Federal NDP Candidates: Who is running? Who should?

Thew is "official" about Noah Evanchuk running for the nomination (and so far unopposed) in the extremely winnable seat of Palliser:

Regina Lawyer Noah Evanchuk to seek NDP nomination in Palliser August 7, 2009
With a call for a Parliament that addresses the real needs of all citizens, Regina lawyer Noah Evanchuk announced his intention to seek the New Democratic Party nomination in the Palliser constituency. While acknowledging that the present Conservative MP, Ray Boughen, is a decent person who loves his country, Evanchuk decried the way that Boughen and other Conservative MPs have no voice to speak for their constituents.

“The voters of Palliser deserve a Member of Parliament who will serve them, instead of serving the Prime Minister’s backroom spin doctors,” said Evanchuk. “In Stephen Harper’s Canada, Conservative MPs are muzzled and unelected PMO appointees rule the day.”

Evanchuk pointed to Conservative inaction on childcare as one of the many examples where Conservative MPs have place party interests over representing the needs of their constituents.

“Instead of addressing the bread and butter issues that matter to Canadians – issues like affordable childcare, skyrocketing housing prices, economic instability and a government awash in debt – Ottawa Conservatives are engaged in the lowest of partisan mudslinging and scapegoating the most vulnerable citizens.”

Evanchuk, who practices criminal law and employment law in Regina, is involved in a range of community and volunteer activities, including the Salvation Army free legal clinic and coaching football with Ranch Ehrlo’s Monday Night Football program for inner-city youth. He was recently appointed to the board of the Canadian Mental Health Association (Saskatchewan Division).

Born in Kingston, Ontario, where his father was stationed with the Canadian Forces, Evanchuk grew up in Saskatchewan and Alberta. He and his wife, Anna-Marie Kowalsky, live in Palliser riding in Regina where they are raising their daughter.

Palliser, which was held by NDP MP Dick Proctor until 2004, is one of the New Democrats’ best prospects to gain a seat in Saskatchewan. It was the NDP’s second best result in Saskatchewan, in the 2008 election, after Saskatoon–Rosetown–Biggar.

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For further information, contact:
Noah Evanchuk – 306.527.4774

Noah Evanchuk Website

Everything I've heard about Paul Zed - the dutiful son-in-law and fart-catcher to the Irving family is that he is positively GRADE ZED!

I'm hoping Gordon Earle will announce (possibly at the federal Convention in Halifax) that he will be seeking the NDP nomination in South Shore-St. Margaret's for a fourth time.

If there's another riding ready to go NDP besides Pallisar, it's S.S.S.M. 

No one should. Frankly the NDP are not worth running for nor supporting.

Heard a rumour that Lorne Cardinal, from Corner Gas, is contemplating a run in Kamloops.  He has been inspired by his brothers run in Edmonton.

I would prefer if Moe Sihota ran in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca. His candidacy would weaken the Keith Martin personality card (e.g. as the "moderate" social maverick).  The NDP there is also better organised and has bedrock support in the non-CFB base Esquimalt part of the riding. Another reasonable option for the NDP would be to run someone with some community profile from Langford. That being said, everyone is expecting it to be another Liberal-Conservative polarised race. It will almost surely be that if the BC campaign screws up the sign orders (actually I believe it was really the union company's fault, although there was the excuse that the riding association screwed or took things lying down because they didn't pre-order) again. The lag in the sign orders put a shiv to the NDP in many three-way races last campaign. Last out of the blocks...last on e-day.

You can add Alexandre Boulerice as a repeat candidate in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, as he announced to the NDP Convention that he was looking forward to running and winning there in the next election.

But Alexis MacDonald won't be a candidate unless the election comes late in 2010, as she's going to Africa for a six-month term with the Steve Lewis Foundation.

Wasn't he on babble at one time?

Kamloops North Thompson, or Kamloops Merrit?

And for whom?

Oh right so who would he be running for? The NDP in place of Crawford?

