I'm glad Thomas Mulcair won the leadership of the NDP Saturday. He has the best shot at retaining at least some of the party's beachhead in Quebec. He's said to be tough and politically shrewd, both of which he'll need to be when dealing with the wily Stephen Harper. He clearly plans to edge the party toward the centre, ala Darrell Dexter and other successful NDP premiers, and that's a good tactic when facing a government of right wing ideologues. But I'm not without a few qualms, including Mulcair's reputation for carrying grudges, and his occasional bone-headed statements on foreign policy,...

27 March, 2012

I'm a little late with this, but it's worth noting for the record the contrast between the way the Liberal Party of Canada and the governing Harper Conservatives reacted to Thomas Mulcair's election as leader of the New Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition Saturday night. Rae issued the following statement: I want to offer my warm congratulations to Thomas Mulcair on winning the leadership contest in the New Democratic Party.  I know Mr. Mulcair well and look forward to working with him to ensure Parliament acts on behalf of all Canadians. I also want to congratulate the NDP for a successful...

27 March, 2012

To judge from my inbox today, something about the manner of Robert Chisholm's departure from the provincial leadership pissed off a few New Democratic Party loyalists. But one party stalwart rejected these comments as, "old wounds and sour grapes." Don't be too quick to put him in the Chisholm column though: More to the point - how can a uni-lingual politician aspire to the leadership of a national political party in Canada in 2011? A party with over 50% of its caucus from Quebec? A party with official opposition status and its eye on the big prize? Je ne comprends pas. Moi non plus....

01 November, 2011

A failed Nova Scotia NDP leader for leader of the national NDP? Hasn't that been tried before? I don't know what he's up to. Certainly not hoping to become leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. Raising his personal profile? For what? Consolidating regional delegates in case of a brokered convention? To what end? The whole thing strikes me as an exercise in misplaced vanity....

31 October, 2011

The Globe and Mail says Scarborough-Rouge River MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan, 29, might be "the most compelling of the new crop of young NDP MPs." She's the first Tamil-Canadian MP, and so has become the de facto standard-bearer for thousands of Canadians who have felt defeated – militarily, in their country of birth, and politically, in their new home. As a 29-year-old woman from political cultures – both Canadian and Sri Lankan – in which older men make most of the decisions, she exudes the poise, organizing skills and confidence of an old-school political veteran. How awkward for Contrarian, then, to report alert reader...

20 September, 2011

Last Thursday, Contrarian got into a bit of a Twitter dustup with Alice Funke, whose blog, Pundits' Guide, features statistical analysis of Canadian election results. In a post titled, "Mommy, They Split My Vote," Funke purported to show that few if any of the 27 Liberal seats lost to Stephen Harper's Conservatives in the May 2 election had been lost due to vote-splitting. Her complicated argument defies succinct exegesis, but you can read it here. In response, I tweeted: This unleashed a torrent of counter-tweets that, for the time being at least, you can find here and here (by scrolling back to May 12). Funke followed...

16 May, 2011