2012 NDP leadership convention

[RogueBeaver]

Candidates highlight differences in debate.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1123300--ndp-leadership-candidates-highlight-differences-in-halifax-debate

[Holmes]

Saganash and Mulcair are going to be on 22 Minutes tonight at 8:30. Of course, I have a lab to go to. sigh.

[lilTommy]

Saganash and Mulcair are going to be on 22 Minutes tonight at 8:30. Of course, I have a lab to go to. sigh.

They all were on last night, am american style attack NDP debate, it was pretty funny... Nash made fun of Mulcairs beard; Mulcair called nash a commie, Dewar will build a moon base... etc
The even had a spanish-off dedate.

[RogueBeaver]

Bay St. ponying up for Topp.

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/02/02/bay-street-ponies-up-for-topp-leadership-bid/

[Holmes]

Barf. I'm tired of Topp. I'm ready for this race to just be over.

[RogueBeaver]

Less than 2 months to go. Our Grit friends have 15 months!

[RogueBeaver]

Topp takes more shots at Mulcair.

http://www.thestar.com/article/1125571--tim-harper-ndp-leadership-candidate-brian-topp-warns-against-trying-to-outshout-conservatives

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

http://www.punditsguide.ca/2012/02/ndp-leadership-fundraising-predicted-first-ballot-outcome-in-2003/

This is a trend I've noticed in the past, in particular with the recent Bloc race, and the last Alberta Liberal race.

[Hatman 🍁]

Bay St. ponying up for Topp.

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/02/02/bay-street-ponies-up-for-topp-leadership-bid/

Interesting. Coordinated effort to destroy the NDP?

[lilTommy]

Bay St. ponying up for Topp.

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/02/02/bay-street-ponies-up-for-topp-leadership-bid/

Interesting. Coordinated effort to destroy the NDP?

This makes me dislike Topp and start to distrust him even more... with all his fervent left-wing talk to draw in the base, this makes me think he might have some alterior motives. I hate to think that about any of them! but this makes me a wonder

[Hatman 🍁]

New map (haven't made on in a while)



Nova Scotia is getting interesting...

[Linus Van Pelt]

Two notes, one from a few pages back since I was away from the forum for a few days.

First, Bev Desjarlais wasn't kicked out the of the party for her marriage position in any direct sense. She was removed from the shadow cabinet by Layton, but was still a member of the caucus in good standing when she lost her local nomination to Niki Ashton, after which she decided to pull a Lieberman-style independent run. Of course she then was removed from caucus after she was running against the NDP candidate in Churchill.

Second, the idea that the fact that out of the of the 1,000+ people who are lawyers in the Toronto financial district - not even bankers themselves, but lawyers, who tend to benefit financially from regulation and many of whose clients include large pension funds linked to labour (as well as of course corporations) - an Ottawa Citizen reporter can identify 22 people who donated to Brian Topp indicates some sort of nefarious Bay Street conspiracy is one of the most preposterous things I've read in a long time. The reporter at the link doesn't seem to have investigated the employment situation of the donors to other candidates, but somehow I'm not inclined to believe that Thomas Mulcair, LLB, who from 1979 until his election in 1994 practised law in Montreal variously at the Ministry of Justice, for Alliance Quebec and in private practice, doesn't also have a handful of rich lawyers among his many supporters.

[Hatman 🍁]

One of Topp's lawyer donors is a corporate lawyer with a specialty in intellectual copyright

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

On Desjarlais-Ashton

The higher up in the NDP you go, the better the party is. For a moment I thought I saw Nycole Turmel at the Fortinos, but turns out it wasn't her, obviously, but for that moment I was WAY more excited than when I thought I saw Liz May.

I'd also love to share a dinner convo with many many NDP MP's, that Boultrice guy, Pat Martin (I think he and I would get along), as well as Gary Doer. However individual members of the NDP are... well, I call them "leftoids".

[Holmes]

Of course you do.

I'm sure it would be interesting to have a dinner conversation with any MP, even backbenchers. I'm sure they all have interesting and juicy things to say. Whether or not they would say it, whoever...

[RogueBeaver]

Mulcair gets a major union endorsement.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-canadienne/201202/03/01-4492585-thomas-mulcair-recoit-un-appui-de-taille.php

[Hatman 🍁]

Finally, another blog post!

http://canadianelectionatlas.blogspot.com/2012/02/ndp-leadership-endorsement-map-as-of.html

[Holmes]

Charlie robocalled me today about his support for Dewar. The only other call I've gotten was a personal one from Mulcair's people.

[Hatman 🍁]

No robocalls so far.

[lilTommy]

I had that same robo call and so did my boyfriend... it was hilarious cause we were in the same room and no more then 10mins apart did the calls come.

The Toronto-Danforth by-election is now on for march 12... i expect to see the leadership candidates all over the riding... Dewar seems to be first out of the gate.

I think the Bev issue is the same as the long gun, she spoke out against probably cause she was getting a large amount of pressure to do so (this is my perseption, she could have legit opposed it but i doubt it); just like Niki and Rafferty all did about the long gun.

[Hatman 🍁]

Mulcair gets 4 NS endorsements.

New map

[lilTommy]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/59749-ns-cabinet-ministers-back-federal-ndp-hopeful-mulcair

With Chisholm out that made NS a very nice target; and those are big endorsements, 4 cabinet ministers including NS finance minister Steele.

[RedPrometheus]

Are there any organised factions in the NDP at the moment? And if so who are they routing for?

[lilTommy]

Are there any organised factions in the NDP at the moment? And if so who are they routing for?

The only ones i can think of are the Socialist Caucus (those are the leftist of the left, trots, commies, true socialists) but i don't know if they have outright supported anyone. And i'm not sure if any of those candidates want it.
YNDC; Young New Democrats Caucus (i think thats the name) is the only other one which is obvious enough what it is. again i doubt they do block things, haven't really ever i think

[Hatman 🍁]

Apparently Glenn Thibault endorsed Mulcair today, but Mulcair's last tweet is a retweet of mine, advertising my endorsement map