NDP Election and Mulcair

Mulcair knows how to communicate and should do well against Harper and the conservatives.  However, I am very worried by his lack of support for labour in the party.  This is why I didn’t vote for Mulcair.  The party is going to look very different in the future.

As a former riding association president, I know a lot of rank and file members were not happy with how Layton was moving the party.  What will the activists do with Mulcair?  Will they still come and support the party at election time?  What about fund-raising?  Will the rank and file support the party with money?

At least Mulcair is not Cullen.  As a former liberal, I been there and done that.  There are good progressive individuals within the Liberal Party but when it comes to legislation it is all Tory lite.  Just look at the Ontario Liberals under McGuinty; are we really that better off since Harris?

My compromise between two pro-labour candidates (Nash and Topp) was Dewar in the first round.  I would have supported Nash if her first ballot support was stronger but it wasn’t.  Topp was the strongest pro-labour candidate and I am very disappointed that Nash didn’t swing her support to Topp after the first ballot.  Both Dewar and Nash could have created a movement for Topp if they had acted at that moment.  I am really at a lost why Nash and the other candidates didn’t swing their support to another candidate.  Did they believe Topp was doomed from the start?  Were they protecting their political futures?  Was it purely self-interest – that is how it came across on TV?  I am really disappointed by their actions, particularly Nash.  When Sid Ryan starts calling for you to support a labour candidate you know there is a problem.  I hope Mulcair rewards Singh with a good position because he had the guts to stand up and be counted.

The voting process was really bad and I would not be surprised if someone demands a new election.  I have a new family and could not attend the convention.  Voting from home was extremely difficult and you had to be very dedicated to survive to the end.  How many potential voters were turned off by the challenge of making repeated attempts to vote?  Did this favour any particular candidate?  I wonder how the candidate preferences differ between Pre-convention, at-convention and at-home voting.  If this was a union election I would be filing a complaint with the election committee and the national union.

I am willing to give Mulcair a chance but I suspect in the future the labour movement may need to be more independent with its party support.  I also believe labour needs to look at its mobilization efforts because Mulcair should have never seen the light if day of Labour had its act together.

That is my two cents opinion.