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assuming the ndp is cooking, vanier will be a top-tier ndp target and topp would be a great candidate for seat. i just meant that it would be nice to have him in parliament sooner (as in right away) rather than later.
I doubt anyone who was a boneheaded enough to ever vote for Harper would ever vote NDP, although as Harper has proven, attacking opposing politicians can pay off. There's an old folk story how trying to please everyone ends up pleasing noone. Some people just hold opposing viewpoints and interests, and the NDP better remember that or end up like the Liberals. Luckily the majority who oppose what Harper represents, already share most of the NDP's values and concerns.
Candidates are being questioned by CBC afterwards... I couldn't hear Dewar; Ashton is really hyper... still dumping on Mulcair. CBC really put Ashton on the spot about Mulcair, about won the debate, who her second choice would be.
Both Ashton and Cullen grilled on the 'localization' thing - I missed that part - what was it about???
Nathan defends his handling of Singh - he really expected an apology to Topp.
He'll win himself a seat, in good time.
I disagree with that - I found him charming, and funny at times. I also found his responses coherent which is important - it means people understand what he is saying when he speaks.
It is interesting that more than a few people have talked about Topp's growth in his presentation skills. I haven't really noticed the growth but then again I always thought his communication skills were "alright" not great but alright. He is not my first choice but I may rank him second or third
I wouldn't go by Twitter feeds. Mulcair was ok, he does project a certain gravitas, but as usual he said very little. Ashton looked a little scripted and self conscious at first but improved as it progressed. I thought Nash has improved from earlier debates. I like the way she can project some warmth along with her obvious strength. Cullen once again displayed his superior oratorial ability, I may just go back to him as my number one choice. I think he could go over well in Quebec too.
If Tom does win, and I'm convinced now more than ever that he will win, he might well want to consider giving Niki and Nathan the 2 highest second positions in the party as they are our future.
I'm not a Topp supporter, but he did very well today. I stand by my assessment of Singh as the weakest tooday - by a mile.
Mulcair: "people were coming after us because they perceive our campaign is going well". Tom defends his campaign saying they're going forward, not backward - I understand how older NDPers take offense at that. Tom repeats that he understands why he's getting attacked - because his campaign is doing well.
Mulcair again compared Harper to the PQ - he believes it's okay to spend public money for his own political purposes - "and we know what we'll do about that".
With the exception of foreign policy, Ashton leaves me cold.
God save our gracious Singh.
Ask NDPers in the West about that one
Fortunately most NDPers want to win the next election, although there are a few that don't.
And NDPers are not going to defeat Harper with a slogan - agreed!
(on CBC)
Peggy just said the final ballot will be her and Mulcair.
Brian Topp just said Mulcair had been unclear ealier, but was clear today.
Topp believes Tom wants to move the party to the centre, and that's wrong.
Brian's post-debate comments are all attacking Mulcair.
Now he's attacking Cullen's co-operation proposal as disastrous potentially for the party.
Brian just said Miki Ashton is still his Number Two.
Not sure, but I heard at least a few candidates say that campaigns need to be allowed more freedom and resources to do their own thing, instead of just slapping their name on the federal message. It sounds good, but Topp raised a good objection to it.
Mulcair says he has a plan to set aside $3.38 million for local riding campaigns; I assume that means $10,000 for each riding to spend. Where does this come from? I can't find it anywhere on his website, nor can google find it.
No one is suggesting that we don't have a national platform, and that is a red herring that is being raised.
In the last election the NPD in Quebec localized the campaign, the results speak for themselves, that is why I agree with Tom and disagree with Brian on this issue.
Good debate, overall. Final estimations of the candidates:
Singh is absolutely awful. Really, astonishingly bad. From his "as a pharmacist" line repetition, his rude refusal to apologize to Topp (and also the evident tension between him and Cullen), to his ending "God bless Canada". He is the worst candidate I could possibly imagine.
Dewar was only marginally better than Singh - he is stiff, awkward, forced, flubs his lines, repeats other people's questions, and can't speak French. He would be an absolute disaster as leader.
Ashton remains as robotic as ever - she brought up "new politics" 4 times that I counted, as well as repeating her strange "Jack Layton generation" line. She has endless talking points memorized and rarely sounds like she's engaged in an actual discussion. Maybe in the future she will be able to improve to the level where she could be considered leadership material, but she's certainly not there yet. I give her a bonus point, however, for talking over Singh.
Topp was certainly better today than he has been for most of the campaign. That said, his attacks on Mulcair seemed to fall flat, and I didn't like that Topp didn't look at Mulcair while asking him a question, even though they were standing next to each other. I still think he's a poor public speaker, and his humour comes across flatly, or not at all. I can't see what the establishment sees in him.
Mulcair was good, but he is still far too reliant on reading his prepared opening and closing statements - has he rehearsed them at all? He was vague at times, and a bit "fake" sounding at times as well. He was also rather ineffective today against the questioning from Nash - where is his fire??? He is clearly not aiming at improving his standing with any dramatic moves - he's trying to hold his ground. Not sure if that was the right approach for the last debate.
Nash gave a good performance today, better than the last couple debates, I think. Came across as genuine, and was strong in her questioning of Mulcair. She did have an odd moment talking about salmon - not sure what that was about; I think she missed telling us the point of her own story. But a good day for her, and I think she has strengthened her position today.
Cullen is the best speaker of the bunch. He connects with the pubilc, again showed his humour, his ability to cut through to the heart of the matter, and shows a lot of passion and strength when needed, and on important matters. His questioning of Singh was sharp, and his evident distaste for Singh's answer was obvious. Cullen made several good points, including lowering the voting age to 16. He was strong and appealing under questioning. Definitely my favorite candidate, and I think today's debate was a good one for solidifiying and probably greatly expanding his support.
Topp made a good point about Cullen's plan in the Q and A. How do you co-operate locally with Liberals and run against them nationally?
I live in the West, and most of the old Reform-NDP switches have already taken place.
Brian Topp is trying to cast Mulcair as a "centrist" in contrast to the "progressive left" and then his examples of the "progressive left" are the British Labour Party and Barack Obama. He mentioned Obama during the debate and again in the post-debate press conference. If that is Topp's idea of "progressive left", then he should have absolutely no problem with Mulcair. His discourse makes no sense.
Excellent assessment R E Wood and thank you for that.
Martin Singh did not go to the CBC podium to answer reporter's questions, although all the others did so. I wonder if he's upset with Cullen?
what's the link to the CBC interview?
I also had a robo-call NDP leadership poll today that annoyed me - it came right in the middle of the debate!
Two questions - Who is your #1 choice (I answered Cullen), and Who is your #2 choice (I hit a random number - frankly, if they're going to interrupt the leadership debate, they deserve to have skewed polling numbers!)
And more than a little ironic that the point he made was stolen from none other than...Martin Singh!
I was watching it live on CBC NewsWorld on satellite TV.
Agreed. Another who raised her game today was Peggy.
Wasn't it pretty blatant how Topp kept saying "I'm trying to find a difference with Peggy" and then handed her another softball?
Topp was coming across as the unity candidate, wasn't he? Nice to everyone.
Mulcair was being a classic front-runner, taking no chances, no spontaneity, no fire, lots of prepared text. No mistakes. He's afraid of making mistakes?