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NDP leadership race #128
March 15, 2012 - 10:38pm
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http://cdn.js-kit.com/images/dot-gray.png); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; line-height: 16px; font-weight: normal; background-position: 50% 0%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border: 1px none #c0c0c0;"> http://accidentaldeliberations.blogspot.com/2012/03/leadership-2012-roundup_15.html I believe only Singh & Cullen will have the power to "steer" significant numbers of NDP voters to other candidates. That's because they're the only underdogs who've "reached out" to non-traditional NDP voters in any successful way.Singh is especially remarkable. The guy could never count on traditional NDP voters to back him. So, more so than any other campaign, he looked outside the party for support. If you believe his claims, he's brought in "10, 000" new members based on his appeal to the Sikh community. He will have a strong influence especially on the eastern-Canadian Sikhs...who are brand new to the NDP.
Cullen has brought in a significant amount of soft Green/Liberal voters. But Cullen has made it explicitly clear on his website that he wishes his supporters to either leave secondary choices "blank" or choose based on ones own instincts. I think this instruction reflects his understanding that the campaigns supporters are a MIX of "new" NDP members (lib/greens who will leave secondaries blank)...and traditional NDP supporters (like myself who will rank candidates).
As for the rest of the candidates, I believe only Mulcair was successful in appealing outside the NDP family...especially in Quebec. But his "second choice" means nothing because he will be a finalist in the leadership contest. Today, 12:19:11 PM PDT – Like – Reply
P.S.
The Singh/Chow model is something the party needs to consider in its future recruitment of ethnic voters.
Singh walked into the Sikh communities with a practical message that fused everyday business concerns with social democratic values. It appealed both to their pocket-books & inherent religiosity. Olivia Chow has been doing a relatively similar thing with the Chinese community for years now.
The party should consider prepping emissaries from currently sitting MP's (& even talented future prospects) to go into these various communities with a similar NDP message.
Why isn't Hoang Mai's pretty face greeting Vietnamese voters right across this country? Why is Rathika Sitsabaiesan's smile only known to the Scarborough Sri-Lankan community instead of the wider South-Indian-Canadian community?
Where the Conservatives only have Jason Kenney's ugly mug, we have actual stars from these communities within our ranks. Let's unleash them with a message.
Firsdt order of business is a whipping for calling Ed Broadbent brain dead.
You dont like what he did.
You REALLY dont like what he did.
You've lost your respect for Ed.
All that is fair game.
Too bad!
Explain please.
Too bad about going to be whipped?
Or too bad that I'm to be dissapointed that you wont submitt to whipping?
If so, I'll never recover.
Nice pace in this thread.
While the self parody thread #126 hurtles along at light speed.
(edited) I'm out of here until after the election.
Thank you Unionist for at least making a stab at honesty about what is actually taking place within the NDP.
I don't know why the NDP even bothered to have this contest - Broadbent should have just annointed Topp Leader, and just like the Liberals, all the NDP problems would have been solved by now. WTF!
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Today was the most exciting day of the NDP leadership race.
Revered statesman Ed Broadbent rips Thomas Mulcair on national television. Who would have thought we would see something like that?
As they said on At Issue tonight on CBC, it's unprecedented for a former party leader to rip into the frontrunner in a leadership race.
But what I found interesting was that Broadbent was expressing some of the same points about Mulcair that I myself just posted on this board last week.
Don't rise to the bait folks - it is absolutely not worth it.
Very nice pic of Nycole Turmel here:
http://rabble.ca/
Indeed today was the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak.
And how much silliness are people supposed to endure at the hands of posters like "TheArchitect" who has consistently been attacking Mulcair since he arrived here. It would not surprise one bit to find out that he was working for the Topp campaign.
Yes indeed. Nycole Turmel has shown incredible grace under pressure as interim leader. Thrust suddenly into a job she had never expected to do and for which she never asked, and under attack by a hostile press, she rose to the challenge, and has provided stable, unifying leadership at the most difficult of moments, keeping the party afloat in these past months. What a fabulous lady she is.
