# NDP vote for new leader



## sags (May 15, 2010)

In interviews this past week, Thomas Mulcair was mulling over if he would stay as leader if he received less than 70% of the delegate votes.

After his speech to the convention, which was greeted warmly and with a standing ovation...........the delegates made up his mind for him and gave him 48% of the vote.

Now they need a leader. The two opposition parties in Canada will have interim leaders for a couple of years.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Not surprised. Mulcair rode in on a wave after Jack Layton. Heard on the ottawa news that Kelly Lietch (Jim Flaterty's close friend) is interested.

Now about Kevin O'Leary...imagine him in politics..he is so outspoken..he will "crush the press heads like a bug!" 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/10-p...-conservatives-plan-leadership-race-1.2737738


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## Just a Guy (Mar 27, 2012)

It would have been news had he stayed, when you lose that many seats no one is going to keep you.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

Glad to see the back of him.

I believe that the vast majority of Canadians are within a few degrees of the centre. The NDP moved to the neighbourhood and were successful. Then they veered to the left and openly announced their intention to do so. Leap manifesto
was simply another nail in the coffin.

Same for the Conservatives. They let the very much right of centre take over the Party. They became a bad joke, most especially during the final weeks of the campaign. The evangelical Reform wing of the party took over and essentially sunk the ship.

I read Don Braid's column today. He is right. It is time for Rachael Notley and the Alberta NDP to completely divorce themselves from the federal NDP. The latter are hopelessly lost and unelectable...even as dog catchers. Disappointing as Canadians need real political alternatives not posers.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

imho it's not that Mulcair is responsible for losing so many seats in the recent election. It's rather that the New Democratic Party was not able to repeat the freakish one-time-only orange wave of the 2011 election.

no surprise there. The big surprise occurred in the previous election, when the NDP swept quebec, of all things.

no one has ever been able to explain how or why youths who had never set foot in the quebec ridings they had won - youths who were holidaying in australia on election day - youths who did not speak a word of french - youths whose highest career calling to date had been as waitress - suddenly all those youths woke up to $125,000/year jobs as brand-new NDP memberlets of parliament.

in the end, the youths would do well in ottawa. It was Tom Mulcair who, on day one, took them firmly under his wing. Whether they needed emergency french lessons or smart tailored business suits instead of jeans, Mulcair procured the necessary.

in the recent october/15 election, Mulcair was the clear leader in the polls during the early & middle weeks of the campaign. He shone in the first TV debate while Trudeau & Harper shouted each other down incomprehensibly.

it's not Mulcair's fault that quebec support from young voters had evaporated by 2015. All that happened is that the NDP shrank back to its traditional range as trailing 3rd party.

i believe we should treat fallen political leaders with respect. Mulcair served long, honourably & loyally. He campaigned with conviction, helping to round out a multi-dimensional view of the issues facing canada in the fall of 2015.

that being said, though, here to conclude is another colourful anecdote about hair. I'm sorry to admit that i was one who poked fun at the Harper tonsure. How the former PM had an artful hairpiece top & front that never quite matched the rest of his lovely greying head, although the colour was close. 

now may i be the first to say that i think Justin Trudeau is dyeing his hair. Or at least touching it up. There's something about those solid dark brown curls that is not quite right for a man of his age. Usually by age 44 or 45, a person has variegated hair. Usually a few streaks of grey have appeared. But trudeau's entire head is the same unvarying dark chocolate colour. Beautiful colour, but unvarying from one hair to the next.

it's trudeau's temple area. A photograph that caught my eye a few months ago showed right temple roots that did not look quite right. There was the merest hint that those roots were grey. Temple area, just above his right ear. Of course, this doesn't mean that a subsequent touchup hasn't restored the colour.

Tom Mulcair's hair, though, was always plain, honest, homely, short, sparse & natural, if a bit lacking. Exactly what the NDP aspires to be.


