Questions for Brian Topp 2

The slashes to Saskatchewan healthcare occured in '94, a year after Topp's arrival. A year later the NDP held government but dropped 13 seats, and then a further 13 in '99. Topp departed in 2000. If I'm not mistaken, Calvert didn't win more seats in 2003, he won precisely one more.

I simply don't understand Topp's boasting about such a record.

No, I don't think that people consider the "economic picture" when they walk down memory lane. I think about the Rae govt in Ontario for example and know that in the last year they finally balanced the budget and righted the books but you wouldn't know that by how the MSM portrays that govt.

In fact, the NDP is a good news story - the first govt out of deficit before any other govt in Canada. I have sat on a school Bd and so yeah, I've made decisions about the bucks.

janfromthebruce wrote:

In fact, the NDP is a good news story - the first govt out of deficit before any other govt in Canada.

The provincial NDPs are supposed to eat other's blunders and crap wonders under the neoliberal financial regime of things. And if they don't do it over the course of one four-year term in the middle of a Mulroney-induced nation wide recesion in the 1990s, then what good are they, really? 

ottawaobserver wrote:

Do you understand anything about the financial situation the Devine government left that province in?

Of course. I also understand Topp's and Romanow's remedy for it was indistinguishable from any fiscal conservative, by gutting services and breaking faith with public sector workers. Choosing this path, IMO, cost the Saskatchewan NDP not only power but its very reason for existence (selecting Calvert and Lingenfelter were the nails in the coffin Romanow built), and why our last Saskatchwan MPs were elected in 2000.

So, again: why is this a model we should want to emulate?

I have been politically active my entire adult life - indeed, for some time before that, too.  Not radical roots - my father was a "red Tory," my aunt a deeply involved Liberal, and my mother always voted, but would never tell us for whom.  (I have my suspicions ...). They all were also involved outside of electoral politics - union members, community organizers, social worker, John Howard society volunteer, my mom was an environmentalist before that was a thing to be, in a mining town.

I've never been a member of a political party, but I have voted in every election - school, cooperative, municipal, provincial, federal - I've been eligible for, and I've worked on a couple of campaigns.  I've felt best about it when I could vote for someone like Libby Davies.

I am involved to varying degrees in campaigns around the environment, Palestinian human rights, the antiwar movement, women's rights, First Nations treaty and human rights, my kid's school's PAC, cooperative housing and a national housing strategy.

I work in healthcare, raise two children with my husband, live in a co-op, care about my neighbours, am a Canucks fan. All this is to say I'm a pretty ordinary Canadian, I think.

In 2015 I will be joining the 40 percent who do not or no longer vote.  I will walk to the polling station with my kids and explain to them that I believe I say more to power by not voting.  Politics is not a game - it's not baseball, not poker, not a boxing match - it's how we choose to organize ourselves to take care of each other.  And we are really coming to it.

I'm not Pollyanna, i'm not naive, and this isn't a lob - it's not about moving the NDP to the centre.  I'm sure you're a decent human being, but I wouldn't vote for you, either.  And I don't think it bothers any of the leadership candidates too much to lose me as a voter.

Am I wrong?

I don't believe I asked you, FKK.  And as someone who, as you wrote, would gladly sign on to the Iraq war if the US would just leave the arctic alone (a paraphrase, I admit), I don't give a fuck what you think.  In fact, you are just about the perfect example of everything I despise about "politics."

I rewrote this comment because it would have involved alot of personal attacks and cussing. Let me sum it up in bullet form so I can save a bannable comment for later.

• You post on internetz, you hear opinions of internetz
• Mandatory Voting - You pay taxes, might as well take 5 minutes
• Still refuse? Pay a fine. Money goes into services. The voter wins. 
• I pay taxes for Harper's shit agenda -> it sucks -> I and others suffer because of a couple of "Threw It On the Ground" losers.
• I do not like when people involve their children in politics. Let them grow up as individuals to decide what they believe.
• You better watch that Threw It on the Ground video.

Another question for Topp now that I'm on this subject- What do you think about mandatory voting? Also geoengineering.

The Guardian newspaper is reporting that key Obama officials are increasingly convinced that sanctions will not deter Iran from pursuing its nuclear programme and believe the US will have no option but to launch an attack on Iran or watch Israel do it.

Assuming such a scenario is true, what is the strongest intervention/position the NDP can/should/will take with both allies to discourage or avert any such attack plans? What is your position on Iran and its nuclear programme?

Brian, could the NDP endorse a change in tax law to make political contributions to a federal political party a refundable rather than a non-refundable credit?  I ask because I gave up my job a while ago to go back to school, and thus I am living off of savings.  So, if I donate $100 to the federal NDP, it costs me the full $100, whereas if I donate to the provincial NDP (I live in Ontario), I get back a credit of 75%, and thus the donation costs me only $25.  This seems to disfavour those who are unemployed and living off of savings and also those on social assistance.  Admittedly, such a change would be a further cost to the government, but I feel it would be a justifiable cost to ensure equal opportunity to the political process for all. 

I suppose I could bring up a resolution myself at convention for this.  Could you describe (or direct us to the policy online) how members go about getting resolutions to the convention floor?

janfromthebruce wrote:

Those are good suggestions Mark. And good luck @ school.

Thanks Jan.

I agree that Mulcair will end up moving the party to the centre. I don't think its a question that he 'wants to.' Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. What we will GET if he were Leader will not be determined by Mulcair's abstract preferences. [This is going to be a question by the way.]

Your critics have a point Brian. Mulcair always says that he wants to move the centre to the NDP, NOT move us to the centre. So, here's your big chance to explain. Or you could forget about framing it is relation to what you have said about Mulcair, make your own case for the basic direction the party needs to go and with which we can win.

If the mods pick my question, I's suggest keeping it simple with just the 3 lines in the second paragraph.