BC NDP: Who should be the next leader? III

No the reason they are not talked about as leader is because the james gang is still in power and still have their knives out and are still working on booting them out of the party. When my mla (Maurine Karagianis) stood up for James, it may have been personal but it was also to curry favour with the real powers.  (She has no vote on provincial council).  She was being a good slave and bonus points will be fortcoming and she WILL be renominated but she looks like an idiot to me. How can she ever represent her constituents views?

Many People in the "party" still think that the caucus members are their slaves and are there to do their bidding, and their bidding alone.  That is not the case.  If those stupid "bullys" keep pushing on their "holy God given  constitution" they will find themselves in splendid isolation.   Voters are not stupid.  If Sihota gets 13 mla's de nominated, then every voter will know that their vote is not worth a flying fuck.  Why is the ndp vote not growing?  Same reason.  TOO much central control in the NDP.  Let the MLA's think for themselves. Quit putting words in their mouths.  Lets hear their thoughts for a change.

http://www.publiceyeonline.com/archives/005612.html#comments   The comments are worth a read too.  Sean Hollman does publiceye online. He is an independent journalist and does a lot of investigation behind the scenes. When he says some of the James supporters in Caucus were privately not supporting her, it is probably due to "off the record" realspeak. 

I find it quite amusing how - just as I (and many others) predicted - the anti-James dissidents have no one in mind that they think would make a better leader and all the serious candidates to succeed Carole James are people who supported her. In the end - the next leader of the BC NDP will be someone cut from very much the same cloth as Carole James - but the person will be a somewhat better communicator and won't be stigmatized for having lost two elections....and maybe that's all it takes. I suspect that most of the "bakers dozen" just wanted a new face just for the sake of having a new face - and they will get one. It was never a right vs. left issue, since no one can describe a single solitary substantive issue that the dissidents all took a common position on. There was nothing - just personal hatred of Carole James. If this was some sort of revolt of the left in the NDP - I would have thought that maybe, just maybe, there would be some leftwing firebrand waiting in the wings to take a run at the leadership - but evidently there is NONE.

"Progressives" will be happy with anyone who can string a sentence together and is not part of the Campbell government. Remember that the only way the NDP can ever win in BC is by winning 100% of the vote of people who vote NDP federally and about 2/3 of the vote of people who vote Liberal federally - so its all about attracting those mildly progresive centrist types. The least of my concerns is if the 20 or 30 people in BC who are to the left of the NDP decide to vote communist as a protest - those people all live in supersafe NDP seats anyways so their votes are of no value to anyone.

My litmus test for a new leader is who has the best chance of winning the following ridings: Saanich North, Mission-Maple Ridge and Kamloops. NDP members will vote for whoever they think can win the election - and as more polls show that Farnworth is the most electable - I think he will probably build a lot of momentum...we shall see its still early.

There is nothing wrong with attempting to attract new voters.  It's a good strategy.

However, it is simply not realistic to believe that a single campaign will reliably win over a sufficient critical mass of such voters to make a substantive difference in enough constintuencies to influence the outcome of the election.

The mythology that "simply" attracting new voters will allow for a dramatically different election result is beyong naive, approaching delusional.

As a PART of a multi-track campaign strategy, alongside effective GOTV and effective appeals to swing voters, attracting previous no voters is valuable.  As a standalone strategy (which is the way it seems to be constantly presented around here) it is a recipe for disaster.

The vitriolic attacks on Stockholm on this thread were beyond disgusting.  Shreiking abuse does not constitute logical argument.

And kropotkin, I'd be interested to hear about your election win-loss record.

(I am reminded of an unpleasant encounter I once had with a well-known ONDP organizer during the Broadview Greenwood byelection in 1982.  I had though my poll results didn't seem credible - though in the end they were spot on.  This person gave me a five minute rant about how people from Saskatchewan knew eff all about political organizing or canvassing - and that was why we'd lost the 82 election.  I simply asked her to tell me the last time the ONDP had gotten 38% of the vote and lost.  I note that the ONDP didn't even get 38% of the vote when they WON.  But then, I'm from Saskatchewan and I don't know anything about politics.)

You have got to be kidding yourself.  Farnworth, Dix or Horgan.  That is the equivalent of the republicans in the USA digging up Nixon and trying to hawk him to the voters.   If you are happy to have someone who forges documents as the next premier, how do you call yourself a progressive and   what is your problem with the BC Libs?  Are you trying to lose? 

"And in this glass house, we have Adrian", "Mikes glasshouse is made of reinforced glass and you are in it" and "John's glasshouse is made of Joe's strongest steel".

Why not someone honest to start with?  Clean slate?  If those are the 3 names that are being pushed to the front, then the pigs have really taken over the party.

Who has sterk mania?

You are the only one who talks about her.  Like some kid in school calling names.

How about growing up a little bit? First off, you need an interim compromise leader. Someone who didnt do rapid fire "attack the rebs" bullshit before James Quit.

It is sounding like in "poorly contested elections" where nobody's really engaged or interested, then trying to attract new voters is not going to be very successful.  However, in a "hotly contested election" (the kind that Stockholm says doesn't matter), you will not win if you can't bring new people in to the ballot box.

James Carville is a hack.  I have no doubt that he said exactly what Stockholm reported.  In fact, I'm sure he's said all kinds of crap.

Sotckholm I'm still waiting for a link showing that young voter turnout only increased 1%.

All that being said it seems like Stockholm has been pretty bang on as far as what's been happening post revolt and resign.

I'd support Mable Elmore or Jenny Kwan if they ran, even though it seems like neither are quite ready.

If the only choices are white men then my choice would be Peter Julian.  I have read reports that he is considering it.  He hasn't been directly involved with BC Politics and caucus infighting, which would be great.  I assume he has enough experience that he could step into the role competently.  He is left enough for me.

It seems like most of the other choices are pretty uninspiring.  We need to find someone good to run soon.  Now's the time to draft candidates.

She has won personal election twice, so I assume you are referring to the 2003 Leadership Convention.

Farnworth sounds more like Harper than Cambell, I'm sure he'll get some support in BC but it won't be from progressives.

Closing for length.