It's official: Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani will be the next mayor of New York City. His campaign energized progressives and young people, and its success shocked many in the old guard.

Does his win and how he ran his campaign hold any lessons for political parties up north? I talked to Jen Hassam, executive director from the Broadbent Institute.

Host: Jen, welcome to the program. How are you doing? Jen: Pretty good. Thank you so much for having me.

Host: Yeah, of course. Now, if you were to ask me a year ago, "Who is Zohran Mamdani?" I would probably tell you, like most people, "I don't know. I've never heard that name." But now, suddenly, his name is everywhere, of course, because he deserved it. He won the mayoral race in New York. Can you take a step back? How did he get his political start?

Jen: Oh, great question. Basically, in New York City, there is the New York City DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). They canvas and have groups of people who do tenant organizing, worker organizing, and electoralism – nominating people to run for office and supporting their campaigns. Zohran Mamdani was someone who, in 2017, joined the New York City DSA to support a candidate. He went door-to-door. The candidate ultimately lost, but Zohran really liked the political process and got involved. People encouraged him to run as an assemblyman (a member of a legislative assembly), which is our equivalent of an MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) here in Ontario. Then, last summer, he thought about running for mayor, and the DSA had him on the ballot. That's really how it started: just someone who volunteered to make a difference in their community, went door-to-door, started talking to people, and then just loved the process and got involved.

Host: What about Mamdani's campaign made such an impact?

Jen: Oh, I mean, where do we go with this question? Everywhere. So much of it. As someone who organizes and has a history of organizing tenants, unions, and in the electoral process, I find it remarkable that 10,000 people volunteered to go door-to-door. They reached 1.2 million New Yorkers. When you think of that, it means that yes, Zohran Mamdani is a socialist and is Muslim, and he is rising to this occasion despite being hammered by the mainstream media. He's able to do that because there's this huge groundswell of people who are willing to have one-on-one conversations about the issues that really matter. I think that's the secret sauce of why he could withstand the levels of attacks against him: it's truly a grassroots (由民众自发组织和参与的) thing and system. There's no big money behind it, but there are definitely big money billionaires who funded lots and lots of ads against him. However, people can overcome that if we come together and work on a project. A lot of his success was also attributed to his digital strategy. It's been reported that politicians have already tried to copy it, but not as successfully. What was it about his digital strategy that was so effective?

Jen: Well, it mirrors that of the community organizing model. His digital strategists weren't paid; they were really a collective of creators who volunteered to be part of the campaign. So, this isn't a transactional relationship. It could be anybody – some of the really amazing artists, comedians, and podcasters we see in New York City, but it's also everyday regular people who are remixing things that he's doing or saying. I think that is the spark of a hopeful, engaged campaign that brings people in. I think it is absolutely remarkable, and really kudos to those creators who bravely decided to put their trust in someone running for office. I think there's a lot of cynicism these days about politics, and I share that too. But I think there's a lot of faith that Zohran Mamdani isn't going to sell anybody out because he's built this movement and he's been part of it for so long.

Host: All right, talking about the undertaking of the community, the success that he had with that, we want to play a clip that I'm sure a few people have probably seen – our viewers, if they've been scrolling on their socials. This is a clip from his TikTok. Let's have a look.

Zohran Mamdani (from TikTok clip): Hello, my friends. I have to come clean. I have something to hide. Many things, in fact, because we're doing a scavenger hunt.

Host: Was it something as simple as a scavenger hunt? How was that so successful in getting people on the ground, asking questions, and thinking of him?

Jen: Well, it's part of the whole network of the New York City DSA and Zohran Mamdani's campaign. It was fun; it was fun to be part of. There were meetup groups of dads taking their kids to the parks, running clubs of people going running, coffee shop meetups, and people had fundraisers and canvas meetings in their own living rooms and patios. So, the scavenger hunt was this mega event with stops all over New York City. It was free to participate, and thousands upon thousands of people came out. In fact, they ran out of cards that they had printed. What is really essential about this scavenger hunt – and yes, we saw online how fun it was and people were sharing their participation and love for their city – is that he and his campaign took them to stops all over New York City to acclimatize them to the notion of a very progressive socialist mayor. They were visiting spots that were part of left-wing history in New York City. That's something we could also do in Canada. This reminds me, I have a prop, a flyer from Saskatchewan that was made in the 70s.

Jen: That flyer was just about reminding people in Saskatchewan about their own socialist history and where they came from. So, these kinds of activities are important to acclimatize people, especially when you're under this level of attack, to the idea that it's fine, normal, and in fact part of our political heritage. Host: Well, let's bring it back home. I'm hoping we don't have to go that far back into history, but is there someone like Mamdani here in Canada?

Jen: Well, I believe in the everyday person, and I think that we all have the ability to be one of those 10,000 people who volunteer to be part of a political movement. That's how his policy was developed. That's how people built these networks, and I think that's the most important thing. From that, we will find the next Zohran Mamdani of Canada, or of where I am in Cambridge, Ontario, or where you are in the Eglinton-Lawrence area, filming from TVO studios. This is how we develop the next Zohran. We don't need a search committee looking for a particular resume and someone who already has media exposure. That's not how Zohran discovered his voice. He discovered it by talking to everyday people, knocking on doors, and talking about tenant issues, worker issues, and campaigning in elections. That's what gained his confidence, his ability to speak so succinctly, and to develop this amazing platform of freezing rents, universal child care, and free buses. These are ideas that came directly out of talking with everyday people when canvassing.

Host: Jen, there are a few parties in the country that are looking for new leaders. What lessons should be taken from Mamdani's campaign? Jen: That your volunteer base – whether it is people who are knocking on doors, or people who are creating community, or content creators – they matter. You ought to work primarily with them and build up from there, because those 1.2 million conversations that New Yorkers had, generated by 10,000 volunteers and only two full-time staff who were part of the New York City DSA, led to that mobilization. It's entirely possible to do it, but we need to think about how we structure campaigns and do it really differently.

Host: Jen, we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much for your insights. Jen: Thank you so much for having me.