Nash is a Soviet agent.
Why didn't I mention this before?
Same reason we're still getting endorsements just now.
They didn't leave enough time for the campaign. And for the truth to come out.
Anyway, you've been warned.
Oh, Cullen's clean. Just ran him through the paranoiameter.
So much gossip to concoct, so little time...
What and where has Nathan Cullen gone on about "separatists"? That is new on me.
Cullen only permits cooperation with "federalists" in his cooperation scheme. It shows poor instinct on his part. It's only been discussed here about 10,000 times. Maybe if the campaign were a bit longer, we could have a thorough airing.
duncan cameron do you have a link cause i am not voting until the 24th and am open for "business"
Duncan: NDP leadership contender Nathan Cullen calls for united front against Conservatives
Includes this video. Starting @0:30 in:
“But I want to really leave it to the members. I really need to have a mandate given to me by New Democrats to say that they're willing to get out of the bunkers, shake hands on some agreements together and make sure that we don't have a Conservative government again ... It would have to be driven from the grassroots. If they're into it, then I'm into it. If they're not, then we'll do it the old traditional way ... The real sticking point with the Bloc is that their fundamental purpose is to destroy the country. So to work with them in such an intimate way would be harmful to my view of Canada. I mean, they individually and many of their voters are progressive. Many of their voters came to us in the last election. But if the primary reason that the party exists is to dissolve Canada, then I can't count on sitting down with them for something like this."
... And that's all I need to know about Mr. Cullen.
Thanks writer, I had missed that statement.
The degree of animosity to the Bloc in Ottawa always surprised me. The dividing line betweeen Anglo and Franco journalists was often noticeable around the idea of the Bloc being a normal expression of sovereignty-association and the people who deserved to be locked up as traitors (as an American diplomat once described to Lucien Bouchard the way the PQ/Bloc appeared to an American).
The same animosity was generated in some Anglo quarters in Quebec. There was a time when all issues came down to federalism, for or against. Now there are PQ/BQ die hards trying to keep hostilility alive with assistance from Harper.
I think the progressive or not line is a better one for the NDP. Keep talking, don't re-fight the old battles.
In my opinion new faces like Jack's, without the baggage of the language wars, or the consitutional battles, have a better chance of engaging with the Quebec progressives who switched to the NDP last time. But comments like Nathans suggest candidates have to be bi-cultural not just bi-lingual, which is the case for Niki, Peggy, Brian, and obviously Tom.
Herschel Hardin author of the classic A Nation Unaware also ran for the leadership. I saw him at an event for Peggy but have not heard if her endorsed someone or not.
Yes, he did. I didn't include on him in my post only because my post was limited to candidates who received votes at a convention; Hardin was forced to drop out before the 1995 convention because he did not receive enough votes in the "primaries" held prior to the convention. He's would be a great endorsement, though.
the other thing about cullen that frightens me immensely is that he hasn't at all been vetted. is he deeply in debt? has he had legal trouble, related maybe to fraud? has he made controversial statements in the past? is he married? does he have juvenile deliquent children or ex-wives (or ex-boyfriends)? we know all about tom and topp, we know quite a bit about peggs and dewar, we even know a lot about singh and ashton, but cullen is just this enigma. aside from all the great (and for me, fatal) points that jeff raises, there's this horrible gamble of selecting the unvetted candidate. he could become this horrible albatross.
It would come as something of a surprise to me if Cullen's children were juvenile delinquents, considering that they're one year old.
I don't think it's unreasonable to worry about whether candidates have skeletons in their closets, but I don't see Cullen as particularly less vetted than others. I think that there are a lot of good reasons to be very concerned about Cullen, but I doubt that any of these sorts of issues would be among them.
James Laxer - father of nationalist/socialist "Waffle", runner up to Broadbent
Pretty sure that James Laxer would be aghast at being called a national socialist. Perhaps you should have reversed those two words! 
peggy nash is a bi-cultural candidate? you mean that she's intimately familiar with two different ontario-based labor unions? ;)
Cullen's French is better than Dewar's, but it's not that much better—and it's certainly not sufficient for a party with most of its seats in Quebec.
