NDP Leadership Race #111

This interview is worth listening to. For those interested in someone who can lead the party and become prime minister i suggest you take a few minutes to tune in.

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2012/02/28/ndp-leadership-hopeful-peggy-nash/

Hunky_Monkey wrote:

RevolutionPlease wrote:

If Mulcair will commit to run on PR in 2015 he has my support.

I guess Tom has your support then :)

Do you have any quoted sources?

No control whatsoever on the line-up of the show the day you do it. It would be nice if the Canadian media would give the U.S. a rest, but any minor figure seems important if they happen to be American it would seem. In the meantime, Canada goes under-reported.

DSloth wrote:

Well I'm pretty sure there's only one coming out tomorrow (Thomas Mulcair himself is his 41st MP) .

 

From what I can gather though it's a slightly bigger deal than the average endorsement, but many of the 20 remaining MPs would meet that qualification.

While Lou might include him I don't think Mulcair would include himself.

doofy wrote:

SDM:

I too wish we had proportional representation. Yet, here are the unpleasant facts:

--we are not going to get PR unless we win under the current system

--if we win under the current system, we won't want to change it (irrespective of Topp and Nash's promises right now). That's why no provincial NDP gov't ever bothered to introduce PR.

Running with PR as a major plank may help us considering the alternative may be another false Conservative majority. Also total number of seats is not the only reason for PR, it can also address regional disparities in seat numbers (Saskatchewan for example). Provincial NDP governments haven't run on a platform including PR and won yet. One of the grim jokes after the 2001 election in BC is that virtually all of the MLAs who opposed PR were defeated.

doofy wrote:

SDM:

I too wish we had proportional representation. Yet, here are the unpleasant facts:

--we are not going to get PR unless we win under the current system

--if we win under the current system, we won't want to change it (irrespective of Topp and Nash's promises right now). That's why no provincial NDP gov't ever bothered to introduce PR.

One important difference is that no provincial NDP party has won power with PR explicitly mentioned in their platform. If a federal NDP government reneged on PR, there would likely be a backlash that could cost  the party a lot of support and credibility.

NorthReport wrote:

This massive Conservative voter-fraud scandal is now going to create a lot of additional interest in the government-in-waiting leadership race.

"First-Past-The-Post is the ultimate voter suppression scheme; it suppresses half the votes by throwing them in the garbage can."

nicky wrote:

Fun with numbers:

http://www.punditsguide.ca/

 

This is all based of course on Dewars poll which is about two weeks out of date. Mulcairs poll was about 5% bettter for him WRT both first and second choice preferece.

Both polls predate the new membership totals and recent events.

Someone told me last night that live polling shows 30% undecided. I asked if they had added anything for the respondents who tell almost every candidate they are supporting them. She agreed; I bet the real undecided rate is a lot higher.

Lord Palmerston wrote:

. . . the types of upscale demographics that have never voted NDP and now make up the core of what remains of the LPC base.

Is there a sociological study available that helps identify the LPC "base?" It would be very interesting. My impression anecdotally is that the LPC universe has few few characteristics, being those who, like many, live rather atomistically and are a bit nervous of "big" anything. They are not going to change, mostly, and we need those votes. We may be able to get a lot of them simply by being the best and only viable alternative to the Conservatives. And then earn their continued support "each and every day" (as the new cliche runs) by audibly listening to their views. Workstyle more than ideology. Jack embodied that. I think all our leading candidates are capable of it too.

Lord Palmerston wrote:

I don't want the LPC to disappear.  They serve as a useful boutique party for affluent professionals who are too wealthy to vote NDP and too educated to vote Tory (i.e. St. Paul's is the last Liberal riding in Canada!)

Once we have PR, that works. Meanwhile, they are among those who, like most Greens, will (once they get the point of PR) happily vote NDP to get it. (Remember that almost 70% of Canadians do support PR.)

http://wilfday.blogspot.com/2011/01/poll-results-on-canadian-public-supp...

flight from kamakura wrote:

i fanatically support social democracy in canada, and stand four-square behind the leader whoever it is . . . we need an ndp government, we need it.  every small thing the conservatives do makes me more insane, i can't believe we no longer register human-killing weapons, i can't believe we have cut to the bone the promotion of canadian culture in the founding province of the country.  it's not something i was raised to do, but i've come to hate the cpc and harper, to the point where i'm losing objectivity.  we just need the ndp in there to save the country.

A lot of Liberals agree.

flight from kamakura wrote:

i can't believe we've gone back to a royal canadian navy

Easy, there. Harper did his polling on that one. Outside Quebec, that was a move that a lot of folks applauded.

Unionist wrote:

I don't mind Gerard endorsing whomever he wants as (presumably) an NDP member, but I have a hard time with the "USW International President" expressing preferences in the choice of a leader for the NDP. Bad precedent. Officials of the Canadian section - sure, no problem.

Agreed. Somebody wasn't thinking. Leo Gerard is a great catch, but someone please go edit out the title from the Topp website if it's there.

Brachina wrote:

Although in the very very unlikely situation Olvia Chow decides to renounce her neutrality and endorses Tom, I wouldn't be surpise to see Brian fold. Still I just don't see that happening unless she thinks the NDPs on the edge of being screwed totally.

Do you really think Jack's mother would have endorsed Topp without Olivia's blessing?

radiorahim wrote:

Quote:

Neumann, Fraser, Hunt and USW International President Leo W. Gerard have all endorsed Brian Topp for NDP leader.

The Steelworkers Toronto Area Council has endorsed Peggy Nash.

Toronto candidate, eh?

Peggy Nash has been endorsed by former BC cabinet ministers Colin Gabelmann, Evelyn Gillespie and Darlene Marzari.

http://peggynash.ca/2012/peggy-nash-picks-up-endorsements-from-former-bc...

The press release also mentions several other past BC endorsements that Nash has received, one of which had escaped my notice somehow: former Vancouver East MP Margaret Mitchell.

———

Meanwhile, Roy Romanow heaps praise on Brian Topp, calling him "the perfect candidate" in a new video from the Topp campaign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcoz_TCzZv8

Lord Palmerston wrote:

Yes, and Lloyd Shaw was a socialist.  There are a few socialist capitalists here and there.  But the number of capitalists who supported the CCF/NDP historically was very miniscule.  Even Bob Rae could fit all of his Bay St. supporters in a phone booth when he was Premier of Ontario.

 

I dunno, LP. Just Bob's brother John couldn't fit, at least not if you included his bags of money. Is he still an Executive VP of Power Corporation?

CFL