NDP Leadership - Round 9

robbie_dee wrote:

The [url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/brian-topp-... and Broadbent endorsements[/url] are big news and will make me take a second look at Topp. I'd been leaning towards Mulcair before, although I'd still like to see who else is in the field.

My Thoughts exactly... i am not a fan that Topp has zero elected political experience, and am still leaning towards Tom until i see who else, and what they are proposing.

Anyone have an idea who might endorse Tom?

Wilf Day wrote:

Hard to see Peggy Nash running against Topp after Ed's endorsement.

I hope Peter Julian and Megan Leslie run, otherwise the field could look a bit sparse.

Why, Wilf?

I respect Ed but he's not god.

I think a lot of people will base their vote on who they think will be the best leader and Prime Minister in waiting... not who else may think so.

Ed backed Jack. Turned out well. Ed wanted Audrey in 1989 as well. That didn't work out so well.

Howard wrote:

I assume he will be using briantopp.ca (it looks like it is on the verge of going live) which was only registered May 23, 2011. In other words, after the NDP's landslide in Québec and before Topp ran for party president.

The convention had been scheduled for months. Peggy Nash was not going to continue as Party President if she won her seat. She did on May 2. Immediately thereafter, and well before May 23, people would have been looking for someone to take on that job, and Brian agreed. Registering briantopp.ca was such an obvious move to any experienced political activist I'm surprised he hadn't done so earlier.

A Topp versus Mulcair race is sure to really excite the public.  

Does anybody have any idea what policy areas they might highlight to differentiate themselves from one another?  Or does that matter?

Wilf Day wrote:

Hard to see Peggy Nash running against Topp after Ed's endorsement.

I hope Peter Julian and Megan Leslie run, otherwise the field could look a bit sparse.

I certainly hope Nash's candidacy is not impacted by this one whit. Everyone loves Broadbent, hell I love Broadbent but he is not some kind of soothsayer/godlike presence. If that's the case let's cancel the convention and let Ed choose.

I am supporting Mulcair but I want to see a good race with different ideas and personalities challenging each other. One of the things that has been so satisfying thus far is the quality of the names bandied about. Robert Chisholm is someone I have deeply admired and worked for in the past; Peter Julian I have known for many years and think the world of him, and think he'd make a terrific leader; Megan Leslie is one of the most inspiring people in politics right now, and I'm proud as hell to have her as my MP; what I know of Romeo Saganash is nothing but terrific; while many have knocked Paul Dewar, he's been a pretty solid MP; and Peggy Nash would be my second choice for leader, she remains one of the most impressive people in the House of Commons and her return to the house was one of the highlights of the election. She would make an amazing leader. The idea that she or anyone else on the list would decide not to run because of Ed's latest laying on of hands is horrifying. 

Topp seems to be benefitting from sitting at the cool kids' table. He's the ultimate insider guy and insiders are drawn to insiders. That said I don't think party leader is an entry-level job. I'm disappointed by how much the process has felt like some folks are gaming the system. The Ed endorsement smacks of that but hey, he's a person and people will make their choices for whatever their reasons. I'm leaning another way for my own reasons. 

Charles wrote:

I am supporting Mulcair but I want to see a good race with different ideas and personalities challenging each other.

Topp seems to be benefitting from sitting at the cool kids' table. He's the ultimate insider guy and insiders are drawn to insiders. That said I don't think party leader is an entry-level job. I'm disappointed by how much the process has felt like some folks are gaming the system. The Ed endorsement smacks of that but hey, he's a person and people will make their choices for whatever their reasons. I'm leaning another way for my own reasons. 

Agreed. Topp has the brains, the passion and is a brilliant strategist, along with being bilingual, but he has zero electoral experience, has never run for any public office, nor has he held any office. He doesn't strike me as particularly charismatic (but rather quite bland), nor as an electrifying speaker. He will be characterized as an opportunistic insider elitist with the media, Conservatives and Liberals having a field day. I am really looking forward to see who else jumps into the leadership race, but meanwhile, the media and Conservatives seem to really fear Mulcair, with the media hell bent on smearing and attempting to destroy him. The media's disdain for Mulcair is very similar to their treatment of Layton when he ran for the leadership, and perhaps view him as a genuine threat who could put the NDP over the top in 2015.   

I agree and hear what you're saying, but still, the media certainly have the knives out for Mulcair, moreso (so far) than Davies, Julian, Nash, Topp, Dewar, Boivon etc. They're scared.

