We’ve been doing our darndest to cover the NDP leadership contest on the Daily Brief because we think it’s important. Whoever wins will get the keys to Stornoway (a more comfortable home than 24 Sussex Drive, if you ask some who’ve lived in both). That person will also be the Leader of the Official Opposition. And, throughout Canada’s political history, leaders of the official opposition have tended to be the chief combatant for the job of prime minister. So this is a big deal.
We’ve been talking to the candidates for the job a lot. This week alone we put what I thought were some decent questions to Niki Ashton, Nathan Cullen and Peggy Nash.
But tonight, we thought, instead of more candidates, we should start hearing more from the voters who will actually pick the leader. And so, we were fortunate enough to be joined by Jude MacDonald, a writer who is, among other things, a co-founder of Rabble.ca and supporter of Romeo Saganash. Jessie Gresley-Jones is a student and a supporter of Nathan Cullen. Neither are professional “politicos”. I “picked” them simply because I found their contributions on Twitter to be interesting.
Here’s the interview where we asked them both about their decisions, how they’re dealing with the preferential ballot, and what they think of the mainstream media’s coverage so far of the NDP leadership race.