I have no doubt at all that Nash can be a competent leader - but can the party be elected government in 2015 under her leadership? That for me is the question. Personally, I think the party has a better chance of being elected to government under Mulcair - in my opinion, he's probably the best positioned to keep and even improve seat count in Quebec, and do reasonably well in the rest of Canada. I hope we see some huge polls soon from the general population as to which candidate the electorate thinks is the best leader to lead the NDP to victory in 2015.
When so many of the candidates are unknown it's hard to trust polls, especially of the general public. Mulcair has by far the most name recognition, though many Canadians don't know much about him and would probably never recognize his picture, and will likely lead in all polls simply on name recognition.
I've also decided that I find Peggy Nash too boring. As well while I don't really want to bring up the age thing again I do feel that she doesn't have a youthful vibe in a way some her age do, like Jack did. Jack was able to connect with youth, more so then other leader, but I can't imagine many youth will be drawn to her.