The Great Debate

As part of my catch-up homework on the leadership race, I recently sat down and watched the first NDP debate, from December 4th. In its entirety. In French, and English. See what I put myself through for you, gentle reader?

The large number of candidates meant that each was limited to a few minutes speaking time, and could do little more but introduce themselves and give a taste of their personality and policy preoccupations. Echoing that brevity, here are two-line assessments of debate performance before I go more in depth on the debate. I am listing candidates in reverse order of debate impressiveness.

Robert Chisholm - No French, already out, 'nuff said.

Romeo Saganash - English was a problem for him, and I got the sense that the language barrier limited him to repeating platitudes about working together and looking out for everyone. Then I heard him in French, where, very eloquently, he said the same things.

Martin Singh - Not as crazy as I expected, given that he came from nowhere and has never held office. Still not really qualified though.

Paul Dewar - Turns out he's not a great public speaker, and lost it a bit when Topp went after him.

Niki Ashton - Poised, attractive, confident, young. A little too Tracy Flick for me.

Brian Topp - Good in French and English, comes off as issue-smart and straight-talking. But when he went after Dewar, he looked a little thuggish.

Nathan Cullen - Young MP from BC, not Niki Ashton young but at 39 still a little youngish for leadership. Great energy, policy smarts, wicked humor (calling the prisons bill "Stephen Harper's housing plan"). Keep taking those French lessons though.

Peggy Nash - Composed, polished, made a case based her record and showed she knew her issues. A little cautious, like a female Thomas Mulcair.

Thomas Mulcair - Composed, polished, stands on his record, really knows his policy. Good at looking leaderish, and avoiding misstatements. A male Peggy Nash, but in this race tie goes to the Quebecer.

The theme of the debate was "Building an Inclusive Economy," which the candidates took as an invitation to shoehorn in the word "inclusive" as often as possible in the first five minutes of the debate, and thereafter drift from issue to issue based on their individual strengths and favored talking points.

As is typical in Canadian debates, language proficiency was front and center, coloring the rest of a candidate's debate performance. It turns out that Romeo Saganash can't debate well in English, which hurts him a lot. Peggy Nash, Paul Dewar, Nathan Cullen and Martin Singh can't debate well in French, which hurts them, but a little less. Robert Chisholm, to speak ill of the departed can't debate well in English or at all in French, which prompted him to withdraw his candidacy by the end of December, specifically citing his lack of French as the reason.

Otherwise, the collegial atmosphere (at one point Cullen emphasized that he was in "violent agreement" with his rivals) and large number of candidates made this a superficial, low-impact affair. The only hint of conflict all night was a run that Brian Topp took at Paul Dewar, implying that Dewar was relying on deficit spending to fund his proposal for an East-West energy grid. Dewar was baffled by the question, and shocked at the breach of the peace. He was also kind of right - no one had even implied deficit spending until Topp brought it up. From pure theatrics, the episode was probably a wash - Topp looked like a bully, and Dewar looked flummoxed.

The debate helped sort candidates into tiers, and add an element of live testing to the war of position within the party as they vie for endorsements and the support of established constituencies. Based on both factors, the only three viable leadership candidates seem to be Topp, Mulcair and Nash. Dewar has a solid party profile, but he'll need a strong performance in the next debate if he wants to convince members that he can lead a national campaign against Stephen Harper. Nathan Cullen has great potential, but seems too young and lacks a base inside the party. Niki Ashton is too young - 29 is young even for an MP, and it would be unprecedented for a leader of a major party. Romeo Saganash needs some more seasoning - he just entered Parliament in 2011, and needs to grow into national politics and improve his English public speaking. Martin Singh needs to go back to Nova Scotia and win his riding - he hasn't made his bones yet in party politics, at least not on the national level.

For those interested in watching for themselves, here's the link: CPAC - Video on Demand

Gambare, Koara kacho!

I am a well-informed, well-traveled, highly educated individual, rarely surprised by anything anymore. Coming across this movie (it's an ENTIRE movie), my crust of jadedness cracked and once again I realized anything is possible in this world.

Note that just because he's an adorable koala doesn't mean he doesn't have to deal with real executive problems, like a cheating wife. But it does mean that he can totally get away with public urination.

The Crowded Field...

With the exit of Nova Scotia MP Robert Chisholm from the leadership race (it turns out that learning French might, you know, take a while), the field drops to a still crowded eight. This includes five veteran MPs from across Canada (Niki Ashton, Nathan Cullen, Paul Dewar, Thomas Mulcair, Peggy Nash), another freshly-minted MP coming out of the 2011 Orange Wave in Quebec (Romeo Saganash), the current president of the NDP Brian Topp, and activist, Nova Scotia pharmacist, Sikh community leader and overall no-chancer Martin Singh.

Some of these figures are political veterans with decades of experience in NDP politics - Peggy Nash and Paul Dewar especially - while others are relatively new (Niki Ashton is 29, meaning that her time on earth is shorter than Nash's union experience. Fascinatingly, Ashton wasn't an orange wave MP, but made her way in 2008). None of them are household names in Canada, and many are completely unknown outside of diehard NDP circles. Over the next week, I'll be looking in to their records and their statements to give you a sense of who they are.

This will be an interesting contest - every segment of the party has its champion among the candidates, and individual rivalries will play out in the context of generational ones (NDP membership skews young and old - idealistic students and retirees - giving younger candidates a shot at top posts) and in the sudden prominence of Quebeckers in what was until recently an anglophone, prairie-and-union political party. Finally, with the chance at governing more of a reality than ever before, candidates will have to convince the rank and file that they will not only represent their interests in Ottawa, but that they can beat Stephen Harper at the polls. So stay tuned...

Revival from Obscurity

Around this time, blogs and newspapers like to run retrospective features, often lists enumerating what the editorial staff considers to be the most significant developments of the past year. The Guardian did one based on reader nominations, here's one from fox news and finally, to end on an obscure note, here's the CBC's Saskatchewan list of web stories. In Canada, the number one story, according to a news poll, was the death of Jack Layton, which, coming as it did after the NDP's best electoral performance in history, combined human tragedy with political consequence. However, that very real consequence - a leadership scramble within a radically transformed NDP - rapidly vanished from anyone's view, and a lively, bickering horse-race among a surprisingly large and colorful pool of hopefuls is taking place largely out of view. So I step up, gentle reader, to help guide you through the contest, introduce you to the contestants, and hold your hand until the Canadian left has chosen its latest contender for the leadership of Canada.

And to those who doubt that the internal leadership contest of a political party could be fascinating stuff, I refer you here, where you can watch Francis Urquhart make his bid for the Tory leadership.