This Topp team member should probably have been identified as such on Sun News’ report from this evening. At the end of a report which featured David Akin interviewing Brian Topp on his tax plan, and following an interview with Mike Moffatt, Akin read off some comments received on Facebook.
Continue readingTag: NDP leadership race
CalgaryGrit: Asymmetrical Federalism
The NDP has made a lot of noise arguing Quebec deserves a fixed percentage of seats in the House of Commons. At the same time, they continue to move full speed ahead with a leadership race where Quebecers will be little more than an afterthought. After some enthusiastic headlines about
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 readingImpolitical: The "new politics"
This doesn’t feel new at all: Scrapping the long-gun registry has been a particularly controversial issue for Ashton as MP for a northern Manitoba riding, one that has a heavy aboriginal population. She has sided with the government before and voted to…
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…
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: This Race Is Unfair, Vote For Mulcair!
Some leadership campaigns like to make a policy announcement every week.For Thomas Mulcair, it appears he had adopted a “complaint-a-week” strategy. The latest:NDP’s Mulcair blames ‘whisper campaign’ for tough slogging in leadership effortCandidate say…
Continue readingImpolitical: Expectations
“Peggy Nash: a Thatcher for the left?”Between this and the Diebel piece, her opponents must be wondering what the heck is going on. Or, who knows, maybe they like it. By the way, she’s 2 for 4 in Parkdale-High Park. Lost 2004. Won 2006. Lost 2008. Won…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: NDP Top Brass stifling growth of the party in Quebec
A straw in the wind, which might soon become the straw that broke the NDP camel’s back in Quebec: membership cards are excruciatingly slow for one province.Guess which province?The one that Jack Layton scored the NDP’s biggest electoral success in its …
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Blessed Are The Peacemakers
Chantal Hebert writes in today’s Toronto Star that, while the growing list of NDP candidates “has all the makings of a decent future NDP cabinet, it has few of the trimmings that project strong leadership.” However, after the party chooses a leader — …
Continue readingImpolitical: The full-time MP of Parkdale-High Park
Looking forward to the many hours of full-time MPing to come while she’s out there on the leadership trail. Hey, I don’t set the standards. Peggy does.
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Any one of the NDP’s Two and a Half Men would make a good leader & PM
The NDP now have three good candidates for their top job: The Fighter, The Dealer and The Visionary.Both Brian Topp and Thomas Mulcair have decades of experience in practical politics, with Mulcair on the hustings and Topp in the proverbial smoke-fille…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Reasons behind the Cullen Plan to Turf-a-Tory in 2015
Why would a young MP decide to join the race for leadership of the NDP, when he faces competition from veterans in the field, such as a backroom dealer, Brian Topp, backed by the party brass, and a seasoned politician , Thomas Mulcair, who fought and w…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Signs of Hope: Some MPs in the Liberal caucus support the Cullen Plan
In a wide ranging interview by Tim Naumetz in The Hill Times, Nathan Cullen, the innovative young NDP MP who has joined the race to replace Jack Layton as leader of the NDP, said that he has been getting some feedback from several sources in the other …
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Let the people speak: Some comments on the Walkom article on the Cullen Plan
I skimmed through some of 70 plus comments on the Thomas Walkom article on Nathan Cullen’s idea to Turf-a-Tory through electoral cooperation between the Liberal, NDP and Green parties before the 2015 election.This idea is starting to get legs (Walkom’s…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The Man behind the Cullen Plan to Turf-a-Tory in 2015 by electoral cooperation
Nathan Cullen had some blunt words for a Toronto crowd he addressed last night, when asked about the risks to a party which decided to adopt the Cullen Plan and then found its own nominated candidate outvoted:Nathan Cullen sketches the Cullen PlanIt is…
Continue readingCuriosityCat: More support for Nathan Cullen’s idea of electoral cooperation
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…
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 readingCalgaryGrit: Tous Ensemble
Nathan Cullen shakes up the Mulcair-Topp cage match with an interesting idea:His plan would be to let grassroots members of the three parties [Liberals, NDP, Greens] decide in each riding currently held by the Conservatives whether they wanted to hold …
Continue readingImpolitical: Tom the Bomb
Shorter NDP race thus far by Don Macpherson:Brian Topp has acted as though he is afraid to run against Thomas Mulcair. And with nearly six months to go until the party’s members elect their next leader, Mulcair has already been making excuses for losin…
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