Does this mean in roads in Sherwood Park? :D

That's funny that he should be the "Ken Dryden" of the NDP, because Ken Dryden flirted with the NDP and supported campaigns for child care (if I'm not mistaken) before choosing to become a Liberal. I guess the NDP was a little too dogmatic for him. Similarly, left-wing chief economist of the Royal Bank of Canada Paul Summerville joined and campaigned hard for the NDP and he left too, because of NDP dogmatism. The same is true of countless other left-of-centre and progressive politicians across the country, that could have been or for a while were NDPers but ended up in the more liberally-minded or reform-minded folds of other parties. Normally one might say, "who cares," but when you are a perenial dead-last in Parliament party- this should raise some real questions about how welcoming a party you are or have become. That being said, it'd be nice if Ference stuck around.

I think you've actually got it all wrong. In the cases of Dryden and Summerville, it had nothing to do with "dogmatism" - in fact I'd like to see an example of what you mean about dogmatism since in many progressive circles the biggest criticism of the NDP is that it has ceased to be dogmatic at all and is too focused on winning elections! The reason why these two individuals joined the Liberals is that they both felt that the Liberals had a better chance of winning power. Look at someone like Dryden, by joining the Liberals he gets given a supersafe seat on a silver platter and the promise of a cabinet position in Paul Martin's government. There is nothing the NDP can offer that can complete with that. In Summerville's case, Bob Rae made him all kinds of offers to be his main economic advisor - it went to his head, and he started to think that rather than be a big fish in a medium sized pond like the NDP, why not be a bigger fish in an even bigger pond with the Liberals. Of course he lost that gamble since Bob Rae got maneouvred out of the leadership and so Summerville no longer has a powerful benefactor in the Liberal party.

Reeform played well in the riding,  not so sure it will continue, but then again pork barrel politics works.

OK, if "white male uni profs" don't "play well" in Kamloops, i guess that means that next time the NDP needs to find a white female uni prof" or how's about a black male uni prof oor may you just think that people in Kamloops are too anti-intellectual to vote for anyone who has too much higher education....?

For some reason all those "white working class people" in the neighbouring riding of BC Southern Interior don't seem to have any problem voting for NDP MP Alex Atamanenko who is not only a university professor but also a linguist who speaks five languages fluently including Russian. I guess he has to be careful no one blows his cover because all those "simple folk" might stop voting for him if they knew who he really was.

PS: Invariably when people start to go on and on about who the NDP needs to be more populist and go after the so-called white working class vote, before long they wax nostalgically about Ed Broadbent. Guess what? Ed Broadbent was a professor of political theory at York U. before being elected to Parliament!!!

Kamloops is very much a weathervane for BC and the popular vote there tends to match the provincial average. Though it bucked the trend slightly since the NDP vote share actually increased there from 2004 to 2006 and again from 2006 to 2008 while dropping across the province. I believe the guy who ran there in 2004 was NOT a university professor and worked in the local mill and he did worse than any of the "profs".

Do you have a First Nations TV personality in mind? Do they want to run? What percentage of the voters in kamloops are First Nations anyways?

Wasn't Nelson Riis a white male uni prof?

While we're on the "who should run" tack. For the sake of pie-in-the-sky I'll venture Herb Dickieson in a PEI riding and Stephen Lewis in Toronto Centre. I don't want Byers to run again in Vancouver Centre but he has said he will. I find Byers too cocksure and ocassionally full of himself. I always thought he would make a better candidate in Vancouver Quadra. His natural constituency is more the university crowd. It would be interesting if the NDP could get Kashmir Dhaliwal to run against Ujjal Dosanjh in Vancouver South, but I'm guessing they are probably good pals so that would never happen. It'd be awesome if the NDP could coax Ellen Woodsworth or maybe even Heather Deal to run in Vancouver Centre. I don't know what federal riding either of them live in. There is also the possibility of a run somewhere in Vancouver by Jim Green. Two big steals from the BC NDP would be to get Jagrup Brar to run in Fleetwood-Port Kells and Guy Gentner in Delta-Richmond East. I think the NDP is going to be in top contention in Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission next time as well. Any babbler thoughts on who should run there?

