Micah Goldberg is one of my favourite people (he has guest blogged for me on a number of occasions.) One of our first conversations together was an argument about some electoral reform proposals I had put forward when I was Education & Government Commissioner on the University of St. Michael’s
Continue readingTag: brian topp
Accidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 – Candidate What-Ifs
Following up on this post, let’s look at a few what-ifs from the NDP’s leadership campaign in retrospect – this time wondering how the outcome might have changed from the perspective of the candidates based on choices made during the course of the race. And it’s fairly easy to narrow
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Lessons Learned – Pundit Edition
With a week’s perspective on the NDP’s leadership campaign, I’ll take a quick look back to see – particularly in comparing my own impressions as to how the vote might play out to what actually happened. To start off with, let’s note that of all the publicly-available metrics available to
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: #ndpldr pics, video and a few thoughts
It was a very long Saturday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre — about 12 hours for me, longer for others — for the NDP to arrive at what, for many, was an inevitable result: the election of Thomas Mulcair as their new leader. With Mulcair set to take his
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Thomas Mulcair Is The New NDP Leader
NDP members have elected Thomas Mulcair as the new NDP leader. It came down to a 4th ballot – between Thomas Mulcair and Brian Topp. On the 3rd ballot, Mulcair had 43.8%, Topp 31.6% and Cullen 24.6%. Throughout the convention, Mulcair steadily and strongly increased his support and endorsements. The
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 – First Ballot Endorsement
The NDP’s leadership campaign has presented such a wide variety of opportunities and questions for party members that it’s been difficult to decide who to endorse – and I’ve reached my own first-ballot decision only after taking time to see how those have been balanced out in this afternoon’s leadership
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
I didn’t think much could come along at this point in the NDP’s leadership campaign to significantly change my voting considerations [edit: other than the type of organizational problem discussed here]. But the CROP poll published in Le Soleil may well do just that. No, it isn’t a surprise to
Continue readingPop The Stack: For Once, I’m Glad I’m Not Voting
Democracy is the greatest sport on Earth. I feed on elections and leadership contests but I’m kind of glad I don’t have a vote this Saturday in the NDP leadership convention. Since I don’t have a vote I haven’t spent as much time researching all the leaders as I could
Continue readingPop The Stack: For Once, I’m Glad I’m Not Voting
Democracy is the greatest sport on Earth. I feed on elections and leadership contests but I’m kind of glad I don’t have a vote this Saturday in the NDP leadership convention. Since I don’t have a vote I haven’t spent as much time researching all the leaders as I could
Continue readingCuriosityCat: 40,000 Dippers Down, 90,000 to go!
There is a lot of interest in the election of the next NDP leader: thousands have already cast their preferential voting ballots! The NDP’s two-day leadership convention begins Friday in Toronto. More than 40,000 members have already voted using advance online or mail-in ballots. There are 131,000 members eligible to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Another day, another set of NDP leadership campaign stories. – Niki Ashton won the support of the NDP’s Socialist Caucus. – Nathan Cullen expanded on his joint nomination proposal with a far more appealing discussion of co-operation in general: Cullen isn’t shy about what he has in mind. “If the
Continue readingwRanter.com: Even with a new leader, the NDP can’t defeat the Tories alone
I just can’t get excited about the NDP leadership race, which ends March 24 in Toronto, because irrespective of who wins, it’s hard to see it leading to a positive outcome for progressive politics in this country. Will Thomas Mulcair, the party outsider who reportedly flirted with the Tories prior to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
A quick look at the latest news as the NDP’s leadership convention approaches. – Alice’s latest Power Play appearance saw her discuss Nathan Cullen’s campaign: Meanwhile, Cullen received an endorsement from Murray Dobbin – which is particularly noteworthy since Dobbin had previously lined up behind Peggy Nash. – Paul Dewar’s
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: My NDP leadership ballot rankings
Let’s just get it over with: Nathan Cullen Brian Topp Peggy Nash Paul Dewar Niki Ashton Thomas Mulcair Martin Singh These rankings are not necessarily who I think is best as the leader, but are for a variety of strategic reasons as written below. The major choices involved where I
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The decisive question
Following up on my candidate questionnaire and previous posts about party organization, I’ll offer my own observations on the final two questions I posed to the leadership candidates. I start from the premise that the primary goals of a leader are to serve as the party’s public face and chief
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
With the NDP’s leadership campaign entering its final week, it’s no great surprise to see plenty more punditry than usual surrounding the race. But what might influence the ballots cast this week (which may end up making all the difference)? – The most attention over the last day or so
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – March 18, 2012
Since last week, we’ve seen the NDP’s leadership campaign win plenty more attention in the media. But has any of the news managed to change the positioning of the candidates? 1. Thomas Mulcair (1) Well, we’ve certainly seen Thomas Mulcair under the microscope more than he’s ever been. But while
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Root of the Conflict between NDP’s Ed Broadbent and Thomas Mulcair
Canadians can be excused for feeling a bit out of touch with the squabble that has engulfed the NDP. Ed Broadbent, the old warhorse with a long record of service to the NDP, has come out swinging at the upstart Thomas Mulcair, who has overshadowed Broadbent’s preferred candidate for new
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Random readings to occupy your time. – Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor are still digging into Robocon – with a focus on figuring out exactly how “Pierre Poutine” assembled lists of anti-Con voters to target. And Sixth Estate both points out that the count of affected ridings is up to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
The latest couple of days worth of news as the NDP’s leadership campaign enters its final week – aside from multiple candidates including Niki Ashton, Paul Dewar and Peggy Nash all taking the opportunity to call for unity in the wake of the continued overreaction to Ed Broadbent’s latest comments.
Continue reading