NDP Leadership #144

Hey Tom- my eyes are up here!

Cheeseburger wrote:

simonvallee wrote:

...and Topp just went to congratulate Mulcair personally on stage, raising their hands together (nice photo op for the media to prove the unity of the party), as did Broadbent. Very good.

 

Save that picture - it may be the last time you see Topp or Broadbent (or LIbby Davies) anywhere near a position of power in the party for a long time

Please don't presume of a fracture in the party before even having the facts. That's playing the game of the Lib-Con spin doctors, who have jumped on every sentence to create the impression of nasty infighting. I think much of it is illusory, based on out of context quotes. There was some disagreement, but that happens in every leadership race.

Don't help break the party by falling for their ploy. And that is valid for everyone who said that Topp had no class or was horrible in the past few days or weeks. You've been had, time for you to acknowledge it and stop playing the game they want us to play.

Well, that was a completely boring and poorly-delivered speech.  Yawwwwn.  If that was how he performed on Friday, then no wonder Ed said he bombed.  He certainly did just now.

I'm surprised - he was way better during the debates.

pookie wrote:

Pat Martin sounds kinda deflated on CBC right now.

Yeah it was Michelle, and that is all they are harping on CBC about. I don't think anyone will care after tomorrow. Once he starts punishing harper during question period and it ACTUALLY makes the news, it will be more important than some silly pos election speach.

Cheeseburger wrote:

Layton's not running the party anymore - it's a new era for the NDP and people who can't get used to it are going to get left behind

or the NDP is going to be left behind..:roll my eyes:

Only conservatives leave people behind.

I was struck by how badly he actually interacts with the audience and how fearful he seems to be of going off script. That's what made Olivia's performance last night so energizing.

Honestly - Sarah Palin was better at working the crowd at the 2008 Repug convention.

You'd better hope they do, dacckon. ;) 

To be fair, he's probably exhausted.  But you'd think he could muster a little more excitement.  Unless he just suddenly realized that he's about to be the subject of about 5 Conservative attack ads in the next week or so...

I thought the content of the speech was pretty good.  It was just the delivery that sucked.

Everyone is probably exhausted by now, six months of hard campaigning and a vote that was dragged out by cyber terrorists on top of that.

They also bitched about Jack's speech on May 2nd.

Any who, I've never voted for someone who actually won before, its...nice, I can see the appeal, hopefully Mulcair keeps his winning streak going. Six elections and a leadership race.

TM4PM!

Well I look for content more than delivery.

I don't remember any mention of social democracy or equality. But then again my memory sucks.

Mansbridge is interviewing Tom right now.

See, Libby remains deputy.

You owe me 5 dollars. And liquor.

Mulcair: Libby Davies will continue as Deputy leader.

And Mulcair is doing just fine, saying all the right things.

Huh!  Well, that certainly is promising, and quite unexpected.  Very nice comments on his part about Davies. And she'll be remaining deputy leader - smart on his part.

I'm impressed so far.

Also, he is way, WAY better unscripted than he is at speechifying.  Maybe they should just send him onstage with a couple of bullet points on a cue-card.

Mulcair is killing the interview with Mainsbridge.  MUCH better than the speech.

Hopefully Mulcair steals Topp's tax the rich plan. Its a great way to create unity and well, lets just say that policy is just what im lookin for.

Wants to consult caucus first before responding to Tory attacks.

So here is my take on what happened:

The race was actually a contest between 2 sections of the party elite, with Topp representing more of the union/old guard wing, and Mulcair representing the Blairite wing. Despite what he may have led people to believe, Topp is not a strong advocate of the party's left-wing. He served under Roy Romanow, one of the most openly Blairite NDP governments Canada has ever elected. The grassroots candidates could not muster the resources to be major contenders, as seen by the fact that Charlie Angus and Megan Leslie didn't even run despite encouragement to do so, the fact that Niki Ashton actually received fewer votes than Martin Singh even though Singh didn't even run a real campaign, and the fact that candidates like Paul Dewar and Nathan Cullen didn't even make it to the final ballot. How else could Brian Topp have done so well, with the party recently electing a record number of seats and Topp not holding one himself, unless Topp had some serious backing from the party establishment? He very clearly played to the core left-wing ideas of the NDP base, and probably would have won if he didn't have a seat.

As for Mulcair? Despite the strong numbers he posted in the end, this is actually a stern rebuke. It took him four ballots to win, which suggests that people aren't so enthusiastic again. He made the mistake of accepting the media's narrative that he was the front-runner and heir apparent, and acted accordingly. While he worked very hard to win new NDP voters in Quebec, he basically took it for granted that the NDP base was going to support him no matter what. He did not show that he really got the NDP culture, and at times came across as being opposed, for example, his remarks about "union bosses." He never clarified what he meant by "modernizing" the party, even though he should have known that that kind of talk sets off alarm bells about shifting the NDP rightward, whether or not that was Mulcair's intent. His comments about "doing things differently" came across as insulting. They would have carried weight if the pattern for NDP seat numbers was either stagnant or in decline, but the NDP seat count increased in every election in the past decade, so what did the party need to do differently now? If he had taken more effort to reassure the NDP base, and even talk to them and show that he was going to listen to their concerns and not take them for granted, the vote may not have dragged on as long, in fact he could very easliy have won on the first ballot.