NDP Leadership # 113

~Carry on~

Ummm, what's the punchline?

No one explicitly accused Layton of paying cash for sex. They just noted that he had been caught naked with an Asian masseuse next to a trash can with wadded up tissues in a police sting at a suspected bawdy house called the Velvet Touch. Nothing criminal there. Just some "interesting" details.

A smear is a smear.

Topp's "left turn" may well be insincere, but it's an important part of winning over the NDP base.  Any aspiring leader of the NDP needs to speak to the hopes and dreams of the base, to assure us that we are understood, that we hold the same values.  We're sophisticated enough to know that in a general election campaign the party must chase Liberal, Green and soft-Tory voters and that many of our aspirations will inevitably be put on hold.  By running a left wing campaign Topp is working to assure the NDP base that he understands what motivates us. 

Mulcair on the otherhand has offended much of the NDP base by repudiating some core NDP values ("I will not be beholden to labour"), saying we must change the party's language that has carried us this far and taking positions on taxes (income inequality)to the right of the field of candidates.  We know what needs to be done to win in a general election, but for now many of us feel dis-respected and not understood by the Mulcair campaign.  Good luck with that.

So, you're ok with being fooled by a candidate but not with one upfront with you? Great! BTW, why did the UFCW endorse Mulcair? Or a long list of labour leaders? And that change in language and approach was one reason why we finally connected in Quebec. The old style NDP got us in the 40 seat range if we were lucky. As for taxes, we've been over this before but you just wish to ignore facts and reality.

Good. At least your consistant unlike some, my Lord :) I just find it funny that two long threads, one started by a moderator, about Mulcair donations occured on this forum. But when Topp is buddies with a Rob Ford Bay Street fundraiser... almost silence :)

1. A talk Mulcair gave in Chatham, Ontario a day or two ago.

 

http://danage.com/2012/03/01/ndp-leadership-candidate-thomas-mulcair-coffee-culture-in-chatham/

 

2. The most eloquent endorsement of Mulcair I hve yet read:

http://www.marcellamunro.com/2012/03/my-choice-for-ndp-leader-tom-mulcair.html

 

It took me a long time to decide who to support for our next NDP leader, but I’ve finally decided that Tom Mulcair is the best choice to help us move forward. And here’s why I’ve decided to back him.

I know all the candidates are working hard. I like them all as people, and I thank them for their dedication in putting their names forward. The NDP and the people of Canada will be well served by a front bench full of the intelligence, commitment, and passion they have shown through a long campaign.

But through the campaign I felt like there was elephant in the room, and really wanted to someone who was willing to take that on that challenge in a positive way. And that particular pachyderm was what to make of our new found position of strength – how do we turn our historic opposition status into being a serious run for 24 Sussex in 2015?

Only Tom Mulcair really had has the guts to come out and say (and I’m paraphrasing) what I’ve been thinking: The breakthrough in Quebec changes things. The results of the last election have changed the political landscape, and, if we are serious about winning, it should change our party too.

The breakthrough, and this leadership race, could and should be a real opportunity to seriously consider what these new seats and the possibility of growing roots in non-traditional territories means. And for me, I can’t believe it just means “business as usual” for our party.

As I listen to the debates, I worry about an attitude that suggests the Liberals are finished as a political force. It isn’t true of course. Only Mulcair gets that if we are going to continue to reach into the Liberal voting base, and get them thinking about the NDP as a real government in waiting, we need to continue the work started by Jack Layton in winning over new voters to the NDP.

In many ways, the NDP leadership race has felt insular, framed within a familiar NDP comfort zone. Suddenly we are back to talking about “movement politics”, with most of the candidates trying to position as the “most pure” New Democrat.

Many believe, myself included, that Jack Layton himself generated the Orange Wave’s momentum in large part. I’m not looking for a copycat of Layton -- there isn't one and that wouldn't work.

But the fact is that Layton connected. And he did it by talking to people where they were at, not where he wanted them to be. By his last campaign, Layton didn’t talk in terms of the NDP being a “national movement for” one good cause or another; he talked about about getting things done for Canadians.

In these last few weeks, starting with this interview with the Toronto Star editorial board, Tom Mulcair has been the only one to take this challenge on.

Federally, the NDP is in a completely different moment than we’ve been in our long and honourable history. Yes, we have much to be proud of. We did make the Liberals, in different decades, enact some of the social democratic principals we’ve always fought for.

Now, we have a real opportunity to actually govern, and to get things done properly. And that’s largely because we had people vote for us last May who have never voted for us before.

But chances are, they don’t “speak” New Democrat. And I know, with his experience, his passion, and his charisma, Tom can speak to them.

For the new voters who were inspired to give us their vote for the first time, this leadership contest isn’t about our “roots,” it’s about our promise to be a different kind of party, and to listen to them. It’s not our traditions, but how we plan to grow with the new mandate we’ve been given, that will keep them engaged.