I think people cut Cullen more slack on the French issue because he represents a riding in northwest BC along the Alaska panhandle while Dewar is from Ottawa - right across the river from Quebec. Also, I think Cullen's French (while far from perfect) is significantly better than Dewar's.
What and where has Nathan Cullen gone on about "separatists"? That is new on me.
I'm thinking of comments like these:
And his commitment to co-operation only goes so far. He rules out any discussions with the Bloc Québécois, or whatever is left of the separatist movement at the federal level when Canadians next go to the polls.
“I don’t like them very much,” he says bluntly. “I’m sure that there are some things they happen to agree with us on — the environment, child care, their social agenda. But their whole raison d’etre, I don’t agree with.”
He goes further, arguing it was “a mistake for us to have Gilles Duceppe on stage” in announcing the 2008 coalition with the Liberals (which Mr. Topp, of course, negotiated). “Stephen Harper was finished before that press conference, and then he found some energy, because he found an enemy.”
These are interesting comments, coming from the would-be leader of a party looking to seal the deal with its new Quebec nationalist supporters.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/01/31/chris-selley-co-operating...
All the nuance of a buzzsaw. But hey, he's a funny guy!
the other thing about cullen that frightens me immensely is that he hasn't at all been vetted. ..he could become this horrible albatross.really? are you seriously serious? or just foolin around?
That's exactly what I was going to ask! :D I was sure FFK was channeling Unionist's satirical streak.
Can we stop with the innuendos about Nathan Cullen and whether he has been "vetted"? I mean, come on, this guy has been an MP for nearly a decade, and seems like a genuinely good guy whom a lot of members really seem to like. The idea that he has not been adequately "vetted" compared to Tom, Brian or Peggy is a load of BS.
I voted for Tom Mulcair, and have been thoroughly disgusted with some of the thinly-veiled attacks against my preferred candidate on these threads throughout this campaign. It dismays me to see similar sorts of innuendo coming from other supporters of Tom, tactics which Tom and his campaign have laudably and continuously refrained from.
We're all on the same team, and are going to need to be after Saturday. Let's leave the muckraking to the Party "luminarie(s)".
the other thing about cullen that frightens me immensely is that he hasn't at all been vetted. ..he could become this horrible albatross.really? are you seriously serious? or just foolin around?
That's exactly what I was going to ask! :D I was sure FFK was channeling Unionist's satirical streak.
takin a chance here...unionist has been belly funny and a light in the dark
James Laxer - father of nationalist/socialist "Waffle", runner up to Broadbent
Pretty sure that James Laxer would be aghast at being called a national socialist. Perhaps you should have reversed those two words!
What I meant was the waffle was economically nationalist and socialist (I'm sure Laxer would agree with that).
But oddly enough, the first time I went door knocking for an NDP campaign in Calgary, I encountered one very angry man who accused me of being a "national socialist" like Adolph Hitler. I tried to remain calm, but I was still just a kid. I thought he was going to hit me or wring my scrawny neck! That would have put me off politics permanently!
James Laxer - father of nationalist/socialist "Waffle", runner up to Broadbent
Pretty sure that James Laxer would be aghast at being called a national socialist. Perhaps you should have reversed those two words!
What I meant was the waffle was economically nationalist and socialist (I'm sure Laxer would agree with that).
But oddly enough, the first time I went door knocking for an NDP campaign in Calgary, I encountered one very angry man who accused me of being a "national socialist" like Adolph Hitler. I tried to remain calm, but I was still just a kid. I thought he was going to hit me or wring my scrawny neck! That would have put me off politics permanently!
Precisely why I always describe the Waffle as having been "socialist and nationalist". Amazing what a little reversal in order can avoid!
FWIW quizzical has started thread #134 - please let's use it.