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

Peggy Nash wrote a scathing article in Huffington Post about her opinion of the disasterous NDP campaign in the last election. Her assessment was very critical of Mulclair and his team who orchestrated their campaign strategy...or lack of it


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

^^


i believe you left out the link, so here it is.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/peggy-nash/ndp-needs-leader-who-can-inspire_b_9619998.html

peggy nash says - this was prior to the NDP leadership convention yesterday - that she's an NDPer who was planning to go to edmonton & listen to thomas mulcair.

but she needn't have bothered. Listening, that is. The article shows that she had already made up her mind. She had a long & bitter shopping list of mulcair's failings.

among those failings is that the NDP leader didn't "defend our plan to raise corporate taxes to pay for social programs," says Ms Nash.

you bet he didn't. Mulcair is no suicide artist. 

what is surprising is that the NDP didn't seem to have a Plan B for the day when they might have to leave Stornoway. Even today, a surprising number sound as if they believe they are Entitled. What's worse imho is that they also appear to believe that the best avenue to Entitlement is to beat up their former leader.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Even if JT does dye his hair... so what?


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## fraser (May 15, 2010)

My wife used to as well. Who cares if he dyes his hair or wears contacts for that matter.


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## zylon (Oct 27, 2010)

Haven't heard if there's a push to persuade Rachel to run for national leadership.

Would consider buying an NDP membership to help send her in that direction.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I am thinking the NDP will shift way to the left politically and occupy their traditional space.

Mulcair lost supporters when he diverged to the balanced budget theme in the last election. That policy shift looked too much like the Conservative platform for NDP supporters.

The NDP leadership hopefuls look pretty thin. A group of defeated MPs and others who have no experience or public recognition.

I think the Liberals will have an easy time of it for the next couple of elections, until the PC and NDP get everything sorted out.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

i'm glad to see that some in the NDP & some in the media have begun to speak up & say that the way Tom Mulcair was pushed out was shabby.

Mulcair served the political structure loyally, passionately, to the best of his abilities, all of his life. Long ago he even changed parties because his personal convictions had changed (no, the NDP didn't offer him a cushy spot, he simply walked over to them.)

canadians - even PCs, even wild roses - should be saying Thank You for Everything.


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## yyz (Aug 11, 2013)

Look at the bright side now he can get on to the next stage of his life.He'll make a great used car salesman.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

zylon said:


> Haven't heard if there's a push to persuade Rachel to run for national leadership.
> 
> Would consider buying an NDP membership to help send her in that direction.


What is your reasoning that she would do a better job than Mulcair or any of the other NDP candidates one they become leader of the national NDP) party"? Their manifesto is still rooted on the old CCF party of the thirties.
CCF:


> Founded at Calgary, Alta., on Aug. 1, 1932, by a federation of various farmer, labour, and socialist parties in western Canada plus one labour union (the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees), *its avowed aim was to transform the capitalist economic system into a “cooperative commonwealth” by democratic means*.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> canadians - even PCs, even wild roses - should be saying Thank You for Everything.


Why thank him?..he has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR CANADA. 

For a while he had a good paying job on Parliament hill, as leader of the opposition, but now his time is over. 

He sucked big time as a opposition leader and that IS politics! here today..gone (voted out) tomorrow!


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

carverman said:


> Why thank him?..he has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR CANADA.


He opposed Bills C-51 and C-24 vigorously and kept them in the national spotlight. 

Thank you Mr. Mulcair.


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## pwm (Jan 19, 2012)

Mulcair seemed to be a reasonable individual and that had me worried that they might actually form the government. Thankfully it was a temporary aberration when the BQ in Quebec collapsed and their vote switched to the NDP. Now that they have stabbed Mulcair in the back and are considering the Leap Manifesto, they will leap into irrelevancy again.

I'm happy to see the NDP revert to type.


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

pwm said:


> Now that they have stabbed Mulcair in the back and are considering the Leap Manifesto, they will leap into irrelevancy again..


:highly_amused: Funny, thanks for the chuckle.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

pwm said:


> Mulcair seemed to be a reasonable individual and that had me worried that they might actually form the government


also a chuckle .each:


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

carverman said:


> Why thank him?..he has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR CANADA



glad to see you are back in the finest fettle of good health carverman
shouting once again . each:


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> glad to see you are back in the finest fettle of good health carverman
> shouting once again . each:


GOOD HEALTH????? Not exactly...SHOUTING...well lets call it a way of emphasizing what I have to say..*SO you are READING THIS??*


http://worldartsme.com/person-in-wh...post_96512_person-in-wheelchair-clipart-1.jpg


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