Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Susan Delacourt points out some analysis from Greg Lyle which looks to confirm my general take on the real balance of popular opinion between the Cons and the opposition:It’s important to understand that the …
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Accidental Deliberations: The cutoff point
Having asked the question on the weekend, I’ll provide my back-of-the-envelope answer as to how many votes I’d expect a candidate to need based on what we know now about the NDP leadership race (which of course figures to take a few more turns before i…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On strategic considerations
While most media discussion of the NDP’s leadership race so far has focused disproportionately on the effect of a couple of early endorsements, the obvious reality is that any candidate will need to win over tens of thousands of potential supporters in…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012: Rulebook Review
As promised, let’s take a quick look through the NDP’s official leadership rules. On the whole, the regulations don’t look to particularly favour any one candidate – but they do include a few noteworthy twists which may help to shape the outcome.The So…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Burning question
The Hill Times rightly notes that the Cons’ strategy against the NDP has involved taking every opportunity to attack both unions in general, and any form of association between labour and the NDP. But leaving aside the fact that the labour movement can…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On clear preferences
At least a few pundits have theorized that the NDP might get pushed into a merger due to the desire of Quebec voters to see greater cooperation among parties opposing the Cons, as evidenced by their support for past coalitions and other short-term coop…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On your marks…
The basic rules for the NDP leadership campaign are making their way around Twitter, and look to reflect much of what I’d hoped for: a membership deadline relatively close to the convention on March 24 in Toronto; a modest spending limit coupled with s…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On advance reservations
Romeo Saganash’s expression of interest in the NDP’s leadership figures to give him some extra time and attention in the leadership race to make up for his late arrival within the party (which again strikes me as his biggest obstacle). But let’s note a…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012: The Playing Field
With the NDP set to discuss the rules for its upcoming leadership campaign. So let’s take a quick look at a few of the basic issues involved, along with the answers which I’d think would best serve the goal of developing into a sustainable progressive …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Facts not in evidence
I suppose it shouldn’t come as much surprise that some Libs are now suggesting they’d prefer torching every existing progressive political structure in Canada to working with the NDP in its current form. But let’s ask whether there’s any truth to the p…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012: Preliminary Candidate List
Having posted about the target groups and issues for the NDP’s leadership campaign, let’s take the next step and put some names to the possibilities. As hinted at in my last post, I’d see the ideal field as involving enough candidates to cover effectiv…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The issue list
Following up on my post about the groups the NDP will want its candidates to reach during the upcoming leadership campaign, I’ll follow up with a brief look at some of the issues that I’d also hope to see as top priorities for one or more candidates.
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Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
– Lee Berthiaume and David McGrane both discuss the team and the strategy that helped the NDP to build to its current level of support and success. And it’s worth noting that since the NDP is still in …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: The ground rules
Not surprisingly, a huge chunk of coverage of Jack Layton’s death has already started shifting toward the inevitable narrative of “woe is the NDP!”. And it’s well worth taking some time to discuss where the party figures to go in a leadership race whic…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Reason for hope
In keeping with Jack Layton’s message of hope and optimism – expressed in his last letter as well as so many other times throughout his political career – let’s take a moment to note that as much as the NDP will miss his leadership, it will also enjoy …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On areas of agreement
Of course, one can’t expect Jane Taber’s coverage to note the flip side to the Cons’ strategic distractions. But while Taber hands her report over to Con spinners for a typical dose of NDP concern trolling, let’s note that there’s more common ground th…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On broken systems
Let’s add one more to the list of theories as to how the other parties’ pearl-clutching over interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel may actually play to the NDP’s advantage – and this time with a far more immediate effect.
Keep in mind that the last nationa…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: What might have been
Wilf Day offers up one what-might-have-been scenario based on proportional representation. But as one astute observer pointed out at the NDP’s Vancouver convention, there’s another alternate set of possibilities which wouldn’t have required a different…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On building opportunities
There’s no doubt that the trumped-up story about Nycole Turmel’s one-time Bloc membership reflects the inevitable first real pile-on against the NDP in its new role as Official Opposition. But it’s worth noting that the NDP also has an opportunity to t…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Linda McQuaig notes that the same financial actors who caused the global economic meltdown that’s being used as an excuse for austerity measures around the world are themselves making out like bandits – even tho…
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