Series - Editorial Fellowship: Community Transitions and Resilience

Deep canvassing: How an innovative American door-knocking method is invigorating Canadian environmental campaigns

Author Tahmeed Shafiq
By patiently listening, canvassers have remarkable success swaying opinion

Why It Matters

Contemporary climate research shows the best way to convince skeptics is to patiently engage with their existing beliefs. Deep canvassing is a political mobilization strategy social purpose organizations like Neighbours United use to do just that: their campaign in a rural B.C. smelting town influenced 40 per cent of residents surveyed and helped pass clean energy legislation.

var TRINITY_TTS_WP_CONFIG = {"cleanText":"Deep canvassing: How an innovative American door-knocking method is invigorating Canadian environmental campaigns. This independent journalism is made possible by a Future of Good editorial fellowship on community resilience, funded by Cooperators. See our editorial ethics and standards here. \u00a0 When the man he was trying to convince disclosed that he\u2019d protested against COVID restrictions, Joshua Workman immediately felt he wasn\u2019t going to get very far. Workman was standing on this man\u2019s doorstep in suburban Calgary, Alberta, volunteering with a door-knocking campaign. They were spreading awareness about the climate crisis before the 2023 provincial election. The campaign\u2019s main objective was to convince voters in this riding th

Join a community of 2000+ impact-oriented professionals like you. Get full access to this story and all Future of Good content, including tickets to our digital events and networking, with a membership.