If I was a Mulcair supporter I would love the story that the right wing fears my candidate the most.  Makes for another good reason to support him.  HMMM

Howard wrote:

I don't support Topp, but before I get too caught up in the reasons why I don't support Topp, I'll say a few nice things: Topp has wonderful French, he is very intelligent, he has been committed to the NDP, and he ran a good leadership launch. Don't like him, though.

Agreed.

My reservations aside, he is a quality candidate, and I'll be glad to hear more from him during the campaign.

I've always perceived Topp to be the establishment's choice, so Broadbent's presence didn't surprise me. It was Boivin's presence that did.

Here's to a strong field and a debate of ideas.

flight from kamakura wrote:

he sounds very earnest, it'll be interesting to con contrast with mulcair whenever he announces http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/1221258968/ID=2126660505

"We don't have to become Liberals to win. We don't have to abandon the foundations, the values, the heart and soul of our party to win."

High five for Topp on that one.

I just had a daydream/flash of Topp being acclaimed because after his entry was backed by Broadbent and Boivin no one else wanted to enter the race.

Caissa wrote:

 And we know, Boom Boom, that the Socialist Caucus will be putting forth a candidate. Unless of course they choose to endorse Topp.  Nah, hell hasn't frozen over yet. 

flight from kamakura wrote:

topp's french is indeed quite good.  i don't at all blame him for bringing in ed and francoise, it makes the entire event that much more of a news story, and gives credence to his role as another 'frontrunner'.  while i'm not 100% convinced on mulcair, i'm still strongly leaning his way, and nothing topp said really changes that.  his announcement speech today was compelling, but the lack of parliamentary experience just eliminates him from even basic consideration at this juncture, when we have a muclair who is comes off like being genetically-engineered to be the perfect left parliamentarian.  still, i look forward to the debate.

he sounds very earnest, it'll be interesting to con contrast with mulcair whenever he announces http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/1221258968/ID=2126660505

Good point flight from kamakura, Topp's entry will force Mulcair to raise his game. That is not a bad thing.

Wilf Day wrote:

Draft Niki Ashton:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Draft-Niki-Ashton-for-Prime-Minister-aka-Next-NDP-Leader/132786013484280?sk=wall

Help encourage Nathan Cullen to seek the Federal NDP Leadership:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/111565065614031/[/quote]

 

Thanks Wilf. I agree with supporting as many MPs and others to run for the leadership so that we may have many choices of diverse and qualified people to chose from. Anyone know of any other leadership draft campaigns/sites?

 

 

Trivia question: Who was the last candidate that Francoise Boivin endorsed at a leadership convention?

Stockholm wrote:

Yes, but so what? Winning the NDP leadership is largely about getting the votes of people who are CURRENT card-carrying NDP members - very few of those people are in Quebec right now and most of the current membership are people who know who Ed Broadbent is and will give a lot of weight to his opinion. Topp has lots of time to attract votes from new members in Quebec - right now he needs to establish his bona fides as a top tier contender who is backed by "opinion leaders" in the NDP.

And even current card-carrying New Democrats have changed a lot especially in the last 8 years. Many signed up under Jack Layton's leadership... not Ed's or the two leaders before Jack and after Ed.

Not saying people don't know who Ed is. Just saying it's not as big as it would be 8 years ago when the party was on life support... or 22 years ago when he was leader.

during that news conference, boivin said that in just the past 2 weeks, without any campaign whatever, memberships in her riding were up 400%.  especially if mulcair repliques with a massive show of caucus support, and gets the new mps onto the task, quebec will come in from the cold. at any rate, because of recent leadership races, the majority of ndpers are now in the provinces west of ontario, and the membership signup pickings there will be much slimmer than in quebec and urban ontario, which could be decisive.

just in terms of strategy, i do worry that if mulcair does manage to replique to topp's announcement with massive caucus support at the outset (like 40+ members), many potentially interesting regional candidates could elect not to run.  a romeo saganash would be a great candidate, with no chance of organizing the sort of campaign to bring the vote home, but the potential to be a true inspiration nonetheless.  another question i have is the unions.  there can be no doubt that, at the outset, topp would have the inside track with many of them, but i'd guess that much of the leadership there would want to sit back for a while to see how it all develops.  there's no real incentive for them to try to take mulcair out if he's looking like he'll win it all, they want a winner as much as we do, but being union folks, they'll also want to make sure their interests are protected.  so in that context, it looks like we have topp with jack's team, a few mps and party figures, a host of good media contacts, a lot of party connections and favors he can call in, and potentially some robust union support.  against that, we have mulcair with an extremely high profile in quebec, a potentially massive level of caucus support (not just quebec, but following some recent comments by mps from all parts of the country, it could be very deep, indeed), a much more aggressive and full-throated personal style, political skills and cunning at least rivaling those of topp, plus the intangible that the guy is a winner, everything about him exudes it.  another intangible, every time i hear pat martin talk about it at length, he has mulcair's back, and who would want to mess with pat martin?  so it's the best of the backroom versus the best of the frontbench.  not much space for other candidates, really much more of a question of what sort of approach we want to leadership.