Lorne would be great, wherever he runs. I wish Tom King had gotten elected. He would have made a good MP.

Good question - has Peggy commented on this?

Wouldn't Newton-North Delta (geographically, and in likelihood-to-turn) be more appropriate for Gentner than Delta-Richmond East?

Oh, and re Kamloops: it's nothing to do with white uni profs per se, it's to do with the NDP being the NDP, and the Tories being the Tories in this neck of the woods.  Sure, Nelson Riis held through the party's 90s nadir; but that was in large part a personal mandate...

As of 2006, 7.9%.

That's 7.7% in metropolitan Kamloops, which is 81% of the riding, and includes Kamloops 1 Reserve which, oddly, has only 45% aboriginal identity population.

I don't think one thing has anything to do with the other. The job of party president in the NDP is a largely ceremonial part-time job. Adam Giambrone was President and ran for Toronto City council at the same time.

So, I think that Peggy may or may not run again (and from what I hear its still up in the air) but the fact that she's president has nothing to do with it.

Quite correct, but I was talking of the boarder declaration used by those responding to census questions as having FN's heritage, but who are not legally identifiable as such.

Came across the information when I was searching something else on Kamloops demographics and I looked for the link just now but can't find it again, maybe will do a search later, to see if I can dig it up.

But, from memory, it was something in the neighbourhood of 52,000, who stated on the 2006 Kamloops area census that they had Aboriginal "ethnic heritage",  which is a designation like saying any other ethnic heritage on the census, and then there was the demographics for those who have some form of legally recognized Aboriginal identity, that you noted above.

Reserve 1, is an urban reserve and there are all sorts of general public and First Nations commerical endeavours going on within its boundaries. Very busy place, and visitors would not even know they were on it in some places. They even have their own bank.

It all depends on what you make of the job. Typically, the party president will represent the party in panel discussions on TV and also give pep talks at nomination meetings etc... I certainly saw Adam Giambrone and Anne McGrath appear on a number of panels on TV etc...

If the NDP decides that it wants Peggy Nash to play a larger role as a surrogate "public face of the party" then so it will be.

If I remember correctly, the first NDP president was Charles Taylor, McGill prof. candidate against Trudeau at least twice in Mount Royal, who went on to become one of the best known political philosophers in the world. Frank Scott, Law Dean at McGill was president of the CCF. Marion Dewar was president when Broadbent was leader, and then ran in Hamilton. She was an activist president going to the office all the time and making staffing decisions, etc. There was some tension with the leader during her term I think it is fair to say.

Speaking of Anne McGrath, now that she's no longer NDP President, does that mean she'd be interested in running as a candidate in the next election?

I doubt it. Her new job is as Layton's Chief of Staff.

The Liberals did handle the strategy and PR for the Outremont by-election badly, I agree.  It is also one of the blows that Dion never recovered from.  Everything about it was badly handled, and the by-election candidate chosen by Dion was horrible.

I was just pointing out that while Outremont has been a Liberal seat for a long time, it has not been a safe seat since the early 1980's.  The Liberals lost the seat in 1988, and although they won it back in 1993, both Martin Cauchon and later Jean LaPierre only won it by small margins over the BQ.  That was a big change from the days when Marc Lalonde held it in the Trudeau years.

But the mistaken belief about it being a safe seat also caused some misunderstandings for the NDP's strategy as well - some in the NDP thought that because they won a "safe seat" like Outremont, they could do the same with Westmount.  The difference is that Westmount actually is a safe seat, as was demonstrated last fall.

The Liberals only won Outremont by a few thousand votes in 1993, Stockholm.  The BQ came a very close second.  1997 and 2000 saw an improvement in the Liberal vote, yes.  2004 and 2006 were close calls though, just like 1993.