The caucus has done a fantastic job during this interim period. In addition to Nycole, I think three MPs in particular deserve special recognition for the roles they've played. Peter Julian has been superb as caucus chair and as finance critic; I'd say he's been the strongest parliamentary performer in the caucus. Alexandre Boulerice has really stood out among the new group of Quebec MPs, and has been doing such a great job on his file. And Chris Charlton's quiet confidence as chief opposition whip has been such an asset for the NDP team in these past few months.
Today has been a contentious day in the leadership campaign. Hopefully, however, we can all be in agreement in thanking Nycole, Peter, Alexandre and Chris for their work.
North Report, you have been shilling for Mulcair for a long time. That's your right to do so, and I think it's been obvious from the beginning that Mulcair was going to be Jack's successor. Jack himself wanted Mulcair to be his successor from what I gather. The problem is that the NDP is now facing the same situation that the Republicans are facing in the primary race.
Romney is going to win the nomination in the end whether the Republican base likes it or not, and Mulcair is going to win the NDP leadership whether the establishment likes it or not.
I really believe Turmel showed constant improvement. The press in its typically lazy way overlookd that fact. She could be very effective in QP. I much prefered her to that bloviating egotist, Rae.
KenS, are you a nihilist?
Get lost.
That's uncalled for. I don't talk to you like that, so I'd ask that you extend me the same courtesy. I think the moderators would agree.
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Such a shame that I post a comment in the spirit of unity only to find that in the meantime, I've been attacked like this. The accusation that I've been attacking Mulcair since I arrived here, however, simply isn't true—nor is the suggestion that I work for the Topp campaign; I don't, and while I've decided to support Topp, if you've followed my postings here, you'll know that I came to that decision only quite recently. Indeed, in the past, I've posted a lot of quite critical comments about Topp. It's worth noting that in the NDP Leadership 18 thread, I said:
Quite a comment coming from someone supposedly working for Topp, eh?
Debater-You have stated that you are a lawyer working presently on policy not practising law. Are you working for the Liberals?
I never denied or tried to spin what Topp has done. I was merely pointing out what Mulcair supporters have been doing that is in fact hurting the party in the long run that has nothing to do with ideology, and you chose not to respond to any of it. There are people outside of the Topp campaign who are very concerned about Mulcair too but they are a little classier than Topp is on the issue. All you've done is repeat the talking points of Mulcair supporters about Topp's campaign and have insinuated long time New Democrats comitted to a more left wing vision than Mulcair is should just leave the party. As for what is "going on here" it's more than just the Topp campaign's attacks.
I still think everyone is over reacting.
None of the criticisms from Ed Broadbent were particularly scathing. It can still be summed up as "I trust Brian Topp more."
There isn't an attack ad to be found in Broadbent's quotes.
You want to know what's going to affect the party's unity? What's going to affect the party's chances?
On March 26th, Ed Broadbent, plus Olivia Chow, plus any other number of senior NDP figures can show confidence in the leader -- whoever the member chooses -- to beat Stephen Harper and be a champion for social democracy in Canada
OR
Everyone can continue to focus on the smallest of differences between the candidates, swear that the leadership race was unfair, that the members backed the wrong horse, and we're on our way to our doom.
Most of this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you want to whine about divisiveness, we'll be divided. If you want to brush it off, move on, and win together, we'll win.
I have no intention of interacting with you. Fuck off and leave me alone.
I think this is the moment when someone turns to the managers of Brian Topp's beleagured campaign and says...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhKnEo9ZyEs
Years have passed and I keep thinking
What a fool I've been
I look back into the past and
Think of way back then
I know that I lost everything I thought that I could win
I guess I should have listened to my friends
All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore
The NDP race hasn't even had a fraction of the divisiveness, disagreement, or disrespect of the GOP primary. Not even close.
Back away from the ledge, put your head back on, and keep Mr. Broadbent's comments in context.