonates
  • Letter-as-content strategy: Turning activist letters into social content (quote images) performs well
  • Calgary supporter email (April 2026): “If we don’t ground it in shared equity such as a sovereign wealth fund, a commons trust, or similar legal entity, then the people in the displaced labor force lose their agency and UBI becomes leverage to garner votes and a tool of pacification instead of emancipation and empowerment.”
  • Senators strategy (Liam, April 2026): Turn off senators by default in petition targeting; when targeting senators, do it with a separate campaign framing the Senate’s “house of sober second thought” role

Social Media Performance

  • Mail Your MP campaign tweet (“our supporters have mailed our factsheet and a personal letter to their MP in 15% of Canadian ridings”): Strong engagement
  • Federal election letter threads (Carney/food security, UBI as dividends, economic case): All performed well on X and Bluesky
  • UBI Works social accounts: @ubi_works (X), @ubiworks.bsky.social (Bluesky), Facebook group /ubiworkers

Petition/Tool URLs

LPC Liberal Leadership Campaign (Feb–Mar 2025)

Newmode Email Campaign to Liberal Leadership Candidates

Notable letter highlights (from Ken’s curation):

  • Activist who wrote only to Carney, saying she joined the party to vote for him
  • Someone who used “every single talking point we provided in his own words”
  • One who used 2 quotes from other letters verbatim
  • Someone who synthesized the juiciest parts of multiple letters into one
  • Star Trek reference letter
  • Frank de Jong and Sheila Regehr (prominent BI advocates)
  • Letter highlighting GBI vs UBI verbatim from UBI Works talking points
  • Matt Noble — “put food banks out of business”
  • Someone who used an LLM to generate their letter
  • Quebec residents writing French letters
  • United Church of Canada member
  • Single mother working and in school
  • Non-Liberal supporters making cross-partisan case
  • Ken’s note: “One of the emotionally toughest things I’ve ever attempted. Narrowing these letters to Liberal leadership down”
  • Diverse demographics: Liberals, non-liberals, low income, high income, young, old, retired, students, homeless, disabled, homeowners, entrepreneurs, technologists, professors, religious, food experts, health professionals

Newmode v2 Issues (Feb 2025)

  • Newmode v2 had significant bugs: Liam and Luc couldn’t log in properly for months
  • Social sharing thumbnails not working in v2 (images don’t show when shared)
  • Ken escalated multiple times; Newmode didn’t prioritize
  • Lost viral factor from v1 campaigns
  • Floyd: “Let’s test and recreate the bugs and work with newmode about it.”

Bill S-233 Senator Campaign (2024)

Context

  • Bill S-233: Senate bill for national framework for guaranteed livable basic income
  • At time of campaign (March 2024): 1 vote away from Third Reading
  • Mobilized thousands of advocates to write/call Senate Finance Committee
  • Targeted senators: Loffreda, Dalphond, MacAdam (opposing/undecided)
  • Intel: New Chair predicted to oppose; MacAdam not opposed but undecided
  • Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) amplified campaign on X
  • Floyd’s post: “Canadians are speaking up for Basic Income Bill S233”
  • Just one day’s worth (March 17) of senator emails shown as bulk visual — Floyd: “what a thing of beauty!”
  • Activist confirmed MacAdam hadn’t committed to Yes; called her office directly

Newmode v2 Petition Suite (Oct 2024 – Nov 2024)

Ken built a comprehensive suite of v2 Newmode petitions:

Email body documents (Ken’s v2 suite)

Newmode Platform Features (as of 2025):

  • Built-in genAI email variant generator (“to give a feeling of organic constituent messages”)
  • Activity stream, map view of submissions by riding
  • Conditional party messaging
  • Impact scoring (max 6/6)

Website Signup Gap (Liam, Feb 2025)

  • Homepage popup form was disconnected from NB integrations for ~1 year
  • ~900 signups missed
  • Sent special re-engagement email before adding to normal stream

Note: Channel has further history going back to at least early 2024. Oldest messages ingested: March 2024 (Bill S-233 senator campaign). Channel creation predates ingestion scope.

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