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Nonsense.
And as well a lot of our newer Canadians who hold dual passports might resent anyone attacking Mulcair for holding two passports.
I think that the issue of dual citizenship is a personal one when running for the highest position in elected office. I personally would give up my connection to Europe if I was running for PM. It should be an issue for Mulcair to decide on his own without external pressure.
I'm wondering about Elie's daughter and son-in-law (esp. now that the son-in-law's initial endorsement withdrew)
Looks like Mulcair decided to put Harper on notice, that he will not tolerate any attacks from the PMO, without a hearty response. link
After reading the article, I feel a bit like Harper just walked into a gun fight, holding a banana.
That would be a mistake. A lot of NDP members want to know how our next leader is going to respond to attacks from Harper. This is a good opportunity for Mulcair to show us his chops.
Based on Howard's link above, I think he's handling it well.
It will be interesting to see what Pat Martin, Tony Martin, and Peter Stoffer will say about this. I think they were wrong all along and I would like to hear them say it if they agree.
I still think a positive approach on the part of Mulcair would have been better at this point. IF! Mulcair were to win the NDP leadership he would have plenty of opportunities to spar with Harper.
ETA: I also noted the NDP is not letting the LSD issue go. Seems like the party is making an active point of not letting anything slide, and fighting for what the party believes in. This is a curious strategy given how spineless the Liberals were. At the same time, the NDP has to avoid falling into the morass of negativity generated by Stephen Harper.
Québec media is running with a translation of the headline "'Only a Canadian' fine for PM, says Harper" but the translation is poor and it has come out as more precisely: only a Canadian can occupy the post of PM. Also, the piece with Mulcair responding to Harper (linked above) is running coast-to-coast in the English media. I think Harper and his crew have made a major strategic blunder. They probably thought it was low risk to take a poke, now they are looking like they are trying to strip Mulcair of his Canadian citizenship.
Mulcair has been signaling for a while now that he intends to contrast his defence of Canada in the Québec sovereignty debate with Harper's signature on the build a "firewall" around Alberta letter. This will not end well for Harper, if he continues down this path.
I think Peter Stoffer's comment describes it best, its the perception of a future perceived conflict of interest.
And we would imagine what commentary could be made if a Canadian party leader also held American citizenship... its not a pretty sight in terms of politics.
Nevertheless, Mulcair's response has been excellent. One question remains however: I had no idea that Mulcair was a dual citizen in the first place... Was this information in his own bio? I don't remember reading about this.
And perhaps another question that should be asked is whether or not any of the candidates have anything else that they should let members know now instead finding out later? Don't make me quote the knowing is 1/2 the battle garbage from that wretched cartoon s-, you get the point.
Thomas did very well in his response. I like that he responded to Rae's "side smear of Jack" with evoking what Jack said in the past and Jack not being able to respond - good for Thomas to share his conversation with Jack where Jack renounced his public pronouncement on the issue - of course Thomas has credibility on Jack's word!
Mulcair gains a point in my books for pulling some jiu jistu on Steven Harper.
I'm not going to shiver in my boots thinking about attacks from the conservatives. I *am* going to look for a candidate who is a strategic thinker, and who can craft a message.
I wonder which other candidates will show off some skills.
Good question. Did his bio mention at what point in his life he became an extreme supporter of Israel?
Precisely. Like the Israel thing.
Yeah - it's someone who says, "You can't even say that you personally support the boycott movement."
ETA: I also have a definition for "extreme supporter of Mulcair/Topp/Nash/Saganash/Ashton/Cullen/Dewar/Singh": someone who acknowledges only their positive qualities.
Likewise for "extreme support of the NDP".
I want to respond to a point Malcolm made several threads back and that was to say that Canada needed the NDP's $35 billion warships because it has the longest coastline in the World and it needs to defend its borders.
Malcolm is wrong about this. The Joint Support Ships are not suitable to defending Canada's coastline because they are a) way too slow b) unable to break through ice
What they are meant for is to play a "support" role in missions far from your borders or friendly infrastructure and ports. This means these ships are designed for a war zone like Libya or Iraq. These ships can be built to contain full field hospitals and water purification facilities. They are basically a small military base on water. During the Christmas time tsunami in Asia several years ago, the US also used ships like these for humanitarian purposes (using their water purification and hospital facilities and the fact that they were already in the Asia-Pacific region).
So that is what the NDP is cheerleading for: $35 billion for fully deployable military bases on water, as compared to a "NDP Budget" in 2005 with $4.6 billion in social and environmental spending.
Priorities, priorities, priorities...
Has anyone actually confirmed that he has a French passport or is this just speculation?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bCyIAsSid8
Re Charlie Angus e-mail - that was not in Charlie's voice. In fact, it was written to associate the ghost of Jack Layton with Dewar. Words such as "vision" "dream" (ie Jack's Dream), "caring" "optimism" (straight off of Jack's letter) and then "energy". Then there was the repetition "build on his work" and "carry on Jack's work" in a very short letter.
Dewar's last couple of endorcers seemed to have gotten perks out of the deal (ie Linda Duncan), this 70 thing seems to have impressed Charlie Angus. Still Angus and Monia Mazigh are good endorcements - and Duncan was made for Environment Minister/Critic.
I think that Dewar's stiff appearance was to fight his usual chicken look when talking so saw it as an improvment that may have gone too far in the other direction (judging by everyone else's reaction). Noticed in the CBC interview, Topp was no longer Mr bobble-head so I think they are all adjusting themselves and may go back and forth between the extremes a bit before they decide on an image.
Agree with (I think it was Unionist) who said basically that the Liberals are full of sell-fulfilling prophesies. Whether what they say has any truth in it or not, they figure that it they talk up a certain interpretation, it will come to be. Look in the tread for that piano cartoon - they figure that if they talk like they are still one step away from the PMO that people will start believin them and then it will happen.
That legalizing pot vote struck me as odd - that it was legalization rather than just decriminalization - and that it had the support of 75% there despite the fact that the top brass of the Liberal party are not in favour of it. Strikes me as one issue voters infiltrating the Liberal party.
Rae is a pro business free trader and, unless Ron Paul becomes President, the Americans will be threatening Canada to slow down goods getting across the border unless we toughen up our pot laws.
The NDP officially supports decriminalization.
Hmm
Pot and the monarchy, two ballot box issues. Ya just gotta hand it to the Liberals. LOL
Oh hell yes! Mulcair is winning a lot of brownie points just for bringing this up.
Mulcair does seem to be on a bit of roll these days.
http://accidentaldeliberations.blogspot.com/2012/01/leadership-2012-roun...
Time for #75.
http://rabble.ca/babble/canadian-politics/ndp-leadership-75
Closed.