“That is what you get to do when you move up from manifestos, to the detailed, principled, practical plans you can really implement by winning an election”, she said.
Advertisement
Mulcair not only failed to garner the 70-per-cent endorsement generally accepted to survive as leader, but also was unable to secure the 50-per-cent plus one the party’s constitution requires for him to even try to make a case for his continued leadership. She calls Mulcair an “exquisite opposition leader, a fine man, and a fine politician” but admits if she’d been there, she would have been inclined to vote for change.
“I figured he get somewhere around 60-65 per cent, so it would be a tough choice for him”, Machum said.
Mulcair’s job has been hanging in the balance since the NDP’s disastrous performance in last October’s election.
The first was the pledge not to run budget deficits, hamstringing the NDP’s to counter the Liberals’ massive spending promises.
Dexter says he also felt a kinship to Mulcair, because Dexter faced similar criticisms he’d taken the party too far into the political middle.
April 14, 2013: Justin Trudeau is elected leader of the Liberal party, reviving its fortunes and displacing the NDP in opinion polls and a series of byelections as the alternative to the Conservative government. The Trudeau Liberals’ “Sunny Ways”, meanwhile, continue to enjoy the support of a majority of Canadians. “In this campaign, the message that Canadians sent is that they see there are two left-of-centre parties in Canada, and that is a hard, hard lesson for the NDP to learn”. The Liberals have not. “We will always be the party that dreams no small dreams”, Mulcair said.
“So it wasn’t so much Tom”.
He thanked his wife and the delegates, and urged the party to come together around his successor, whomever that turns out to be.
“I am convinced that for the coming weeks it’s an excellent idea, at least until the end of the session in June, it’s an excellent idea that Mr. Mulcair stays”.
During the election, Mulcair appeared more comfortable playing the role of a cautious and moderate 1990s third way social democrat rather than a confident leftist. “Pipelines are the safest way to do that, and our party, the premier, myself, and my cabinet colleagues have been unequivocal about our support for pipelines”.
The new divide emerged as shell-shocked MPs returned to the House of Commons, still struggling to absorb the fact that delegates at a weekend convention voted Sunday to send Mulcair packing.
“We’re certainly looking forward to having a leadership competition, and being able to put a new leader in place”. “I support our members’ decision”. Many in the party view the manifesto as a blueprint for NDP renewal.
And for a party that just turfed its leader, Machum said the process of getting the party back on track has already begun.
Advertisement
“I think quite frankly, it’s an opportunity for me to reinforce to Albertans that I support the energy economy that we have here and I understand the important linkage between that industry doing well and jobs”, she said. We have no lessons to learn from this honourable member who accomplished nothing while in government on this issue, and what the member is now asking us to do is to return to a policy of science denial and climate-change denial and do nothing for another 10 years.
