Tag: ndp leadership

Political leaders, gender, and age: The context for decisions the Liberals must make

New Democrats this weekend elected Thomas Mulcair, the MP for Outremont, to be Jack Layton’s successor.

With that election, the slate of leaders who will present themselves to the Canadian electorate in 2015 for prime minister is four-fifths complete. Mulcair will lead the New Democrats. Stephen Harper (one assumes) will lead the Conservatives. Elizabeth May will lead the Green Party and Daniel Paillé will lead the Bloc Québecois.

So far, the question of who will lead the Liberals in that election is yet to be decided.

So for now, we have four men and one woman. Continue reading Political leaders, gender, and age: The context for decisions the Liberals must make

Stockwell Day welcomes the polarization of Canadian politics: "Clearer policy differences"

A decade ago this week, Stockwell Day lost his leadership of the Canadian Alliance to Stephen Harper, an event which turned out pretty well for both men. On that anniversary, I spoke to Day (below) who was in Mumbai, India when I reached him. We talked about that Harper decade but we also reflected on another leadership race — the race New Democratic Party’s race to name a new official opposition leader this week. In our papers today, I argue that more Canadians have moved left than right during the Harper decade. Day, in our interview, welcomes the disappearance, if you will, of the centre because he believes it will focus policy debate in Canada and may even mean fewer ad hominem political attacks and more back-and-forth focused on policy.  “What it will mean is much clearer lines of debate for Canadians. Clearer policy differences.” Watch the video…

Continue reading Stockwell Day welcomes the polarization of Canadian politics: "Clearer policy differences"

Peggy Nash on her fundraising numbers

Last night on the Daily Brief I asked NDP Leadership candidate Peggy Nash about her fundraising numbers for the the last quarter of 2011. They were pretty good. Her campaign has raised $108,000. But a couple of candidates were, at Dec. 31, a long way back. Niki Ashton’s campaign had raised just $10,000 and Romeo Saganash had raised $18,000. I asked Nash about those numbers as well. Continue reading Peggy Nash on her fundraising numbers

A nasty online dustup in the NDP leadership race about speaking French

You think the NDP leadership race is too polite? How about this dustup between supporters of Romeo Saganash and Brian Topp. It starts when a Saganash supporters gets a phone call from Topp’s team and, in that call, Topp’s canvasser suggests that Saganash, who represents a northern Quebec riding, cannot speak French. Topp, on Twitter, quickly tries to put out any suggestion that that’s what his team was implying. Not good enough, says Saganash’s campaign manager, who, also on Twitter, calls for an apology.

Continue reading A nasty online dustup in the NDP leadership race about speaking French