Ottawa South provincial by-election

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Toronto's very own Southall. Hopefully it develops the same sort of hilarious yet utterly lovable Indian socialist machine politics as said London 'burb.

[Hatman 🍁]

Toronto's very own Southall. Hopefully it develops the same sort of hilarious yet utterly lovable Indian socialist machine politics as said London 'burb.

Or Surrey BC?

[toaster]

Jagmeet is a great candidate, but one that you can't just replicate anywhere... He plays/ed well in Bramalea-Gore-Malton due to its demographics to some degree

Bramalea
41% immigrants - 22% being Indian
42% visible minorities - 20% being south asian
10% sikh

Malton
58% immigrants - 38% being Indian
69% visible minorities - 42% being south asian
25% sikh

BUT... in 2011 (both federal and prov.) the three parties all ran south asian candidates. So Jagmeet's style, very new media savvy, charismatic, youth oriented, big party apparatus push all helped him win.

That's true.  I apologize if my comments were insulting. 

Anyway, I hadn't considered that all parties ran South Asians in BGM.  But yeah, the youth thing worked out very well for Singh.  I also think the communication thing was a big factor, even though it shouldn't be.  I believe Singh's fluency (and lack of accent) helped him with white voters, even though it shouldn't be an issue.  I remember hearing former PC MP Norm Sterling saying something on TVO about how Singh looked like a very bright and articulate young man.  Likely trying to be polite and all, but it comes off as he's "not like those other visible minorities who are not".  Of course this shouldn't matter, but I think it does. 

[Hatman 🍁]

Jagmeet is a great candidate, but one that you can't just replicate anywhere... He plays/ed well in Bramalea-Gore-Malton due to its demographics to some degree

Bramalea
41% immigrants - 22% being Indian
42% visible minorities - 20% being south asian
10% sikh

Malton
58% immigrants - 38% being Indian
69% visible minorities - 42% being south asian
25% sikh

BUT... in 2011 (both federal and prov.) the three parties all ran south asian candidates. So Jagmeet's style, very new media savvy, charismatic, youth oriented, big party apparatus push all helped him win.

That's true.  I apologize if my comments were insulting. 

Anyway, I hadn't considered that all parties ran South Asians in BGM.  But yeah, the youth thing worked out very well for Singh.  I also think the communication thing was a big factor, even though it shouldn't be.  I believe Singh's fluency (and lack of accent) helped him with white voters, even though it shouldn't be an issue.  I remember hearing former PC MP Norm Sterling saying something on TVO about how Singh looked like a very bright and articulate young man.  Likely trying to be polite and all, but it comes off as he's "not like those other visible minorities who are not".  Of course this shouldn't matter, but I think it does. 

Also note that lilTommy and I are different people (you had misinterpreted my point, not lilTommy's)

[Hatman 🍁]

Sources tell me the nomination meeting will be July 8 for the NDP. Race will be between Wali Farah (the previous candidate) and School Trustee Bronwyn Funicello! Finally the NDP will have a star candidate here if she wins the nomination.

[adma]

Remember that before the 1990s, the Tories were the centrist party, and the Liberals were the right wing party in Ontario.

Though the last Tory MPP, Claude Bennett, was on the party's right wing.  (Then again, McGuinty Sr. + Jr. were on *their* party's right wing--ditto w/John Manley federally...)

[DL]

Sources tell me the nomination meeting will be July 8 for the NDP. Race will be between Wali Farah (the previous candidate) and School Trustee Bronwyn Funicello! Finally the NDP will have a star candidate here if she wins the nomination.

Is she related to Annette Funicello of the mouseketeers?

[Hatman 🍁]

Sources tell me the nomination meeting will be July 8 for the NDP. Race will be between Wali Farah (the previous candidate) and School Trustee Bronwyn Funicello! Finally the NDP will have a star candidate here if she wins the nomination.

Is she related to Annette Funicello of the mouseketeers?

No idea, but it continues the trend of the NDP running public school trustees.

[Hatman 🍁]

If course, I'm spelling her name wrong, it's Bronwyn Funiciello. So no relation.

I remember voting for her in my first municipal vote in 2006.

[lilTommy]

Sources tell me the nomination meeting will be July 8 for the NDP. Race will be between Wali Farah (the previous candidate) and School Trustee Bronwyn Funicello! Finally the NDP will have a star candidate here if she wins the nomination.

Is she related to Annette Funicello of the mouseketeers?

No idea, but it continues the trend of the NDP running public school trustees.

I think it's a broader trend of municipal politicians who are New Democrats finally stepping up to the plate and running Prov/Fed. Percy Hatfield is a councillor, so all the candidates (if Bronwyn wins) will come from municipal politics.
For a number of years now i think New Democrats have been slowly running and winning on the municipal scene, gaining that experience/profile. look at the number of TOcouncil/School board for that matter.

[Hatman 🍁]

Well in Ottawa we have a grand total of one NDP city councillor. School board is a different story though, maybe half are at least left of centre.

[Hatman 🍁]

So, Funiciello is in: http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=80d3adc69f5ba29df6b4c6c32&id=b7f90027ac

Nomination is on Saturday at 2pm. I hope to attend

ETA: There will be 3 candidates, Farah (2011 candidate), Funiciello and Bob Bell. No idea who Bob Bell is, according to Twitter he is the riding association's VP. I guess he must be new, as I haven't been on the RA for a while.