And yes, the NDP may have done somewhat better in the by-election in Westmount I agree, but not necessarily a lot better.  It was not really realistically going to be that close - Prof. Antonia Maioni of McGill University pointed out last fall that Westmount was a Liberal safe seat and that the demographics are very different from Outremont.

I don't remember many Liberals talking about Ottawa Centre that way, though.  I know Richard Mahoney didn't consider it safe once Ed Broadbent got in the race in 2004.  I worked on Ed's campaign in 2004.

I think that there would be quite a bit of flak if someone who was just re-elected in May, resigned forcing an expensive byelection just a few montsh later. If the federal election were a year from now it would be a different story.

And these are just a few reasons that he should be the next leader of the BC NDP and Premier. Can't see Guy moving to federal politics. Maybe back for a run at Mayor of Delta but not federally. Guy is the best person to lead the party into the next election.

honestly, federally, kamloops isn't likely to go ndp again until a conservative meltdown, or a super star ndp candidate.  the demographics really have changed too much over the last decade or so.

michael crawford wasn't a bad candidate, but one of the left councilors would be better (not bepple though).  some famous hockey player, like mark recchi or something, would take the seat for the ndp (though even then, it would probably be pretty tight), but that's a dream.

apparently, francoise boivin is set to run again in the gatineau, which is a very good thing.

what's up with peggy nash?

Joe Clark would nicely fill out the roster and bring a more leftish tone to the slate.

Gee, in 2006, the Liberal stranglehold over Gatineau since WWII was finally broken by the BQ, and you find that to be "not a good thing"... I see.

As for Françoise Boivin, I wish her well. Will she be NDP this time, or back to the Liberal party, or is the jury still out?

I understand all that, Wilf, but she used to be the Liberal MP for Gatineau, and Québec politicians do show more of a migratory pattern than their ROC counterparts, so I was just wondering...

ETA: By the way, I should emphasize that I do indeed wish Boivin well, despite my rather jocular remarks above. She has the courage to keep a summary of the Sherbrooke Declaration on her website, including the reference to self-determination, which the party brass would apparently like to put down to a bad dream.

I'm not sure what you mean - most people here in the Ottawa-Gatineau area would prefer not to have a non-federalist MP, particularly one who often comes across as anti-English, representing us in the House of Commons.

In the Gatineau riding itself the large majority of people don't want a BQ MP - the BQ only got 29% of the vote there last year.

Ironically, had Boivin run as a Liberal last year, she probably would have won.

No kidding. So in that riding, when voters cast their ballot, they also write in reasons why they voted for or against someone?

Are you conscious of the fact that voters who believe in a federal Canada, including Québec, can and do vote for the BQ?

And in Canada, a majority don't want Harper, a majority didn't want Paul Martin - is this some new discovery of yours?

YOu make it sound like it was Boivin's fault. As I recall, Dion personally interceded to prevent her from running as a Liberal - so the Liberals got what they deserved when she switched to the NDP. and btw: Francoise has become a New Democrat with a convert's zeal. She is dynamite in person and she now tells anyone who will listen what a dysfuctional political culture there is in the Liberal party and she has become a major NDP strategist in Quebec.

Incidentally, I got a flyer that Olivia Chow's nomination is set for Sept. 22 and Francoise Boivin will be the guest speaker.

The Liberals in Gatineau - in their infinite wisdom - are poised to nominate to nominate Steve McKinnon an anglophone from PEI as their candidate - even though the riding is 94% francophone.  Only in the Liberal Party to people delude themselves into thinking that the fact that someone is a bureaucrat within the Liberal Party of Canada - that somehow makes them a star candidate in the eyes of the general public!

I'm not sure why you think that MacKinnon being an "anglophone" is so significant - you've brought it up before.  As far as I know, MacKinnon speaks French, is married to a Francopone and has children in French school.  Is my information incorrect?  Please let me know if it is.  

