The Manitoba NDP and provincial election 2011: strategy - future - futility?

105 posts / 0 new

Topic locked

Tue, 2011-09-06 02:23

ghoris

I'm sure the party will be putting resources into some if not all of those seats. I see James Kostuchuk is running again in Portage - hopefully that means there will be a push there. (Not sure if Faurschou would have been in cabinet - didn't Hugh's inner circle orchestrate a nomination challenge last time?)

While I still believe that the party needs to focus primarily on consolidating and defending its existing seats, I think strategically it also makes sense to put resources into seats where Tory incumbents are not running again and where the NDP has a decent shot at winning - if for no other reason than because it forces the Tories to go on the defensive in their incumbent seats rather than putting more resources into NDP targets. River East, Portage and Brandon West should all be definite targets. I'm not as optimistic about LDB - the Tories have won by increasingly large margins since Praznik's close call in 1999, but without the advantage of incumbency it might be more competitive.

Tue, 2011-09-06 03:47

#103

The Analyst The Analyst's picture

Aristotleded24 wrote:

A couple of developments I want to comment on:

In South Winnipeg, [url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2011/08/16/mb-ndp-norbert-r... NDP candidate has been barred from running for nomination.[/url] Apparently the excuse given by the Executive is that Mangat used to be a Liberal. Apparently Mangat supported Ashton over Selinger for the leadership, so some are speculating that this decision is payback.

Next we have the [url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2011/08/28/mb-conservative-... Platform,[/url] or as I like to call it, "A Beginner's Look At Bungling An Election That Was Yours To Win." Manitoba is currently in a deficit position, and the Economic Action Plan that the NDP rolled out and is currently implementing has the deficit eliminated by 2014. The PCs have been vocal in opposing the deficit measures and have previously insisted on balancing budgets year over year. Well, they suddenly went back on that platform plank, and said their plan will now take [i]four years longer[/i] to bring the province's books out of red ink. Apparently it's designed to quell fears that a PC government would implement severe cuts to social spending a-la Mike Harris. I've long been critical of this government campaigning against the former Filmon government in each election, but this PC platform tells me that those fears are resonating beyond NDP partisans.

Honestly, what a friggin clusterf*ck!

For months, Hugh McFadyen took a moralistic stance against deficit spending. Sure, given the weakness of the macroeconomy it was stupid policy, but he nailed it into the heads of Manitobans that the NDP were "spendthrift". Winnipeg's Trash Tabloid, the Winnipeg Sun, had column after column about the provincial deficit, transfer payments, evil bureaucrats, and other hot air from Tom Brodbeck. And now, the PCs are saying they really weren't serious about that whole "balance the budget in a year" proposal, but will wait several to do so? Longer than the NDP Government proposes to wait! WTF??!!!

While I'd agree that it's good policy given the high chance of a second dip in the world economy, it's bad politics and they certainly aren't going to keep that promise.

Tue, 2011-09-06 10:52

#104

lil.Tommy

Looks like the Campaign begins (ok in about an hour MAN time) with some good news for the NDP:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Selinger-has-some-of-countrys-highest-approval-ratings-129300143.html

Tue, 2011-09-06 11:24

#105

MegB

Continued here.

Pages

Topic locked