| Dr. Ryan Meili | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Moose Jaw |
| Political party | New Democratic Party |
| Residence | Saskatoon |
| Occupation | Doctor |
Ryan Meili is a medical doctor and community organizer who ran for the leadership of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party in 2009 placing second with 44.93% of the vote.[1]
Meili currently works as a rural relief locum giving doctors in small communities time off. When not working in rural Saskatchewan, he lives in Saskatoon’s core community of Riversdale.
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He grew up on a family farm near Courval, Saskatchewan, land which is still farmed by his brother. He attended Vanier Collegiate in Moose Jaw before going on to the University of Saskatchewan where he studied Human Anatomy and Languages.
After finishing his first degree, Meili travelled to Central America to experience life in the developing world. In 1999 he co-organized a project with fellow community organizer, Kerri Klein, called Limbs and Light for Latin America. The project raised money to purchase a school bus which they then filled with prosthetic limbs for landmine victims and drove to Nicaragua.
Meili entered the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in September 2000 and graduated in 2004. He completed his residency at the Westwinds Primary Health Centre in Saskatoon in June 2007.
While in medical school, he became involved in health care advocacy. At the time of the Romanow Commission, he helped found a student group called Health Professionals for Medicare dedicated to educating the public about the benefits of a single-payer, publicly funded health care system. He remains passionate about this issue and is presently the Saskatchewan board member for Canadian Doctors for Medicare.
He also works for the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. As the chair of the Social Accountability Committee, he’s responsible for helping ensure that Saskatchewan’s future doctors are equipped to meet the health needs of the diverse communities they will serve. Among Ryan’s focuses are aboriginal, international, rural, and inner-city health.
Meili is perhaps best known for his role as a co-founder of SWITCH, the Student Wellness Initiative Toward Community Health. Ryan helped spearhead this student-run, interdisciplinary, inner-city clinic, whose mandate is to bring students from nursing, medicine, social work, physiotherapy, pharmacy, nutrition, and numerous other disciplines together to serve the residents of Saskatoon’s core communities. Ryan was also the clinic’s first coordinator, and continues to work there as a supervising doctor.
In 2001, Meili was arrested during a peaceful protest at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. He received an absolute discharge and the conviction was erased after one year.[2]
Meili entered the race for the leadership of Saskatchewan's NDP party on February 5, 2009. He was the fourth and final declared candidate joining former Deputy Premier Dwain Lingenfelter; current MLA Deb Higgins and former party president, Yens Pedersen. Meili ran on a platform of party renewal: "Meili said he hopes his entry into the race helps revive the NDP. 'If the NDP is allowed to die, only to be resuscitated every 20 years . . . then we’re not building a healthy society,' he told about a dozen supporters."[3] His policies placed him in the progressive wing of the party.
As part of his campaign, Meili released a series of professionally produced campaign videos on both his web site and on YouTube. He has also announced a week-long "money bomb" which is the first of its kind in Saskatchewan and may be the first of its kind in Canadian politics. Also of note, three of the four bloggers who regularly wrote about the leadership race endorsed the Meili campaign - Accidental Deliberations, Head Tale and Louis Riel Trail. The fourth, Buckdog, did not formally endorse any candidate.
Dr. Chanchal Bhattacharya, an Alberta political scientist who studies the use of new technology in political campaigns said:
"The Meili campaign is different because it’s exploiting the full potential of the Internet as a campaign tool...Despite very limited resources, Meili is effectively using Web 2.0 social media like YouTube and Facebook to reach new voters and energize existing ones. It’s a 21st-century Saskatchewan campaign.” [4]
Meili's was also the first campaign to include endorsements from members of the general public who didn't necessarily have a high public profile like traditional political endorsers. This list included small business people, academics, students, lawyers and others.[5] Near the end of the leadership campaign, both Dwain Lingenfelter and Yens Pedersen began using a similar strategy on their endorsement pages.
On April 9, 2010, Ryan Meili announced that he would be seeking the NDP's nomination in Saskatoon Sutherland [8] in the 2011 provincial election. This is a riding which is traditionally held by the NDP but is currently held by Joceline Schriemer, a Saskatchewan Party MLA. This announcement fulfilled a promise made during his concession speech at the end of his leadership race. Meili began his nomination campaign by using Facebook to announce Money Bomb 2.0,[9] a sequel to his first money bomb which he used to great effect in his leadership campaign. Three other candidates are also seeking the NDP nomination in this riding.