For all that’s happened over the past week, the ultimate result has been largely to confirm the relative placement that the NDP’s leadership candidates have faced all along. And in cutting through the increasing volume of activity, this week’s rankings look to be drifting back toward the first set of
Continue readingTag: Roméo Saganash
Progressive Proselytizing: Issues and Themes in the Toronto NDP Federal Leadership Debate
Part one of this blog’s coverage of the Toronto NDP Federal Leadership debate on January 18th gives an overview of the various candidates more on the side of personality, debating skills, speaking skills, and the like. This second post takes a look at the dominant themes and issues raised in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Last night’s Toronto leadership forum has received plenty of attention, including media coverage as well as personal takes from Ian Welsh and Progressive Proselytizing. Subject to the below my own take on the candidates didn’t change much from what I saw in December’s debate, but a few points do seem
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Toronto NDP Federal Leadership Debate Reactions
I attended the Toronto Area Council NDP Federal Leadership Debate. What follows is a range of reactions about the candidates, policies, and themes in this debate. Crowd: The crowd packed the 850 seat theater at the Bloor Collegiate Institute leaving 150 outside and unable to enter; an excellent showing, especially given that this is
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
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 readingAccidental 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 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: 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 readingthe reeves report: The cautious politics of choosing a leader
NDP leadership candidates at the first debate held in December, 2011. As the race to replace Jack Layton heats up, it was only a matter of time before the candidates began taking significant steps to differentiate themselves from their fellow candidates. Eight candidates remain in the race to lead the
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 Rankings – December 18, 2011
We now have at least a bit of pollster data to compare to Skinny Dipper’s online poll on the relative positions of the NDP’s leadership candidates. But Forum Research’s results look to largely match the previous candidate positioning – which combines with relatively little news from the candidates’ travels to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Thomas Walkom notes that based on the Cons’ Kyoto embarrassment, Canada is now the odd man out on the world stage when it comes to climate change discussions: (I)n terms of international efforts to curb global warming, Kyoto is the only serious
Continue readingAccidental 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: Leadership 2012 Candidate Profile – Romeo Saganash
Romeo Saganash was the second candidate to enter the NDP’s leadership race, and remains one of the contenders with a plausible path to a strong victory. But how likely is it that Saganash can reach that result? Strengths On paper, there isn’t another candidate in the race with a personal
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 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
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