“This place is going crazy”, as I tried to explain events to a reporter. “Five hundred companies joined the Canadian Federation of Independent Business in the last week alone.” What I didn’t bother explaining was that our salespeople in Ontario and Western Canada had just done 1,500 new business interviews to secure 500 new members. Our sales machine was in high gear.
Also, a media frenzy began, commencing the last quarter of 1973, all through 1974. It was 15,000 members, then 18,000 then 22,000 and finally 25,000. "Mr. Bulloch, are you forming a new political party?” was the typical question I was receiving at the time.
We were going to be bigger than any political party, functioning across Canada and with a strong growing base of support. Non-partisan opinion moulders were a key part of the strategy. And once you figure out what you are doing, you can truly start to do some serious planning. The years 1971-1973 were clearly our start-up period, but by 1974 we were able to plan for a period of explosive growth.
We had functioning sales divisions in Ontario, British Columbia and the Prairies, and now I could see seven divisions in our future: two in Ontario, three out west, one in Quebec and one as an Atlantic Canada division. I laid out a plan to achieve 50,000 members by the year 1980, which would make us the largest small business advocacy group in the world relative to our population. And wherever there was a federal MP, we would have a local CFIB District Manager selling members and collecting crucial data on their company and their views on the issues.
What made us so influential was that our MPs started receiving Mandate ballots from business people in their ridings. When they went back to their constituencies, they started to see CFIB logos on store windows everywhere. Our elected people began to pay attention to what the small business had to say. Suddenly we were being asked to express our views at Commons and Senate Committee hearings and in private meetings with government ministers. Note the photo with Jean Chretien, the Minister of Industry.
At my first meeting with the Prime Minister, I discovered a full-time person in the Prime Minister’s office charged with monitoring my media coverage. He told me I had the highest public profile in the country next to Mr. Trudeau.
By the way, we accomplished our goal of achieving a membership base of 50,000 two years ahead of schedule in 1978.
In politics, the leader is essential, and what you have to say is important; but the success of every political movement or election campaign is organization. It was the same story at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.