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Is she still just Churley, or Churley-NDP?
Why?
In spite of his age, I think Stephen Lewis would be a big asset to the NDP caucus.
Michelle, you've touched on one of the first things about Jack that won me over to him. He didn't have a seat, but instead of muscling aside an incumbent in a safe seat, he decided he wanted to represent his own constituency. I would think that parachuting in a candidate with no ties locally would be a huge disservice to Layton's legacy.
Considering that Jack only had two supporters in caucus when he ran, there wasn't much of an alternative. Having forced either Libby or Svend to step aside so he could run three time zones away in BC would have left him leader of a caucus where 1 MP supported him. Running in a general election gave him the chance to bring a team in with him, which he did (he brought in 10 new MPs, including himself, to add to the 2 that had supported him, meaning 12/19 MPs were either supporters or brought in by Layton by the time he occupied a seat in Parliament; he also almost doubled the vote from the previous election).
Anonymouse, I don't see a contradiction between what we wrote. Your point about forcing Svend Robinson or Libby Davies aside proves my point, as I'm sure that would not have gone over well with voters in those communities. And even though the Caucus by and large did not support him initially, I think he overcame that issue in due course.
They'd have to join the NDP first.
Quite a number of Labour Party and French Socialist Party politicians are ex-Communists, and in Canada it was never a problem for, say, Roland Penner, Gilles Duceppe (Workers Communist Party) or others.
Actually, it's on the opposite side of the city.
There used to be a very powerful party in this country who got used to taking its supporters votes for granted. Sure parachute anyone you want into this riding because the voters are irrelevant when one is dealing with pragmatic politics. Voters are pawns is not a very democratic tendency. Strange how the NDP hasn't even ruled yet many of the back room dealers are already thinking like that old party.
I think that for the NDP to consolidate their gains among young voters its best bet is to parachute a 75 year old into a riding and tout him as the new leader. That will really fire up the 20 to 35 year old crowd.
Because of his age, I think Stephen Lewis would be a big asset to the NDP caucus.
They are still both in the Central Toronto area, and only 3 ridings away. He may never run and Bob Rae may never want him to run, but I bet he could do well. While he lost to Peggy Nash this election he still seems to be well liked, had he won the 2006 Liberal leadership I think he could have been a real threat to the NDP.
FWIW Rae and Kennedy are mortal enemies going back to the deal Kennedy made with Dion at the 2006 Liberal leadership convention. They hate each other.
Kennedy supported Rae in 2008, which seems odd if they hate each other.
That's because there is no contradiction, my points were to add support to yours. Also, I know lots of young people that are big fans of Stephen Lewis. People may forget that he does speaking tours for his foundation and visits lots of universities. Also, Jack didn't quite look like a spring chicken in his last campaign and that didn't hurt his youth support. Similarly, Ed Broadbent was attacked for being a political "dinosaur" when he tried to stage a comeback in 2004 in a riding that contains a lot of University of Ottawa and Carleton students, I think we saw how that turned out. So if Lewis thinks he could run and serve for a while, good, let him seek the nomination. If not, new blood is exciting too, but here's to hoping for a vigorously contested nomination.
You seem to forget that the party members in that riding are the ones who will make the final decision.
Maybe Rick Mercer will run for the Liberals. He lives in Toronto Danforth. Another reason why the NDP needs to put its strongest foot forward.
If Stephen Page or Sarah Polley want to trade in their celebrity careers, I wouldn't be surprised if the NDPers of Toronto Danforth would be willing to give them a listen. Heck, Lorraine Segato would be really cool too, age be damned!
I don't think Kennedy will run for the Liberals, given that he'd be a parachute candidate (he actually lives in York South-Weston - Mike Sullivan gleefully noted he didn't have an Alan Tonks sign until well into the campaign), and that PHP voters rather firmly gave him the hint that he wasn't welcome. He'd be walking into a campaign where the NDP would be throwing everything including the kitchen sink at the campaign - I know more than a few PHP NDP members would take especial pleasure in taking him on again. But hey, we're forgetting that a certain Mr Rae made the jump from that neck of the woods to a more downtown riding.
Stockholm would have us believe that Brian Topp has more street cred than Stephen Lewis among young voters, lol.
As well the NDP will likely be preoccupied with the leadership during the by-election. May work for or against.
While it's always good for a candidate to have roots in the community he/she is running in, I don't think it's a non-starter for someone from another part of the city. As I recall, the last MP for Toronto-Danforth lived in a different riding.
Actually I'm not so sure that the NDP would be preoccupied with the leadership during the byelection. A byelection has to be called within six months of a seat officially being declared vacant. I assume that Toronto-Danforth probably officially became vacant sometime in the last week - so that means that six months later would take us to the last week of February. In all likelihood, the NDP leadership process will be completed by late January or early February - meaning that the byelection will likely to called AFTER the new leader is in place and it could be perfect timing for a new leader who doesn't have a seat to run there.
Where exactly did I say that? I love Stephen Lewis - I'm just pointing out that he is about 75 years old - that is quite old for someone to want to take on the grueling job of becoming a Member of Parliament. If he seriously wanted to run then I would say good for him - but I would be very surprised if he did.
Haha --writing as someone in the middle of that demographic, you're entirely correct here!
That assumes that Harper waits till the last possible opportunity to call the by-election. The Liberals will likely have candidate in place in the next several weeks and they will be campaigning ASAP.
Two points:
1) Stephen Lewis running in a Toronto riding would not exactly be "parachuting." A St. Paul's resident running in Danforth isn't exactly John Tory running in Haliburton. Most Torontonians pay little attention to riding boundaries, and Lewis would have to be democratically chosen by the riding association. If "loyalty to the area between Coxwell and the Don River below Cosburn" is the main criteria for a candidate, then they can reject Lewis.
2) As someone in the latter half of the 20-35 generation, I couldn't care less if he new Danforth MP was say, 48, or 73.
As someone who actually lives in the riding, I don't think a parachute candidate is a good idea. One of the reasons why people voted for Jack is because we actually KNOW who he is..
Why do you dislike Paula Fletcher so much?