Mulcair is the only one who has clearly said (again, in my words): this win has not only changed the country, but if we really want to form a government, it should and must also, to a certain extent, change the NDP. I agree, and I believe if we are really serious about taking the Liberals out of the equation, and moving towards a different political reality, we should listen to him.

To have a chance to hold onto the seats in Quebec, we need a leader who is comfortably, not just functionally, bilingual. It also means we need someone who is comfortably, not just functionally, able to speak to a much broader segment of the voting population than the federal NDP has traditionally spoken to, or tried to speak for.

Tom Mulcair has shown, through the debates and his continued positive campaign, that he is the one best able to attract previously reliable Liberal voters that identify themselves in the centre or a shade left of centre. He is also committed to making sure we continue Layton’s quest to speak to millions of 'independent' Canadians with no particular political brand loyalty (many of whom are 35 or younger). 

The next leader of the NDP should be the one that most persuasively articulates a credible path to victory over the Tories. Full stop. Everything else is secondary. Taking that path means we will need to talk to millions more people who aren’t finding this leadership race accessible, and are still waiting for someone to talk to them the way that Layton did.

I believe Tom Mulcair is the man who can take us there. And I’m happy to endorse him to be our next federal leader.

Moving on...

Most New Democrats I talk to have been pleased with the party under Jack Layton. They never complained about feeling squeezed or pushed to the right. And yet we moderated our stance on Israel Palestine, removed the quota for affiliated members, and abandoned all plans for nationalizing industry. The enthusiasm didn't drop off. We promised to cut taxes for some (small) corporations, dropped plans to withdraw from NATO, and are now only promising to tweak trade instead of pulling out of NAFTA. Still, New Democrats were ecstatic to win big this recent election, aside from a little concern about Harper. (Understatement.)

I know that doesn't describe *all* New Democrats. I'm sure some people stopped voting NDP along the way, and I'm sure there is a faction who believes that Jack Layton was some kind of Judas. But when Brian "Romanow" Topp and Tom "Bring the Center to Us" Mulcair are the frontrunners, it might indicate that most NDP members are comfortable with the direction we've been going.

Under Jack Layton the NDP became a pro-military/war party.

Now that is fascinating. Côte ran in 2006 (pre-Mulcair) in the semi-rural Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, where he got 6.8% of the vote in the Quebec City Conservative sweep, when a hay farmer named Jacques Gourde got double the vote of the incumbent Bloc MP. Now, 6.8% may not sound like much, but in the other Quebec City ridings we got 6.2%, 5.7%, 4.6%, and 3.9%, although Denis Blanchette (now an MP) did get 9.1% in Louis-Hébert against another "accidental Tory" and we did get 9.2% in Québec and 8.0% in Beauport—Limoilou. Then in 2008 in the same semi-rural riding Côte (President of the Parents Committee of the Capital School Board from 2005 to 2007) got 13.2%, the best in the region, compared with 13.1% for Anne-Marie Day (now an MP) in urban Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, 12.2% in Beauport—Limoilou, 10.5% for Alexandrine Latendresse (now an MP), 9.3% for Denis Blanchette, 7.7% for Jonathan Tremblay (now an MP) and 12.7%, 11.8%, and 10.8% in the others. Côte's run was impressive enough that, in 2011, he got the nomination in Beauport—Limoilou where he was considered the leading NDP candidate in the region and got a seat in the shadow cabinet as Quebec City's representative.

A catch.

In Peterborough Wednesday night I was chatting with Brian at one point, and the fact that I had been a delegate at the founding convention in 1961 (at age 18) came up. I innocently asked him if he had been at the founding convention. He replied that, having been one year old at the time, that would have been difficult. I said "not at all; when one woman pinned her delegate's badge on her infant in his babyseat we got a front page photo in the Toronto Star under the heading "Dozing Delegate." Are you sure you've been in the party long enough to seek to lead it?" He laughed. But I doubt he'll stop using the line.

Umm, I took that as a joke.

And this is sort of my point. It's the NDP. It's not the vanguard of the proletariat. It might suck the NDP took a position on an airstrike 13 years ago. But that's the party we have. And in the grand scheme of things, that airstrike means nothing to me as a Canadian compared to childcare, or a federal minimum wage, or climate change. Even just on foreign policy, it means nothing to me compared to the 10+ year quagmire in Afghanistan, or the 8+ year quagmire in Iraq.

I still support the NDP. Enthusiastically. And for the people who are worried we're about to become a "pro war pro imperialist" party, I'm afraid you'll never be satisfied, because we're already there.

Thats the reason: maybe it will have some effect this time. Pretty simple. And comparatively trivial.

In itself, it isnt going to go anywhere. Not even close. But they are not going to pass up a chance to add another stone to the pile.

 

I guess you missed the NDP support of an illegal bombing campaign against Libya this spring.

Or the NDP supporting the Canadian troops (look for their press release for each dead Canadian soldier) in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last decade.

We had troops in Iraq?

I agree; I think Sara has said more clearly and succinctly what many of us have been wanting to say.  If you like it, then "share" it on facebook:

Sara Adi Kreindler: Why I support Thomas Mulcair