[DL]

How many NDP members are there in Ottawa South eligible to vote for a nominee?

[Hatman 🍁]

How many NDP members are there in Ottawa South eligible to vote for a nominee?

Probably 100-200. Most people there will be observers I bet. I can't even vote, as my membership has lapsed.  (If I had updated my membership, I could've voted in the Ottawa Centre nomination as well which was a few months ago when I was living there). If Wali had signed up a lot of members in the last few months, he could pull off an upset. I do know he had brought in some people during the last election.

[Hatman 🍁]

As mentioned in the other thread, the NDP has selected OCDSB Vice Chair Bronwyn Funiciello as their candidate.

The meeting was held in a small auditorium at the Heron Rd Community Centre in the neighbourhood of Heron Gate (which is low income, high visible minority, highly Somali) which is usually the NDP's best neighbourhood in the riding. The room was packed full of people, but most were from outside the riding. I recognized many faces, including the Pundit's Guide lady, Alice Funke there. There were actually not enough seats for everyone. A rarity for an Ottawa South NDP nomination meeting!  Funiciello supporters wore light blue scarves. Wali Farah supporters were there too with their signs from the last election. There were a large amount of Somalis there (Farah is Somali).

When voting happened, all the non-voters had to leave the room (including me; my membership has lapsed). All the Somalis left, which meant that there was no way Farah could win. And he didn't. I'd estimate there were no more than 30 actual voters out of over 100 people present. The NDP doesn't release the numbers, so no way of actually knowing.

Oh, and Andrea Horwath was there. She was on time (I thought leaders were supposed to be late?) She gave her speech, and then left. I wanted to get a picture of my daughter with her, but alas could not. Hopefully she will be in town again during the campaign.

[Hatman 🍁]

I posted this to the gallery in 2007. It was at the time probably the most irrelevant map on there. However, now it becomes quite interesting:


This is Bronwyn's 2006 re-match against the previous Trustee, Russ Jackson.

Bronwyn's Zone covers 2 wards, Rideau-Rockcliffe (the northern half) and Alta Vista. Alta Vista is in Ottawa South, but Rideau-Rockcliffe isn't. However, notice how Bronwyn's support was in Alta Vista! And that small triangle at the bottom is Heron Gate. Probably very low turnout- the only explanation for why she lost the poll.

[Hatman 🍁]

Here's a photo album someone made from the nomination: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhansen/sets/72157634520089146/with/9226616132/

Somehow I have avoided being in any of the photographs, even the one of the crowd. (too busy tweeting to stand up for our leader )

[Hatman 🍁]

I'm a bit disappointed; The riding association has not been asked to work on the campaign in an official capacity, so it looks like I wont be doing what I normally do on Ottawa South NDP campaigns. I guess the party has their team of people.  Anyways, with my polling job it would be a conflict of interest anyways

I am quite jaded with how things operate. But, that's politics, isn't it? I must say, I was briefly considering not even voting NDP this time. But I couldn't bring myself to do that.

[Hatman 🍁]

The Liberal campaign is the biggest for sure, so far. Twitter says they canvassed 20 polls. Not sure how the NDP did, but twitter says there has been good reception. There was an apparent canvass blitz today.  Since I'm not on the campaign (as it would appear), I wont be able to tell how good it is. Not yet anyways.

Since we just picked a candidate, we don't have sings up. The Liberals have lots up, and the Tories have some too. Havent seen any Tory sings on private property, but the Liberals have a lot in Alta Vista. My parents have got leafletted by the Liberals and PCs, but neither party has been willing to come to our apartment.

[Hatman 🍁]

John Redins told me on Twitter he will be running for the Party for People with Special Needs once again. He got 0.5% of the vote in 2011, 14 votes behind the Libertarians.

[Hatman 🍁]

Apparently the NDP campaign has a bunch of inexperienced Hill staffers running the show So much for grassroots activism. I made the campaign manager well aware of how upset I am.

OK, hopefully I can stop b[inks]tching about this now :/

[lilTommy]

Apparently the NDP campaign has a bunch of inexperienced Hill staffers running the show So much for grassroots activism. I made the campaign manager well aware of how upset I am.

OK, hopefully I can stop b[inks]tching about this now :/

Have you heard any reason as to why this approach was taken?

[Hatman 🍁]

Apparently the NDP campaign has a bunch of inexperienced Hill staffers running the show So much for grassroots activism. I made the campaign manager well aware of how upset I am.

OK, hopefully I can stop b[inks]tching about this now :/

Have you heard any reason as to why this approach was taken?

I guess since the provincial party is paying for the campaign, they get to have their "people" run the show.

FTR, I'm well aware this isn't isolated to the NDP.  But you know, one would think we would be the party of grassroots campaigns. But, it's telling at how important we've come...

[toaster]

Still no NDP signs from what I've seen.. the PCs seem to have to most signs, from my observations (which is by no means scientific).  Hope things turn around, but there's not much one can do in less than a month.

[Hatman 🍁]

Liberals have the most signs near here. Apparently the NDP just got their signs in today, so hopefully we'll see some soon.