Leo Gerard's address at the New Democrat convention

Leo Gerard has been the International Pres of the United Steelworkers for a number of years now, and prior to that he was the Canadian Director. I think 1/3 of the members are in Canada, where through organizing people like security guards less than half are in steel or other manufacturing enterprises. Leo himself is from Sudbury. Has remained close to the NDP, and always self identifies as a social democrat.

Leo's talk was a good run-up to Ganz. He talked about the "blue-green alliance", the label for unions and environmentalists working together that is used in the US [starting with Steelworkers and Sierra Club].

For me, there wasn't anything new in it. I couldn't even guess how many delegates that also would be true for. There were a lot of young people at the Convention, and I would guess this would be initial exposure at least for most of them.

Like Ganz, Leo is a good storyteller- the opposite effect of didactic political speech, with the same message.

Leo broadened from that specific topic to promote possibilities more generally, especially drawing on how many people were mobilized by the Obama campaign [and Steel's role in that].