babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.
Support rabble | Advertise with us | Contact our staff | About rabble | Log-in or Register for a new account | Corrections | Privacy policy | Newsfeeds | Mailing lists
rabble: Features | Columnists | In Cahoots | Blogs | Books | Photos | What's Up | Polls
babble: Forum Topics | Active Topics
The rpn: About the RPN | Become a podcaster
rabbleTV: Program Guide | Features | Indie Inside | Best of the net
Copyright © 2001-2013 the authors
Syndicate
I liked his scrappy, go negative campaign. It was rough and tough.
Yes. I think Olivia definitely gave me that impression. Although she was quite cautious and restrained in her signals.
I didnt want to spoil the pun...
[Lordy. Only 2 minutes since that post, and there are 4 in between.]
But I think its very likely Brian isnt interested in the backrooms any more. Occasional advice if people want it, sure. But maybe no active role until he can get elected.
A whole lot of New Democrats would agree with the approach taken by Cullen on that.
LOL
Cullen supporter just totally sewers Mulcair as "not a relationship builder, and someone that wanted Libby Davies kicked out of the party".
Are we seriously eating our young so that Brian Topp can get to 37% of the vote?
Well Brian may have to wait until the next federal election to get a nomination. In the meantime he could manage Adrain Dix's campaign to become BC premier next year.
Or maybe people are seriously worried about Mulcair's track record. As much as you'd like to wish it away, it clearly has resonance with party members and people on the left. It's a fact. The question is: will Mulcair prove them right or not?
Oh my god, voting isnt planned to end until 8:00 Eastern.
That means finishing 9:00, if we're lucky.
Cullen was forthright earlier in complimenting other candidates who did not endorse any other candidate when no longer on the ballot. Peggy Nash explained why this is the best policy in her interview on CPAC. I've not been a big fan of Peggy in the past but she did impress me during the convention. Actually, I was impressed by all the candidates except Topp. I knew him many years ago when I lived in Saskatchewan. I think he is a far better strategist than a politician.
Our household was split in the vote (2 for Cullen - he is a fellow northerner - 1 for Nikki Ashton - as close to a Saskatchewan candidate as we had - and 1 for Thomas Mulclair. Broadbent's remarks against Mulclair (which we definitely considered personal in this house) led to Topp being ranked behind Saganash on all our ballots.
I had Romeo 3rd.
I agree that Topp could have run a much better campaign. I have the feeling that he thought he was the underdog, so he'd go out blazing and then move his support to the progressive candidate most able to beat Mulcair. I think before the second ballot results were in, he said something about how he would support Nash as his second choice if he had to drop off, didn't he?
Topp can't win this round. I don't blame him for not conceding immediately before seeing which way support would break from the Cullen camp, since he would probably always would have wondered whether a miracle could have happened and 90% of Cullen's supporters moved to him.
But at this point, I think Topp should probably just concede, and I'm betting that he's considering it now. And that has nothing to do with the fact that I'm getting hungry and would really like to get going to El Sol. ;)
Then it is up to all of us to help him prove them wrong. He obviously needs to make inroads into the left wing elements of the party to achieve success. Perhaps Topp can help him with this mission as well.
You can watch newsworld here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/live/2012/03/ndp-leadership-convention.html
Michelle wrote:
Or it could just as easily mean that they don't want to be on the wrong side of the new leader. Who knows what it means? I'm saying it's basically meaningless because everyone in the room knows who's going to win.
Topp supporters, whether you like or not, this is where the party is. If your conspiracy theory that Mulcair will try to transform the party in Liberal2 does occur, the caucus, you and the membership will resist it. The membership are not sheep. They did not obey the establishment and vote for Topp. They will not go where they do not want to go if Mulcair goes off track. Personally, I find this conspiracy theory hilarious if it were not so sad. Has it occurred to you that this vote suggests your candidate's views are not necessarily those of the majority of the party?
