NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair spoke to reporters for about 25 minutes after the final NDP caucus meeting of 2012. Here’s the audio of the English-language questions and responses. He touches on co-operationg with the left, Syria, F35s, and C-377. Continue reading Audio: Thomas Mulcair says progressives should rally to the NDP banner
I can’t think of a time in the party’s 50-year history when it’s likely been more fun to be a New Democrat. And by “fun”, I mean holding the levers of power or being close to holding the levers of power. I realize there are some New Democrats who believe the federal party are becoming a bunch of vendus, that under Thomas Mulcair the party is ready to sacrifice its founding socialist principles just to form a government.
But I’ll leave that debate for the next NDP convention.
Continue reading Has it ever been so good to be a New Democrat?
Mike Moffatt, an economist and assistant professor at Western University in London, Ont., and I assess NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair’s claim that Canadian resource development, particularly in the oilsands, have given Canada’s economy “Dutch Disease”:
On April 17, 1982, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms became the law of the land. Love it or hate it, it’s a very important document that’s had an important influence on our country’s development.
We are now at the 30th anniversary of the Charter and there are some who say that the current prime minister, Stephen Harper, is not celebrating this anniversary in appropriate style. Well, it’s not really “some” people. It’s really one person, former prime minister Jean Chretien, who, as justice minister in 1982, was one of the signatories of that document. On Wednesday, Chretien and interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae will lead a Liberal celebration of the Charter in Toronto.
Back in December on my program the Daily Brief, we invited psychic Blair Robertson to join us to give us a heads-up on what was going to happen in 2012. Though Robertson now lives in Arizona, he was born and raised in Toronto. Among other things, Robertson predicted in December that Mulcair would win the NDP leadership. But he also said at the time that, in his view, the Mulcair win was not going to be a good thing for the NDP, suggesting that the win will produce a great deal of backstabbing. “I feel the NDP is going to be in total disarray. We are going to see a big mess in the future no matter who wins.” Continue reading In December, psychic predicted Mulcair's win — followed by NDP backstabbing
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
As I write in a column that will be in our papers tomorrow, I believe the Liberals are doing best so far when it comes to the politics around the issue of NDP leadership hopeful Thomas Mulcair’s dual citizenship. I make the argument that, as Bob Rae pointed out today, the NDP can be characterized as hypocrites on the dual citizenship issue for back in 2006, when it was about Stephane Dion’s dual citizenship, their leader at the time, Jack Layton, as well as several other NDP MPs argued that holding two passports was untenable with being the leader of a party, let alone PM. Continue reading Liberals, Nathan Cullen shine on Mulcair issue; other New Democrats, Tories not so much
Today, we’re reporting that Thomas Mulcair will not relinquish his French citizenship should he win the NDP leadership race and go on to battle Stephen Harper in the 2015 to become Canada’s prime minister.
In 2006, Stéphane Dion was asked Continue reading Dion on Mulcair's dual citizenship: "What multiculturalism is all about"