No, I won’t claim to have entirely comprehensive coverage of the NDP’s leadership race. But I do try to catch the developments that strike me as significant for each candidate and the race as a whole…so let’s take a look at what’s new over the past few days. To start
Continue readingTag: leadership 2012
Accidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – January 15, 2012
At the outset of this week’s rankings, I’ll offer a reminder that the below is intended to reflect my analysis as to how likely any given candidate is to win the NDP’s leadership race, rather than my own personal ballot or any other endorsement of one candidate over another. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Yes, it’s only been a couple of days since my last roundup post. But I’ll let the pace of news determine how often I put them up – and the end of this week offered loads of material for discussion. – Niki Ashton made a statement on LGBT equality in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
It’s been another busy week in the NDP leadership race, with policies, events and endorsements galore. So let’s jump right in… – Niki Ashton released both a statement on multiculturalism and a health-care plan, with one familiar idea featuring prominently in the media’s coverage in Saskatoon – and will be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Dr. Dawg views the latest attacks on workers by employers in Canada as a new front in all-out class warfare. And the New York Times notes that some of the main policies being pushed by the anti-worker side serve absolutely no purpose other
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – January 8, 2012
There isn’t anything new in the candidate rankings for this week, as the latest developments have generally left the NDP’s leadership contenders in substantially the same position they’ve occupied for some time. But there may be some major changes in the works over the next little while – so let’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Not surprisingly, the last week has seen the NDP’s leadership candidates push their campaigns into high gear for the last couple of months of the race. So let’s take a quick look at what’s developed in the first week of 2012. – Niki Ashton spoke to Andy Radia about her
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Frances Russell criticizes the Cons’ latest attempts to stifle parliamentary accountability. And the Citizen can only scoff at Tony Clement’s claim to be an advocate for open government: What matters is whether government makes information available. The statistics from access-to-information requests suggest
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Travaillons ensemble
Following up on this post, I’ll expand briefly on what looks to be one of the more interesting questions for the balance of the NDP’s leadership race. I’ve pointed out before that one of the subtle advantages of having a leadership race immediately after ascending to Official Opposition status is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The Star makes the case for Canada’s wealthiest citizens to pay their fair share: Apart from their hefty pay packets, the top-earning CEOs are sitting on $2 billion in stock options that are treated as dividend income, and taxed at half the value.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Links and Policy Roundup 3
Assorted policy and punditry from the NDP leadership campaign. – On the policy front, it’s looking like time to give Nathan Cullen full credit for being well ahead of the pack with a well-rounded and detailed set of policies. I missed his democratic reform proposal in my last policy roundup
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Anyone But
As promised, let’s take a closer look at the dynamics of “anyone but” movements in leadership campaigns – with a particular focus on whether one looks likely to develop in the NDP’s current race. The most obvious prerequisite for an “anyone but” movement is the perception that a particular candidate
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Reference Page Update
Once again I’ve made some changes to my Leadership 2012 Reference Page. For those curious about the content of the candidate profiles so far, I’ve dealt mostly with personality and strategy based on the lack of detailed platforms for comparison so far in the campaign. But I’ll continue to point
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Profile – Niki Ashton
The final candidate to enter the NDP’s leadership race was Niki Ashton. And initially, far too many observers seem to have been eager to write off her candidacy. But while there’s little doubt that Ashton faces some hurdles in her candidacy, she’s done plenty to establish herself as a strong
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Profile – Peggy Nash
In some ways, Peggy Nash’s candidacy is the easiest and most straightforward to analyze among the NDP’s leadership contenders. She’s drawn her core support from the intersection of the party and the progressive movement, meaning that her initial strength can be set at a level that should keep her on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On top priorities
I’ve already linked to Postmedia’s story setting out Brian Topp’s first set of democratic reform priorities. But let’s take a look at a couple of the proposals in a bit more detail. To start off, I’m not sure anybody else has pointed out the significance of Topp’s plan to “introduce
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your afternoon reading. – Alison Loat offers some suggestions to make political parties more responsive to Canadian voters: (H)ow can parties reorient spending to encourage a more balanced focus across their responsibilities? Political parties serve at least four critical functions: engaging citizens in politics, selecting candidates for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – December 26, 2011
Anybody expecting the holidays to make for a quiet spell in the NDP’s leadership race was in for a surprise, as the last week has seen the first candidate departure along with a boost in the number of pundits’ rankings and candidate profiles. But will the result be much change
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Profile – Thomas Mulcair
From the moment Thomas Mulcair chose to run as an NDP candidate for Parliament, he’s earned both more scrutiny and more attention than any other NDP represenative other than the leader who recruited him. Indeed, during slow news months there were even highly speculative stories about Mulcair trying to take
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Alice offers her own take on Ian Capstick’s leadership musings by questioning why a current candidate would see more prospect of influencing the race by dropping out now rather than staying in the field: * It is worthwhile being able to win
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