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NDP Leadershp #106
February 23, 2012 - 3:22pm
Hope I'm not too late...
Howard, its not any of those touchy feely, or future Caucus dynamic reasons why Mulcair does not counter-attack. That stuff will all take care of it just fine. Its not at risk.
Mulcair will not go on the counter-attack because he has worked very hard to stay away from that pit bull does not work well with others image.
Ashton accuses Mulcair campaign of dirty tricksGood point, KenS, in terms of recognizing the dynamics in the race. Mulcair as frontrunner can afford to (and needs to) stay above the fray. Topp, with rumors that he isn't in the top 2, needs to inflate the contrasts and cast doubts on his rivals.
Howard, in the closed thread, wrote in response to my post:
"Let's pretend you are Tom Mulcair and let's pretend you want to win. Is there anything to be gained from savaging your NDP competitors at this point? Especially when you'd probably like to have 99.99% of them on your team after the race?
If Mulcair ventures out of his comfort zone, I bet it won't be through pyrotechnic displays at the expense of the other candidates. Harper is the real target."
Excellent points, Howard. I'd just like to see some of his celebrated feistiness, that attorney cut-and-jab that he's so good at.
Somebody on the Quebec team better be getting in hot water over this. We'd never be directed to say anything like this in Ontario or we'd be kicked to the curb. Hopefully just an isolated incident of an overenthusiastic supporter going hog wild with speculation.
So the Liberal bright lights at the CBC are not going to carrying this Sunday's Official Opposition Leadership debate either - no wonder so many people want the CBC abolished. Jerks!!!
I apologise for the nasty name-calling I did on Paul Dewar a few threads back. I don't know what got into me.
The NDP should be holding demos outside the various CBC offices across the country to protest their blatant non-NDP coverage.
Let's do it!!!
The idea that Ashton would drop out and support Mulcair isn't new. Vincent Marissal reported on it 10 days ago.
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/chroniqueurs/vincent-marissal/201202/13/01-449...
Perhpas Mulcair's campaign volunteers were just repeating Marissal's speculation. I wouldn't necessarily call it "dirty tricks", although I may be missing something. In any case, Ashton seems pretty categorical that she will stay till the end. Mulcair's people must be careful not to alienate her supporters.
Do you watch CBC NewsWorld at all? Rosie Barton has been reporting on how the campaigns are going, and Power and Politics has been interviewing the candidates as well as bringing in various panels to discuss both the campaigns and the candidates. I don't know any other network except CPAC that has better NDP coverage. Yes, I wish CBC covered the NDP debates - that's a valid sore point. But, at least, Rosie Barton and Evan Solomon have analysed every debate afterwards, usually with a Power Panel <snicker>.
ETA: I'm snickering, because Tom Flanagan is on at least one P&P panel - I guess for comic relief.
I'm more interested in how some of the posters here react to the Ashton thing who support Mulcair.
I wonder if I should compare their previous posts when it happened twice with Topp's camp. Perhaps an interesting analysis...
I'm looking for the response of three posters in particular, this shall be amusing.
It's bad politics and whoever's responsible should be kicked to the curb. It's also strategically incompetent, Mulcair supporters don't need to concentrate on telling Ashton supporters not to vote for her on the first ballot we want to sell them on the idea of marking us second.
It's a bit hard to tell from the story who was involved, if it was anyone associated with the campaign I'd hope they'd become disassociated forthwith.
Google transaltion of part of Marissal article linked by Dooy in #9:
"For many veterans NDP, Thomas Mulcair remains an outsider a little shady, but to see him debate, campaign, stating its program, it is obvious that it is by far the best politician in the group. The only one able to move to Quebec and the most formidable opposition leader, loan, unlike Mr. Topp, to sit the day after his accession to the head of the NDP.
The main handicap of Mr. Mulcair is low recruitment in his own province, a clear sign of disinterest of Quebecers to the NDP, in addition to depriving him of crucial votes in March.
His opponents, Brian Topp in mind, accuse him of wanting to get the NDP to the center. Curious criticism from the chief strategist of Jack Layton, the NDP has just renewed by bringing the center, the comfort zone of traditional voters.
The Tories, must burn votives for Brian Topp wins this race."
From what I can see this is broadly reflective of sentiment in Quebec. Tories burn votives for Topp.
Another interesting thing from that article is the idea of alliances. From the article:
As a Topp supporter, I would be quite happy to see such an alliance, since I also think Peggy Nash is kind of cool.
Yeah, I've seen some of that Mulcair attack directed to Harper in QP in the House - Harper knows he's going to be a tough adversary. Mulcair's a lawyer, and a tough opponent. If Mulcair wins the leadership, we can expect fireworks in the House. And that's a very good thing! I really do hate to say this because I'm a pacifist, but Mulcair can smile while he drives in the knife.
Ashton's quite young, and I bet she would resonate really well with all the new young MPs in Quebec. Shared values, and all.
I like Niki Ashton - quite a lot - but I confess I found this alternately hilarious and sad.
She's been promoting "new politics", and here she is condemning a perfect example of "old politics". That's fine.
Then she says "I've been out there signing up people to vote for me, not him".
Do they have specially coloured membership cards depending on which candidate you have paid to have the privilege of voting for?
On balance, I guess I'll have to go with "sad". But that really characterizes this entire beauty pageant aka horse race.
I think that its a bit hyperbolic to describe the possible whispers about Ashton dropping out as "dirty tricks". To me "dirty tricks" are things like robo-calls telling people to vote in the wrong location.
It all depends on how organized an effort we are talking about and how close it is to the campaign. It would be helpful to know who is claiming to have heard the rumors and from whom.
I think this is a worthy test of organization and leadership. Will Mulcair do something to ensure it doesn't happen again?
So Topp's campaign is involved in this as well?
Ed Broadbent says that Topp is already ready to take the job.
Mulcair gets BC support.
Peggy Nash on Midwifery
Singh says his campaign has added 6000 members to the NDP
Dewar supports the 60 day rule and his plan to restore workers' rights
Edit: Not sure if this was posted, but has some interviews.
I'm curious - has anyone on this board done a tally on which candidates have the least number of negatives?
That's an impossible task. Everyone has negatives. Some are bigger or smaller than others, and that's in the eyes of the beholder. And in some peoples' eyes, they aren't even negatives.
You can never go wrong if you remember it's a personal decision. If you think about the things that are most important to you in a leader, and then pick the person who fits that description the most.
The one thing you* shouldn't* do is assume that someone with no obvious negatives will be spared by the Conservative attack machine. They'll attack you no matter what. They'll even make stuff up, or accuse you of having a hidden agenda. So the real test isn't to find someone with no negatives. The real test is to find someone who you feel confident would be able to deflect the attack, and put the Conservatives (or Liberals) back in the hot seat.