Nathan Cullen was the third candidate to join the NDP’s leadership race. And initially, he figured to be a strong contender to win over soft support within the party as the campaign progressed. Strengths After all, Cullen’s bio includes experience as a successful critic or committee chair on issues ranging
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Accidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – December 10, 2011
While there was plenty to talk about following the NDP’s first leadership debate, the effect of such an early event on the candidates’ long-term prospects was bound to be limited. And so the most-discussed event of the campaign so far hasn’t led to much change from last week’s rankings. 1.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Murray Dobbin comments on how the NDP can turn economic issues from a perceived weakness to one of the party’s core strengths over the next election cycle: There is a long way to go for the NDP to establish itself as a serious
Continue readingBlunt Objects: And the winner of the first NDP debate is….
The Conservatives, because of the massive wealth of soundbites gained from the debate which will paint the new NDP leader as wanting to raise taxes, put through a carbon tax, destroy Canada’s resource extraction sector, and cripple free trade. What’s worse is that pretty much every candidate said those exact
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 – Debate 1 Wrapup
Plenty of others have already commented on the NDP’s first leadership debate. But I haven’t yet seen any that line up with my take on yesterday’s chance for candidates to introduce themselves to the country. To start with, the perceived top-tier candidates generally lived up to their billing. Thomas Mulcair
Continue readingthe reeves report: NDP leadership debate showcases the (many) party hopefuls
NDP leadership candidates in the first leaders debate The first NDP leadership debate was this afternoon, and it would appear from the coverage that the only victor was expediency and those who speak in sound bites. Nine candidate took the stage (Brian Topp, Thomas Mulcair, Paul Dewar, Nathan Cullen, Toronto
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Ottawa NDP Leadership Debate Thoughts
The debate was good. Exciting even. After several months of being forced to sate my political appetite on the Republican leadership contest, the NDP leadership debate in Ottawa provided a refreshing Canadian contrast. Overall there was far more homogeneity between positions than there was difference. The tone of the debate
Continue readingpolitics on CAPS LOCK: Liveblogging the first NDP leadership debate
The first NDP leadership debate is about to start. I’m not even going to liveblog in caps, THAT IS HOW SERIOUSLY I AM TREATING IT 12:03 Robert Chisholm, he is already somebody that I like. Here comes Niki Ashton, I like her too. So yeah, it’s going to be 120
Continue readingBlunt Objects: #NDPldr Debate #1: The Economy
Today’s Dipper leadership debate takes place in Ottawa at 2pm EST til 4pm, and apparently will focus on the economy. Now what, you make ask, does a Dipper have to say about the economy that isn’t anything but tax rises? Well, there’s nine of them there to tell you what’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – December 4, 2011
Not a lot has changed since last week’s rankings. But with the first NDP leadership debate looming this afternoon, let’s quickly take stock of where the candidates stand – including with a quick take on what they’ll each need to accomplish this afternoon. 1. Thomas Mulcair (1) There isn’t much
Continue readingBlunt Objects: Today in Pointless Ideas from Nathan Cullen
Putting the monarchy to a vote appears to be Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP Nathan Cullen’s most recent suggestion. This comes off the heels of his last headline capturing moment with the suggestion of a “progressive primary” vote that he himself admitted would never be a reality. While other candidates like
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 – Policy Roundup
As the NDP’s leadership race moves into the limelight, the candidates are starting to unveil some of their policy priorities. As I’ve mentioned it’s an open question as to how much members will want to change from a set of ideas that’s worked rather well for a few election cycles
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Candidate Rankings – November 26, 2011
Last weekend, I mentioned my intention to introduce NDP leadership rankings. Before getting to the rankings themselves, though, let’s make clear exactly what the below is intended to reflect. First, unlike Ian Capstick’s survey, I’m not making any effort yet to determine who figures to do the best on becoming
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: NDP Leadership Quick Links
As promised, let’s take a quick run through plenty of material on the NDP’s leadership campaign… – Straight Goods has posted Ish Theilheimer’s interviews with each of the candidates. – I can only figure Justin Ling has been reading Future Babble and looking to Dan Gardner’s criticism of reckless pundits
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Litmus Test for selecting the new NDP and Liberal Leaders: What will remove Stephen Harper
Two leadership races of enormous consequence are taking place in Canada right now: the overt race to select a new leader to replace Jack Layton, and the covert race to select a permanent leader of the Liberal Party. The electoral cooperation Pandora’s Box While many pundits and party members are
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics blog: ndp leadership candidates attending edmonton kitchen table talks.
Three federal NDP leadership candidates: Nathan Cullen, Paul Dewar, and Brian Topp Home of Alberta’s only NDP Member of Parliament, Linda Duncan, the Edmonton-Strathcona NDP Association is hosting a series of “Kitchen Table Talks” with NDP leadership candidates (named in honour of Jack Layton and his penchant for addressing the kinds
Continue readingCuriosityCat: NDP supporters want a Quebec leader and electoral cooperation with Liberals
A surprising finding from the latest Ipsos Reid poll, and a very disconcerting one for Brian Topp.A large majority (58%) of NDP supporters believe that the next leader should hail from Quebec:Fifty-eight per cent of NDP backers surveyed nationally stro…
Continue readingCowboys for Social Responsibility: The Seinfeldian candidate
It’s becoming harder to consider NDP leadership candidate Nathan Cullen as a serious contender.
Cullen’s failure to take a stand on the Tory bill to repeal the long gun registry is just another demonstration that he either doesn’t understand that New Democrats want "to make sure that Canadians know which way that we vote" or was putting his leadership aspirations ahead of whatever principles he
Continue readingCuriosityCat: One very good reason NDP members should not choose Brian Topp as leader
After an initial response that was far warmer to the plan of Nathan Cullen to take proactive steps to throw the Harper Tories out of power in 2015, Brian Topp has decided the Cullen Plan has not merit and no support:If he does win, he has already rejec…
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: The Race for Stornoway
The NDP leadership race appears to have solidified, with nine candidates vying for the keys to Stornoway.While I doubt any of the contenders are causing Stephen Harper sleepless nights, it’s a diverse field which is good news for the Dippers. Every tru…
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