another note on the timing: this was obviously done to influence the flow of conversation at the caucus meeting in quebec city, a clear move to attempt to forestall any rush to mulcair and probably also to instill a sense of momentum behind calls that topp and his subordinates will make on his behalf over the next days.  man, i love leadership races.  this is going to be amazing.

Northern Shoveler wrote:

Krago wrote:

Trivia question: Who was the last candidate that Francoise Boivin endorsed at a leadership convention?

I gave her the benefit of the doubt and picked Dion but was wrong she liked Iggy. So she didn't back the left horse winner in that leadership election.  Iggy never really won a leadership race he just picked up the crown when Dion was knifed in the back.  

Who do you think was holding the knife?

^ Jack Layton was also a strong proponent of the coalition. So what. A Liberal-NDP coalition government, where we have some say, is a lot better than Harper.

OnTheLeft wrote:

^ Jack Layton was also a strong proponent of the coalition. So what. A Liberal-NDP coalition government, where we have some say, is a lot better than Harper.

Not everything Jack Layton did was perfect. (gasp!)  I thought that was one of Layton's worst mistakes, and said so at the time and I will say it now.   It. Was. A. Dumb. Idea. 

No, a coalition would have been worse than Harper, because the Liberals would have dragged the NDP along with it while it did Harper like things.

And, at the next election we'd be sitting with either Harper or Iggy as P.M., and the NDP at 25 seats as the distant third party. 

Mulcair leads Topp 14 to 3 with many undecided:

A Leger poll conducted for QMI Agency indicates 51% of Canadians polled have no idea who could best lead the New Democrats.

Out of a list of five names, the two top choices - with 14% each - were NDP deputy leader Thomas Mulcair and Layton's widow, New Democrat MP Olivia Chow.

Mulcair, who is considering a run at the leadership, did better in his home province, where 46% of respondents picked the Quebec MP as top choice.

Chow, meanwhile, recently said she won't run and is committed to staying neutral during the race.

Party president Brian Topp and interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel tied at 3% support

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/09/12/ndp-leader-race-still-wide-open-poll

Lets not attack boivin for her past when we don't know if she's changed or that if she's wisened, she may have crossed the ideological desert as many politicians have done throughout history, but I'm glad that she's in the NDP. S

Also attacking the hst, which is a regressive tax on consumers, is a good thing. You have to take into consideration that there is a rural Canada that doesn't have the awesome public transit we have in the south. There are no alternatives and pushes for a green energy economy at the moment from sir harpalot. I don't think that people would switch to greener transportation/alternatives when there are no incentives and true oppertunities to do so and instead would feel angry if they were getting more taxes. The reality of the enviromental catastrophe that we've created by dumping whatever we felt like into the atmosphere will probably be resolved when we start realize we can just creatively dump other things into the atmosphere(Geoengineering, which should be discussed ALOT more)  Anyways I'm getting off topic and I'm running out of liquor,  the focus should be on progressive taxation.

I'd personally wait for a debate or two until I decide who I will vote for.

The big, maybe tactless but everybody's-thinking-about-it question: will he be running in Toronto-Danforth?

I don't care about Boivin's prior history.

I remember Pauline Jewett, who was elected to Parliament as an Ontario Liberal in 1963, lost in 1965, quit the Liberals after the War Measures Act was implimented, and became an NDP MP from 1979 to 1988 in New Westminister-Burnaby.  She was one of the best MPs during the years of the Mulroney landslide.  She was an inspiration to the female candidates who won seats in the NDP's previous best showing in 1988 in B.C. (Dawn Black, Joy Langdon, Lynn Hunter), just like Boivin was to some of the Quebec female candidates in 2011. 

And as for Topp running in Toronto-Danforth, the by-election will have to be called before the Leadership Convention takes place, so Harper could announce a date before March 24th, to create a little diversion from the Convention.