Robyn Sears offers an assessment of three of the contenders for the NDP's leadership:
Charlie Angus has impeccable New Dem credentials: northern, working class, long-term Indigenous activist; informal but smart, folksy but policy sharp, self-deprecating, well-known to local party leaders from coast to coast. As comfortable as an old shoe for a wide swathe of traditional party members.
Singh is a mirror opposite: openly ambitious personally and for the party, cool under pressure but happy to be seen to wield a knife, proud and flaunting his cultural and personal difference. Willing to stare down public intolerance and crazy racist hecklers — but with grace and confidence.
Despite Guy Caron’s recent gains, Quebec still lacks a powerful native son candidate. Can Singh appeal to enough urban progressive Quebecers to overcome the hesitations of older rural voters’ unease with his difference? Or does Angus convince with his claim that he can best appeal to working and middle class progressive Quebecers, who are no different than other Canadians in their struggle to defend their families and work to build a better community?
Curiously, he has nothing to say about Nikki Ashton. And he implies that the choice is between Angus and Singh. Perhaps he really knows what's going on in the party's inner sanctum. His contention that the race is between Angus and Singh is interesting.
This will be the my last rumination on the leadership until after the Dippers make their decision.
Image: thestar.com
4 comments:
Sears is a right-wing New Democrat. It's no surprise that he seeks to consign Ashton to the memory hole. Typical dishonest "analysis."
I've not followed the campaign. A couple of individuals I had hoped would contest the leadership didn't but there seems to be enough talent among those in the race that it shouldn't matter.
I'm much less concerned about who wins than the direction the party will take to fight the next election. Will it remain Blairified as it has been since Layton and Mulcair or will it go back to its roots as the champion of the Left and the "conscience of Parliament"? That's what matters to me. It's not as though they'll be taking my vote from the Greens in any case.
Who will win hasn't been a burning question, Mound. In my mind, the question is, "Does the party have a future?" We'll only know the answer to that question after we see the new leader in action.
It's strange, thwap, that Sears completely dismissed her.
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