Sunday, March 25, 2012

Thomas Mulcair Wins the NDP Leadership Race



It was a long and at times exceptionally boring convention. Because of the computer glitches and delay in vote count, it looked like an eternity especially as – on top of the glitches – it took four ballots to declare Mulcair winner.

When I watched the very first debate between the candidates I predicted Thomas Mulcair would win the race. His top rival and establishment candidate, Brian Topp, simply did not come across as leadership material. He will be better off to remain a back room boy. The other problem with Topp was that his win would have required a by-election and Harper would have taken his sweet time to call such a by-election.

Another loser was Ed Broadbent. He is a highly respected former leader but he went overboard to push his candidate Brian Topp to win. In one of his interviews Broadbent said Thomas Mulcair ‘bombed’ his convention speech. I think this was a little too over the top coming from an experienced politician. Maybe age was the factor in his case.

Anyway I hope Thomas Mulcair’s win will help the NDP and Topp and Mulcair will bury their hatchets and work together.

Two people who did well to raise their profile were Nathan Cullen and Martin Singh. They both gave great speeches at the convention and Cullen of course made it to 3rd place among the candidates.

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