From the moment Thomas Mulcair chose to run as an NDP candidate for Parliament, he’s earned both more scrutiny and more attention than any other NDP represenative other than the leader who recruited him. Indeed, during slow news months there were even highly speculative stories about Mulcair trying to take
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The Sir Robert Bond Papers: More Muskrat Fun: HQ, NALCO and PEI #nlpoli #nspoli #cdnpoli
The Ghosts of Hydro-Quebec and NACLO: A pair of readers fired off separate e-mails to point out an alternate explanation for the “anything cabinet decides they can do” clause from the energy corporation legislation than the tack SRBP took. They both pointed to comments made over several years by different
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: Leadership 2012 – Policy Roundup 2
Following up on my earlier post, let’s take a quick look at the policy proposals that have been unveiled by NDP leadership candidates over the last couple of weeks. – Niki Ashton’s plan for a more inclusive economy includes plenty of noteworthy ideas, including a direct attack on structural discrimination
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 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 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 readingCowboys for Social Responsibility: The Mulroneyesque Thomas Mulcair
There are many things that we could say about Brian Mulroney. Many of them are bad. But he did have the gift of blarney. At his best, Mulroney could charm a snake charmer out of his cobras and then go on to convince his opponents that cobras were a thoughtful
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 readingAccidental Deliberations: On base support
The leadership tabs are piling up on my end, and I’ll assemble a number of them into a post shortly. But one recent development looks to call for a post of its own. The main question I’d see facing Peggy Nash for the balance of the leadership campaign is whether
Continue readingCowboys for Social Responsibility: Thomas Mulcair, wanker
Regular readers of this blog will know that NDP MP and leadership candidate Thomas Mulcair is the Member of Parliament for the riding that includes École polytechnique. Mulcair, through his silence, has already demonstrated that he’s an able practitioner of the game of playing both sides of an issue but
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: With friends like this
As anybody who follows Canadian politics should know, NDP MP Thomas Mulcair is MP for École Polytechnique.
As an NDP leadership candidate, Mulcair has just been presented his first big dilemma. And that dilemma links his leadership aspirations right…
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: The NDP’s Trouncing in Saskatchewan Should be a Wake-Up Call
In the recent Saskatchewan provincial election, the NDP took a thrashing. From the Huffington Post:The Saskatchewan NDP suffered one of the most crushing blows in the party’s history Monday night. The once dominant party was reduced from 20 to ni…
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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