Incidentally, I do not think the Liberals view a bureaucrat as being a star candidate in the eyes of the public - I think that is your interpretation.  And btw, he is not my top choice for the riding, but I am trying to look at his strengths and weaknesses.

As for Boivin, she has had to do what she feels is right, obviously.  Several years ago I used to like her and briefly worked with her on the SSM bill.  I do wonder though whether she would even be in contention in Gatineau as an NDP MP if she did not have her prior name recognition as a Liberal MP.

boivin will be a great, great mp if she's elected, but it'll be a tough 3-way race, no doubt at all.

i read that that liberals are set to roll out three montreal stars candidates - in jeanne-le ber, ahuntsic and outremont.  i know a bit about the situation there, and i'm willing to speculate that the liberal candidate in outremont will be a politician rather than a rad-can presenter or whatever.  still trying to figure who it might be... i think it's that enviro woman who was in the running for westmount-ville marie before garneau got it.  that said, it may be some former pq minister or whatever.  whoever it is, of the three star candidates, it's the lowest on the totem, as the other two montreal ridings will be much easier to wrest away from their incumbents than will outremont.

in other news, i've been told that catherine bell, former ndp mp and current riding association president, will run again over in vancouver island north.  good news!

If the "enviro woman" you refer to that might get named to run in Outremont is that Desiree McGraw - then the NDP shuld dance a jog of joy - by all accounts she is a singularly horrible person and the more doors she knocks on - the fewer votes she will get.

In other news, I was reading La Presse and there is some very interesting stuff happening in the Hochelega riding. As you know, Real Menard is quitting to run municipally and the NDP will again run Jean-Claude Rocheleau who is head of the union that represents the oil refinery workers in the east end of Montreal. Now it seems that the local BQ organization is in revolt over the fact that Duceppe wants to name former PQ cabinet minister Daniel Paille as BQ candidate. Paille is a former head of the chamber of commerce and very much from the rightwing pro-business side of the PQ.  If he gets imposed by Duceppe it will be a dream come true for the NDP!!

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-canadienne/...

Belive me we will be sitting on hot coals waiting for the "surprise candidate" in Outremont. Last time the Liberals kept us in such suspense it turned out to be the formidable Jocelyn Coulon!

yes, can't wait for the Liberals to impose another pro-business liberal because they are so progressive.

Remind I am surprised by your reaction.  If anything we could use some new faces on the NDP horizon and although you may not be happy with certain aspects of the party there are some great people who are part of this organization.  I think it would be real lose for Canadians if the NDP was to be lost to us.  How about changes?  Changes can make a big difference and with the NDP it couldn't hurt that is for sure. 

Yes, I realize that, and have softened my position somewhat since then.

But changes are needed, you are correct.

This is great news for the the NDP and for Francoise Boivin. What good fortune to have the Liberals nominate such an unattractive and alienating candidate. I notice that his website brags about how he "answered the call of duty from Paul Martin" and heled manage the Liberal campaign in 2006 - we all know how well run THAT campaign was! 

Yes, the Martin liberals running the machine did so great in 2006. So we all know what side of the lib cloth Iggy is on and it is a nice toney blue - the great progressive pretenders.

Yes, it should be very different this time with Warren Kinsella and a bunch of juvenile and inexperienced Toronto frat boys running the campaign. I am looking so forward to their very own "beer and popcorn" moment that I can hardly wait for the writ to drop.

I don't think so, no.

no, I wouldn't say that Westmount-Ville Marie is the MOST anglo riding in Quebec. That honour probably goes to Mount Royal or Lac St. Louis or Dollard or possibily NDG.

I agree. Westmount is like St. Paul's and Outremont is more like Toronto-Danforth. Of course a riding with really IDEAL NDP demographics is Hochelaga. Its the Montreal equivalent of Winnipeg North or Vancouver East. and with the icky Paille being imposed by Duceppe we may have an opening there.

Long thread.