NDP Leadership Convention 2017

[RogueBeaver]

Cullen tells Althia Raj he's not running.

[Krago]

Count on Erin Weir to throw his hat in the ring.

[DL]

Linda McQuaig.

She speaks no French GONG!

From wiki: In the 1970s McQuaig and four friends co-owned a house they called The Pit in Toronto's east end, where they hosted frequent house parties and dinners for friends in academia, media and the arts. In 1976 she lived for a year in Paris, where she learned French...

She has told me personally that her French is now almost non existent

[DL]

Count on Erin Weir to throw his hat in the ring.

Speaks no French EJECT

[MaxQue]

Linda McQuaig.

She speaks no French GONG!

From wiki: In the 1970s McQuaig and four friends co-owned a house they called The Pit in Toronto's east end, where they hosted frequent house parties and dinners for friends in academia, media and the arts. In 1976 she lived for a year in Paris, where she learned French...

Who cares? She is toxic outside GTA.

[DL]

People should stop wasting time suggesting public intellectuals with zero political experience as leadership material. It's simply not going to happen.

[2952-0-0]

And besides, effectively only sitting MPs qualify for the leadership race. The NDP's poll numbers are so low that even if an MP resigns, chances are good the Liberals will win the byelection and lead to further turmoil.

[MaxQue]

People should stop wasting time suggesting public intellectuals with zero political experience as leadership material. It's simply not going to happen.

But, Michael Ignatieff...

Oh, nevermind.

And besides, effectively only sitting MPs qualify for the leadership race. The NDP's poll numbers are so low that even if an MP resigns, chances are good the Liberals will win the byelection and lead to further turmoil.

Wouldn't stop a small candidate, like Ducasse in 2003 or Singh last time.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Why not Peggy Nash? She tore apart the 2015 national campaign in an op-ed the other day.

[136or142]

People should stop wasting time suggesting public intellectuals with zero political experience as leadership material. It's simply not going to happen.

She ran against Chrystia Freeland in the 2014 byelection and she ran in the 2015 General Election.

If the party members are determined to move to the left, the most obvious choices would be her, Niki Ashton or Avi Lewis/Naomi Klein.  Unless people here can suggest somebody else.

Niki Ashton is from isolated Northern Manitoba and ran poorly in the last leadership race (though she may have improved since then) and Avi Lewis/Naomi Klein are genuine public intellectuals with zero political experience.

Linda McQuaig is from the center of the media universe and she's run for office before, albeit unsucessfully. 

[DC Al Fine]

People should stop wasting time suggesting public intellectuals with zero political experience as leadership material. It's simply not going to happen.

Exactly.

They are totally different jobs, full stop. Plus, spending your adult life pushing a set of ideas virtually guarantees that you've created some attack ad material for yourself. The only Dipper who should want Naomi Klein as leader is Audrey McLaughlin wanting to lose the 'worst result ever' record.

[adma]

If the party members are determined to move to the left, the most obvious choices would be her, Niki Ashton or Avi Lewis/Naomi Klein.  Unless people here can suggest somebody else.

Though even if he himself doesn't have elected experience, Avi Lewis is of a family that does, so that ought to count for something.  (Even if the last time was nearly four decades ago--but a strangely "short" four decades, all things considered.)

[Hatman 🍁]

Ashton's not going to win, guys. Let's move on.

Cullen and Leslie have both said they're not running, but 2 years is a long time.

Yeah yeah yeah, Cullen feigned disinterest to avoid being seen as disloyal but no one takes that seriously. Keep in mind that for a year after the 2011 election Justin Trudeau steadfastly insisted he would not run for the Liberal leadership and wanted to spend time with his kids...what happened with that?

You're absolutely right of course, there's no reason to count him out. As I said, two years is a long time (to change his mind).

[Hatman 🍁]

If there is a public intellectual who will run, it will be Naomi Klein. Chances of that happening though are next to nil.

Anyways, I think we need to stop saying "so and so would be a disaster" (even though I am guilty of suggesting Ashton can't win). We all see what is happening in the US with Bernie Sanders. Not too long ago people were saying the same thing about him.

The media is going to tear apart any leftist leader the NDP picks. But who cares? More and more people are turning away from traditional media.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

As a member of your sister party in the United Kingdom I should inform you not to rule out the possibility of whoever ends up as Hard Left Oddball Designate actually winning

[Hatman 🍁]

Who in the NDP is as left as Corbyn and actually has a legitimate chance of winning?

One reason why Corbyn won was because the other candidates where terribly bland. I don't see that necessarily happening this time. (unless we get a repeat of the last Ontario NDP race).

Hmm... if Leslie and Cullen do not run, I could foresee this happening actually. The NDP brass need to make sure one of them runs at least.

[DL]

For the record neither Avi Lewis nor Naomi Klein speak French with any degree of fluency - so let's end any speculation right away

[Vega]

Yeah, I think the problem is that the equivalent of the Socialist Campaign Group for the NDP has no MPs, or really much of any following beyond washed up 70 year old socialists on Facebook.

Leftism in Canada is really stunted, surprisingly.

[RogueBeaver]

Not that Stoffer was ever interested.

[RogueBeaver]

Peggy Nash has told CPAC she's out.

[Hatman 🍁]

Peggy Nash has told CPAC she's out.

Good.

For the record neither Avi Lewis nor Naomi Klein speak French with any degree of fluency - so let's end any speculation right away

Alright, DL. You seem to be an expert, so who can speak French and who cannot?

[RogueBeaver]

Cullen leaning no.

[Boston Bread]

I think Cullen will change his mind. I mean, who else is there? Nikki Ashton? REB?

[RogueBeaver]

Julian, Boulerice, Angus?

[King of Kensington]

I don't think Angus speaks French.