Maybe Topp's campaign just robo-called the 65,000 New Democrats who didn't cast a vote to say they can now log on to their computers with their pin# and decide the leadership race? That would be the ultimate hail mary.
or http://watch.ctv.ca/news/powerplay#clip643567
im flipping between the two, looking for people i know.
I'm not a Topp supporter. I know some of you Mulcair supporters figure that anyone who doesn't like him must be a Topp supporter, but it just ain't so.
[Edited to add "some of" in front of "you Mulcair supporters"] :)
Hmmmmmm. Looks like the most vocally pro-apartheid of the bunch has basically won.
That doesn't make logical sense to me. That's like saying that someone is going to break up with their girlfriend/boyfriend because of what their best friend said about another person.
Or am I the one who isn't logical? Meh, I should go back to streaming shows on tvlinks.
According to Cullen he was merely congratulating Topp on his campaign, and the nice words he said about Topp applied to Mulcair as well. Even if Mulcair were closer to 50%, I'm not sure it would be respectful of the members who have voted or are voting to pull out now. Although Topp really didn't need to repeat the two Liberal parties line. Mulcair needs to reach out to Topp, even if he isn't as graceful in defeat as some of us would like (assuming the fourth ballot goes as most of us expect).
Thank you SO MUCH. Gawd. Alexa McDonough endorses Mulcair, and CPAC has a talking head interviewing some other talking head for hours on end.
Hmm. Right now I'm getting news. Is this just top-of-the-hour headline news, or is there another online channel we should be watching for the convention?
The NDP has changed.
Mulcair represents the "New" in the New Democratic Party
And he represents the new membership. We are growing. We are absorbing Liberals, Greens, and others. Which we have to do to form government. But he does not have carte blanche to destroy what we have built, not that I think that is his plan. He just wants us to reach heights of success that even exceed our very successful last election results with Jack. And I think he can do it.
Two questions:
What was he when Romanow crushed workers' strikes? Conservative-Lite? Has he ever apologized for that?
What did he say when Mulcair attacked Libby? I'm asking because I can't recall.
Final question: what is the exact difference between these two? And I don't mean in campaign platforms.
it's dismaying that topp continued his attacks on mulcair, seems like zombie-ism at this point, but i guess there's still the mathematical possibility of a topp victory, if the right combination of voters tunes out/tunes in/moves over. so why not go for it?
i have the feeling that topp will be taking a long vacation when this is all over, media black-out, and that he'll probably not be resuming his presidency of the party, in the interests of party unity.
The thing I don't get is why Topp gets a complete pass on all of his middle of the road, mostly unprogressive pass. This Topp = progressive Mulcair = neo-liberal is total falsehood. The only differnce is Mulcair is honest, agree with him or not. Topp on the other hand has been deeply cyncial about using people's concerns about the drift to power. That eliminates him for me now that is has come down to that.
Disappointed that my vote for Saganash on the first ballot wasn't reported by the way.
In which case, I've got reason to be even more afraid and disillusioned by Mulcair's victory than I already am....
Well here it is.
1st round, voted for Ashton.
2nd round, voted for Cullen. (Sorry Peggy. Wish you gained more traction.)
3rd round, voted for Topp. (Sorry Nathan, the writing was on the wall.)
4th round. Just voted for Mulcair. And unity.
I don't agree with all of Mulcair's policy positions. But he's a New Democrat. He IS a strong candidate by many measures. He'll make a great Prime Minister. And I want him to be strong carrying our banner.
But he can count on me and a lot of other members to make the banner he carries. A banner that SHOULD include a tax increase on the wealthy, anti-scab legislation, trade reform, and peace in the middle east.
Unity, not conformity :)
In our house, we don't like people saying nasty things about NDP candidates. We believed that Broadbent's remarks about Mulclair were out of line. We thought Topp should have distanced himself from those remarks. When he did not, he lost our votes in this leadership contest.
In future, if I live in a riding where Topp is the NDP candidate in a general election, he will get my vote. If he is running for a position in the NDP, I will probably vote for whomever is running against him.