Is Tom Mulcair Withdrawing This Summer?

With the NDP slightly ahead of the Greens in the latest polling, do Canadians even care who leads the NDP?

Politically for the foreseeable future, the NDP look like a spent force. 

Quote:

He was absent from Obama speech, and Peter Julian had to fill in for him in the Obama receiving line.

If he skips:  "Tom Mulcair too busy washing his beard to attend Obama address to Parliament"

If he attends:  "Tom Mulcair dutifully stands at attention for War Criminal -- 'Ready, Aye, Ready' says right-wing NDP Leader"

Was Joe Cressey there? 

Let's just say, don't beat your rent money on it.

I expect the BC NDP will probably lose another 10 seats in 2017 because the majority of voters want jobs.

NorthReport wrote:

Let's just say, don't beat your rent money on it.

I expect the BC NDP will probably lose another 10 seats in 2017 because the majority of voters want jobs.

Hopefully a majour plank in the BC NDP's election platform will be increasing good jobs. I think that should be one of their top 3 election issues. Increasing affordability and reducing government corruption being the other two.

kropotkin1951 wrote:

I doubt if the electorate is going to buy the offer of a free LFG pony for everyone two elections in a row. 

Nobody believed the LNG thing first time around. I don't know why not believing it second time around would make any difference. Horgan at least doesn't have a record of falsifying documents to pack around like Adrian Dix, but I doubt you could elect an NDP government in BC if they were led by Jesus Christ, and the Liberals were caught eating babies at their barbecues.

He is probably doing what the executives of the party want. The NDP doesn't benefit from Mulcair's brand. I noticed everyone is piping down. No more Trudeau attacks from Ashton or Cullen. Could be they figured out what I have been saying. It was not benefiting the NDP or harming the Liberals to be full of perpetual outrage. I would bet that the todo over Trudeau backing into REB backfired and hurt the NDP because that was the turning point afterwhich the NDP has been relatively silent.

Mulcair is interim leader now, not leader. He lost the leadership review badly. This is the time for the NDP to withdraw and focus on the party's future. The old strategy that seemingly worked so well for Layton, of squeezing the Liberals out of the running to create a contest between the Conservatives and the NDP failed. The Liberal Party has never been stronger. The Liberals had policies left of the NDP while maintaining their credibility as business friendly and moderate. In the end it was the NDP that was squeezed out and left with no significant policy area to differenciate itself.

The good news is that this state of affairs strengthens the left wing of the party. The only way for the NDP to be relevant is if they properly oppose neoliberalism.

One exception to hanging back would be if the NDP would come out strong against CETA and TPP explaining why these deals are bad for all the countries involved not just Canada. Another would be opposing the pipelines based on threat to the immediate environment and the inevidable reduction of fossil fuel use which will render the pipelines far less lucrative.

I'm more doubtful of Ashton's suitability as a leader than I was because she has shown a worrying lack of political instinct. Cullen is too focused on winning above all else which ironically stands in the way of winning.

The NDP needs a Corbyn or a Sanders. Layton might have been the one. Sadly he is gone so the NDP must find a leader who can unite the party.

Mr. Magoo wrote:

I guess one can interpret this however one would like.

Another read would be that the Calgary Stampede is just a Texas-wannabe, big-hat, wild-west opportunity to euthanize another two or three horses.  By skipping it, Mulcair is saying "we have better things to concern ourselves with than who can ride fastest around some barrels or who can eat the most ribs in ten minutes".  Discuss.

Well, I think if Mulcair had made that statement, as you have put it, then we could say he was avoiding the Calgary Stampede on principle. So far as I know, he hasn't said anything about why he wasn't there. I suspect he just didn't want to deal with reporters asking him a bunch of dumb questions about his political future. 

Hazel McCallion wasn't at the Stampede. Maybe it should be shut down.

lagatta wrote:

I agree that not only jobs (with a green angle) but also affordable housing would be very important issues in BC.

It certainly should be but from my perch I see extreme alienation, brought on by endless neo-liberal regimes, in which even conceptualizing radical alternatives is beyond most people. Everywhere is individualistic "solutions" and survival mode.