With the NDP’s leadership convention set to start tomorrow (and assorted hospitality suites already starting up tonight), I won’t be able to finish off my initial plan to put together full policy reviews for each of the candidates. But instead, I’ll take some time to highlight a few innovative ideas
Continue readingTag: nathan cullen
CuriosityCat: Will Nathan Cullen have to thank these 2 if he becomes leader on Saturday?
We’ve heard little about the results of the push by these two significant groups, but perhaps by Sunday morning we will all be nodding our heads and saying: Of course! That’s what made it possible! Nathan Cullen – The Uniter Two online advocacy organizations are giving a potentially big boost
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 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: 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 readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
A couple more days’ worth of developments in the NDP’s leadership campaign… – Niki Ashton argued that Canada’s grain supply should be considered a strategic resource in evaluating takeover bids for Viterra, and earned a glowing profile from Carol Goar. – Nathan Cullen unveiled another caucus endorsement from Bruce Hyer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Followup commentary from the final NDP leadership on Sunday, as well as a couple more days worth of developments in the campaign. – Most of the post–debate coverage focused on a Thomas Mulcair-vs-the field contrast, while Quinn and Adventures in Socialism offered a few more interesting observations. – Niki Ashton
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Why Thomas Mulcair is not good for Canada
Mulcar: Not good for Canada at this time I have liked Mulcair’s energy, his fighting spirit, his presentation of his arguments, and his willingness to mix it with those who oppose him. However, I do not believe that having Mulcair as the next leader of the NDP is in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On shifting alliances
Having pointed out the effect of Peggy Nash’s willingness to consider cross-party cooperation in my rankings post, I’ll double back to one of the other noteworthy developments today – as Thomas Mulcair may have utterly reshaped the expected movement of down-ballot support. Since the start of the campaign, plenty of
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Vancouver NDP leadership debate candidate rankings
The NDP’s final leadership debate wrapped up today in Vancouver in advance of the March 24th leadership convention. It has been a long road since the first debate back in Ottawa, and every candidate has managed to both improve their debating skills as well as set out key policy and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – March 11, 2012
Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen what look to be a couple of noteworthy efforts among the NDP’s leadership candidates to reach out to other campaigns’ supporters in order to win over the down-ballot support that will likely decide the outcome of the campaign. So how have those
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Why the ‘Two Punch’ plan of Nathan Cullen will unseat the Harper Tory government in 2015
Just been watching the last NDP leadership debate on CBC, and it is blindingly apparent that there is only one person on that stage who really understands the reality of the Canadian political lineup. Cullen has called for a change in thinking by the NDP to allow progressives from both
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