jjuares wrote:
I am also getting very tired of the tribalism of the NDP. There is a historical opportunity here. I am sorry but the canddidate who has the best shot of beating Harper is going to be near or at the top of my list. For me that is Mulcair.
socialdemocraticmiddle wrote:
And as a Torontonian, I'll tell you that *I'm* disappointed in the lack of diversity in the NDP here. I have a lot of friends who work with racialized youth and other poor/marginalized/anti-racist groups. But if you ask them about politics, a lot of the stakeholders in these communities are either non-political, or Liberal. And if you ask them why they support the Liberals over the NDP, they can't tell you why exactly. They sympathize with us, but they never really connect to us. We just hope our message delivers itself, and our organization remains largely anglo-protestant.
I grew up in Lanark county in Ontario, where when given money to market their communities in order to attract industry in the 1960s, they put out a brochure that said one of the reasons firms should locate there was that the region was 80% hard-working Anglo-Saxon Protestant stock (most of the remaining 20% being heathen Irish Catholic like me at the time), not even realizing how this would be seen by others. I am not saying the NDP purists are racists but their strident claims for lifelong socialist purity can be seen as alienating to others thinking of joining the party. I have seen it happen. However, I have to admit that as people join they do have an impact on the party's value system, just as marrying someone is going to have some affect on each partner's values if the marriage is to survive. Jack and Tom realized that by changing how the NDP spoke to Quebec it had the potential to grow the party without betraying its principles. There are other groups we can reach who have not previously voted for us without betraying our principles. That is why I am voting for Mulcair.