Pat Martin is clearly onside; both Topp and Mulcair praise his innovativeness; and now Thomas Walkom, National Affairs Columnist of The Toronto Star, is onside. In an article headed A Plan to Unite the ‘Left’ that just might work, Walkom writes:From in…
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CuriosityCat: Pat Martin: NDP Leadership Race is an Intellectual Ghetto
Straight talking NDP MP Pat Martin praises Nathan Cullen for his idea to turf out the Tory government, and gives a backhanded swipe to the idea-less NDP leadership race:MP Pat MartinHowever, NDP MP Pat Martin, who has called for the NDP and the Liberal…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: NDP MP Nathan Cullen’s case for electoral cooperation
The leadership race for the NDP just got a lot more interesting.Enter the Innovation Leadership Candidate: An NDP MP has thrown his hat in the ring in order to start a national dialogue geared to discussing serious methods for progressives to cooperate…
Continue readingpolitics on CAPS LOCK: Meeting the Candidates
I’ve made my mind up about who gets my #1 vote in the NDP leadership election, March 24, 2012, in Toronto. It’s Tom Mulcair. Almost every declared and non-declared (or expectant) candidate for the national NDP leadership were in Edmonton this weekend. At first, we heard that Paul Dewar was
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: The myth of the positive 2011 NDP campaign
There seems to be this impression out there that the 2011 NDP election campaign was all sunshine and lollipops. NDP leadership contender Brian Topp sought to re-enforce that impression yesterday, as he tries to paint himself as the candidate of positiv…
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: In leadership news…
…Justin Trudeau won’t run, but Thomas Mulcair will.So this sets us up for a Mulcair-Topp battle for Stornoway. All early indications are that Topp and Mulcair will play nice with each other, while their supporters mercilessly smear each other in the …
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Mulcair Story trumps Topp Story in NDP Leadership Race
Mark these words: Underdog, Shoulder to Shoulder, and Winnability.They are the combination of images that most likely will propel feisty Thomas Mulcair to the leadership position of Canada’s federal NDP party.The Top Two Duke it out:Topp burst out of t…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day.- Thomas Walkom points out that the effect of cracking down on peaceful and legal strikes – as the Cons are so determined to do – is to force workers to take more creative steps to make their concerns heard:Canada’s m…
Continue readingBlunt Objects: Updated NDP & Bloc Leadership
So, as everyone who is anyone should be aware now that Québec’s favourite son, Outremont MP Thomas Mulcair, has officially jumped into the race, and beside him come 33 MPs, including two veterans from Ontario.Mulcair, with the 33 caucus endorsements, …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Right turn, wrong way
I wouldn’t have expected to end up concurring with Rob Silver’s analysis of the NDP leadership race. But there’s an awful lot of truth to Silver’s take on Thomas Mulcair’s strategy – particularly based on some of what Mulcair had to say in the lead up …
Continue readingCowboys for Social Responsibility: Canada’s gun lobby’s election failure reveals NDP gun registry fallacy
Reading today’s Postmedia story about labour union spending during the 2011 federal election campaign led this blog to wonder about other third party spending.Reviewing the listing of third parties on the Elections Canada website, two groups familiar t…
Continue readingpolitics on CAPS LOCK: HAVN’T POSTED IN A WHILE LOL
EVERYONE LOVES IT WHEN A BLOGGER COMES BACK AFTER A LONG ABSENCE TO WRITE A POST ABOUT HOW THEY “HAVEN’T BLOGGED IN A WHILE LOL” !!! I’M NOT THE FIRST PERSON TO MAKE THIS JOKE OBV THIS IS MY INSPIRATION. SRSLY SHE MADE THE JOKE FIRST AND I’M BLATANTLY LIFTING
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Brian Topp highlights the fact that any shared sacrifice to address the Cons’ carefully-fabricated federal deficit needs to include those who have the most to spare:Instead of increasing revenues by cutting hig…
Continue readingImpolitical: Nice platform if you can get it
Here’s Brian Topp’s latest blog post in the Globe: “Canada must ensure it tightens the right belts.”I’m sure his fellow leadership candidates, declared and as yet undeclared, love the fact that Topp has a national platform like this. Is there any limit…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On civil campaigns
Needless to say, it’s a plus to see the NDP’s leadership contenders making sure to run a campaign that fit with a message of love, hope and optimism. But a word of warning: at least some commentators will be looking for any excuse to find just the oppo…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: NDP will lose ground in Quebec under Topp and gain under Mulcair – Angus-Reid poll
Some very bad news for the NDP in the latest Angus-Reid poll. That sound you hear in the background is the clucking of the chickens coming home to roost:Most Canadian voters are standing by their choices in the May 2011 election, but the survey shows t…
Continue readingBlunt Objects: Mulcair – the NDP’s Best Option?
He is according to Angus Reid’s latest poll, which says that Mulcair would lead the NDP to the best result in a general election today, and is the most well-thought-of among NDP members and the general public.This being said, the results are so small b…
Continue readingBlunt Objects: Yvon Godin Only Wants Democracy For Some
Yvon Godin, the irritable member for Acadie-Bathurst, apparently only wants democracy for some in the NDP:Mulcair suggested Monday that perhaps the party could engage in a province-wide membership drive to ensure Quebec has more say.”For me this makes …
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: My deflating optimism about the NDP leadership race
For a while, I was feeling very energized about the NDP leadership race. We on the left were going to get six months or so to have a real and refreshing discussion of values and policies about where to go from here. With a relatively new One Member One…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day.- David Olive reassures us that we’re not in a depression, but points out plenty of other reasons for concern with Canada’s economy:Jim Flaherty, the federal finance minister, tried to slap down Peggy Nash, the NDP fina…
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