NDP Leadership Race 2012 (Canada)

[Axl Van Sixx]

Any Canadians out there? To go a step further, any supporters of the New Democratic Party here? If so, I'm wondering what you guys think about the race to become Jack Layton's successor. Do any of the 9 candidates (so far) running to become leader of the federal NDP strike your fancy?

Personally, I think Peggy Nash might be my favourite at this point. She's got parliamentary experience, served as Jack Layton's hand-picked Finance Critic, has an extensive labour background with the Canadian Auto Workers, visited Occupy Toronto and even gave a shout-out to the #occupy movement in her announcement speech. But she seems to want to avoid being pigeonholed as "the candidate of the left".

In the past couple weeks I've met both Niki Ashton and establishment candidate Brian Topp. Niki Ashton is young, intelligent, speaks four languages and might be the most "left" candidate (and smoking hot to boot), but I need to hear more detail in her platform. She certainly sounded good on foreign policy and the environment.

I met Brian Topp yesterday and asked him whether he would take a stand against austerity and if he still supported the op-ed piece he wrote in The Globe and Mail last year praising Greek Prime Minister Georges Papandreou. He tried to burnish his credentials as a "democratic socialist" to me, said that Greece was ungovernable at the time and Papandreou did what he had to do. That doesn't fill me with confidence. Topp did say in his response to my question that he would NOT be another Tony Blair. He had a well-developed policy that talked a lot about raising corporate taxes, about inequality and the environment, and the guy is a good speaker with a nice sense of humour. But as the establishment candidate, I know he will bend easily if pressured by powerful interests, and the last thing Canadians or the NDP need is a Bob Rae at the federal level. At least he's better than Liberal-in-sheep's-clothing Thomas Mulcair, who has gone out of his way to say under his leadership the party will not be beholden to the unions.

Also, check out this socialist guide to the NDP leadership campaign for an in-depth analysis of each candidate's strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I don't really support the NDP in a strong way, but tend to vote for them sometimes out of default even though I'm not a leftist by any stretch of the imagination (surprise!). I'd love to be able to vote conservative one day, as soon as the party stops choosing to be defined by the fundamentalist Christian Taliban in their ranks.

I think Mulcair is the leader the party needs. I can definitely see him being the fiery, charismatic leader that can take the NDP to the next level. I don't mean government (Lords of Kobol help us if that happens) but in terms of being consistently a strong opposition party, proving that the last election wasn't just a fluke.

Nevertheless, the debate is amusing in its own way, and its too bad that Americans can't really see it, because it fits every stereotype they have about our country. ("I violently agree with your position" ... "No, I agree MORE with your position" ... "Let's just agree to agree" ... )

 

[Axl Van Sixx]

Mulcair would be a disaster. He wants to get rid of the link with the unions and turn the party into Liberals.

Nathan Cullen's line from the debate ("I violently agree with my colleagues.") was pretty funny, though, and quintessentially "Canadian".