Debate is at https://www.ndp.ca/debate

More info on debate and candidates:

Candidate sites:

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
    4·
    3 months ago

    I gotta say, Avi is doing a great job even if I’m still debating between him and Rob.

    • Binzy_Boi@piefed.caEnglish
      6·
      3 months ago

      Iirc it’s a ranked ballot, so you can choose both, just a matter of which order.

        • Binzy_Boi@piefed.caEnglish
          9·
          3 months ago

          Personally the two candidates I like most are Avi Lewis and Tanille Johnston in that order. That both have accounts on Canadian Mastodon instances shows me they’re serious about our sovereignty and are willing to match their actions to their words.

          Lewis to me just feels like he embodies ideas I’ve had in my head for some time. Like I was curious why we haven’t explored crown corporations for groceries before, which he’s thrown the idea into the ring. I’ve also thought about how rural communities have been abandoned by both corporations and provincial governments with the loss of Greyhound and Saskatchewan Transportation Company, and he’s talked of making a public option for a federal bus fleet, and is just very focussed on increasing public options as a whole. I really like his energy, he gets his message across well, and he’s got a record holding people in office accountable.

          Tanille has also impressed me. Guaranteed Livable Income, tough on AI policies like Lewis, closing tax loopholes, and even though it may be more virtue signalling with how grand an idea it is, I love her idea of working with the international community to implement a global wealth tax. Everything else is pretty much on par with Lewis, but what puts Lewis ahead in my books is that he does a better job mobilising people and getting the message out there. That she’s the first indigenous candidate for a federal political party is very impressive.

          Everybody else to me is a mixed bag. I like Tony McQuail since he seems like a genuine, down-to-Earth guy and means well. I like how he wants to strengthen regional associations and strengthen small communities, which I feel is important, but I just don’t think party leader is the best position in the party for the changes he wants to make.

          Rob Ashton seems like a nice guy, but using AI for an AskMeAnything left a real sour taste in my mouth. Like I get you have a background in labour rights, but I question your ability to stand ground in federal politics if you can’t connect personally with the base as a party candidate by using a tool that most people in the party agree to be a detriment to worker’s rights. People make mistakes, and I hate purity tests, but I question his ability to read the party base despite all the good work he’s done.

          Heather McPherson is a tough one for me. She’s pretty establishment for the party, but being from Alberta, I do believe she makes a fair point with the party needing to gain better ground here, and her record in having the safest NDP seat in the country in arguably the most Conservative province. My biggest worry though is that in working in connecting and improving the party’s connection to the province, that she’ll make the same mistake the provincial NDP made under Notley and try to “meet halfway” regarding fossil fuels and piss everyone off. That she equated Alberta sovereignty to Quebec sovereignty in one of her emails didn’t come as a good sign.

          • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
            4·
            3 months ago

            That’s a pretty good assesment. I’m tired so I can’t write in kind but here’s something to your effort.

            Going through with reforming the party as a bottom-up movement is extremely importantfor the long term success. Both Rob and Avi understand this from slightly diff perspective. Rob understands this from union organizing which is similar, where locals have a similar function. Avi on the other hand has the ideology - he’s a democratic socialist. The principles, the why and the how of organizing real, bottom up democratic structures is baked into it. So I think both would be able to do the work but Avi probably has a more encompassing understanding of the domain. He also knows the socialist history of the NDP - he cites the CCF and Tommy Douglas explicitly. He never said “I” when referring to his leadership effort, he always said we and our. All of which speak to his commitment to the bottom-up approach.

            Tony made a critical related point about this - that mass media is never going to convey the message we need conveyed to our members. The CBC might try but will fail. Corporate media would actively mislead as the NDP doesn’t further its interest. So we need our party to convey the messages to its members through the EDAs, so then the members can tell it to their neighbours as they understand it best. Just one of the extremely coherent points from the 74-year-old geezer on the stage.

            Why we haven’t explored public options for groceries and such? Cause we got on the Thatcherite-Reaganite neolib ideological train. We sold off a shit ton of important pub corporations and we decided we ain’t using that economic model to do new things. But that’s just me ranting, I’m sure you knew that. 😊