Against Third Way centrism and neoliberalism!

[sabotabby]

Okay, kids! My NDP leadership ballot has come in the mail. I know my first choice (Nash, though Saganash is still on the ballot and he was my first choice until he dropped out) and my penultimate and last choices (Singh and Mulclair respectively), but I still need to rank the other candidates. And I'm really quite undecided.

So, fellow Canuckistanis, give me your choices and rationale.

By the way, until quite recently, I have never been a member of any political party. As a left-wing opportunist, I joined mainly as one more vote against an NDP takeover by right-wing opportunists. Now the NDP calls me and e-mails me seventy gazillion times a day. That's what you get for getting involved in electoral politics. Even in first-year university when the International Socialists were trying to court me, they didn't bug me this much.

Comments

[sabotabby]

If Lewis ran I'd back him in a second. I know he has good reasons not to run, but I would actually be really enthusiastic about the party and volunteer and such. I mean, more than I do now. I would also be very enthusiastic about Nash (or Saganash, if he'd stayed in), but I feel like Lewis would have the best chance of being PM.

It saddens me that the one POC left in the race is someone I absolutely can't vote for. He's ridiculous.

I'm leaning towards Topp for #2 as well.

I'm conflicted, because I do think that Harper is so far out there that he needs to be stopped by any means necessary, even if it means a temporary alliance with Liberals or Greens. But such arrangements tend to become permanent, and you just know the Liberals want a merger. And that would be disastrous. Someone who could navigate a balance intelligently would get points from me.

[90pointmetaphor.livejournal.com]

rbowspryte and I decided that Stephen Lewis was our pick during his eulogy for Jack, and I'm sure he would have won - possibly on the first ballot - if he'd run. I like the way he gets away with being uncompromising on his progressive values while still being well respected by Liberals. It would've been great for the country if he'd run, but probably not great for him personally especially since he's 74 already.

I've really been noticing the race and gender aspects of the race. While Saganash was still around, we had 2 white women, 2 non-white men (not sure that the term POC is appreciated by many First Nations communities, though I could be wrong) and 4 white men. As far as I know, none are LGBTQ or disabled. Of that group, the 3-5 front runners (depending on the tally you look at) are all white men except for Nash.

I can see good reasons why many of the other wonderful potential candidiates who are women, non-white/POC and/or LGBTQ chose not to run - Libby Davies because she's not bilingual, Olivia Chow for so many reasons and many rookie MPs who need a little more experience first. Stil.

[sabotabby]

When Rathika Sitsabaiesan gets a bit more experience, I'll enthusiastically back her as well (as will lots of people in Malvern, I think).

[90pointmetaphor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she was one of the ones I was thinking of who's a rookie MP now.

[audrawilliams.livejournal.com]

Martin is white! It's so funny to me that he is seen as a POC, just because I've known him for a long time, not QUITE since he was Martin Hill, but close.

Saganash might be able-bodied, but he absolutely has PTSD (for starters) from his childhood.

I wish Megan Leslie had run!

[audrawilliams.livejournal.com]

There are no POC in the race! Martin is a white guy. He was born Martin Hill.