The NDP get-together in Edmonton was billed as a leadership debate, the last one before voting commences. In the event, though, it seemed more like a candidates’ mutual admiration society.
The four contenders left in the contest to replace Rachel Notley as NDP leader all seemed to agree that amity is what the 1,000 or so party members who made it downtown to the Edmonton Convention Centre for the event demanded from them, and that’s what they delivered.
If anyone was looking for a keen-edged strategy from candidates Kathleen Ganley, Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse or Sarah Hoffman to knock frontrunner Naheed Nenshi into second place, there was none in evidence. It should be fairly obvious that all this goodwill and harmony wasn’t it.
For their part, audience members were polite too – by and large obeying their instructions not to cheer candidates’ points while they were trying to make them.
The theme of the debate was supposed to be the NDP’s core values – as befits a debate in Edmonton, where the Opposition party holds all the ridings within city limits and even in its leanest years could usually count on winning one or two seats.
But with Nenshi’s apparently commanding lead, no one seemed willing to aggressively address the elephant in the room: the fact the former Calgary mayor only became a party member recently and favours the aggressively centrist approach associated in NDP circles with Liberals and the Alberta Party.
But then, as has been said here before, Notley built the NDP into a big tent party with an increasingly centrist policy book and most of the Alberta NDP’s membership made the shift long before anyone from outside the traditional party’s core could be credibly accused of carpetbagging.
Queried individually by reporters after their agreeable discussions had ended, the candidates were hard pressed to explain the differences between their positions, such as they are.
At one point during the main event, Nenshi seemed to suggest that he might still be interested in a formal break with the federal NDP – or maybe not.
With the number of new members who have joined up since the leadership race started, he noted, the Alberta branch may now have more influence than it used to over the federal party, an interesting point.
“We have to be able to be attractive to folks who may not want to cast their ballot for the federal NDP,” he said, leading to the only moment in the entire affair than hinted at anything other than cordial consensus.
Hoffman responded firmly, if not sharply: “Nobody can make this decision on their own.” She added: “I’m proud of where the federal party stands on many, many issues.”
But if anyone was of a mind to exploit that difference further, or demand more clarity from Nenshi about what he has in mind, they chose not to.
To be realistic, with voting (electronic and postal) already underway by this morning, many and perhaps most members who are eligible to vote would have made up their minds already. So probably hammering Nenshi about that at such a late hour would have just sown discord.
What’s more, with only four candidates on the ranked ballot, unless there’s a covert well of support for one of the other candidates, the potential for surprises at this point are vanishingly thin. If you wanted to take bets on a more interesting question than who will win, it would be, Who will come second?
Whoever that is will wield considerable influence in the post-Notley NDP, and may be expected by many old-time Edmonton New Democrats who are determined to stick with the federal party to speak up for them in caucus and, perhaps eventually, in cabinet.
So maybe the smart move by all the candidates really was to keep it so cheerful, polite and agreeable it was hardly worth jotting down any anodyne quotes. After all, at this point, who in Alberta or perhaps all of Canada doesn’t want the Oilers to win the Stanley Cup, eh? (All candidates agreed on this point, naturally.)
The rising tide of orange and blue in the streets of Edmonton as the NDP meeting broke up, by the way, was not about politics – and at least the Oilers fans on their way to Rogers Place didn’t go home disappointed like anyone who’d been hoping to witness a devastating put down on the Convention Centre stage.
Beyond that, to borrow a riff from comedian Steve Patterson, host of the CBC’s The Debaters, who did the audience pick as the winner?
After their closing statements, applause for Nenshi was loud and sustained, as it was for Hoffman. It was polite but more restrained for Ganley and Calahoo Stonehouse.
Well, I listened carefully and it was almost too close to call. But I have to give it to Naheed Nenshi!
The winner will be revealed on June 22.
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