A lousy day all around…I can think of nothing I like less than the idea of Mulcair, the ex-Liberal, as the leader of the Party I would have gone out of my way to support and volunteer for, if anyone, and I mean anyone, running, would have beat him…
Great..we have an ex NDP Ontario yahoo running the Libs, and now we have an ex-Liberal running the NDP..who needs a coalition when the membership copped out like this? Guess, just like in the States. the progressives in the party are elsewhere today, gardening, probably, while the centrist ‘members’ did all the voting…depressing, but there it is…
Now even more people won’t bother to vote in the next federal election, and we’ll be stuck with that monstrous Emperor Steve ’til long after I’m pushin’ up daisies…have a nice day, suckers…
Left Over 
Oooh, I knew you’d be bent right outta shape about this.
Personally, I was hoping Nathan Cullen would win: he knows how to fight conservatives toe to toe because his own riding is always a 2-way race between NDP and Con, no Liberal presence up there at all. Very grassrootsy kind of guy, actually listens to his constituents and does what they want (rather than toe the party line). Maybe next time.
Who is this guy Mulcair? All I’ve been able to glean is that he’s farther right than most doctrinaire NDPers would like. I wonder if Jack approved of him.
Would have been nice if Olivia Chow had run, but I don’t know if she’d be enough of a pit bull to withstand the Harper-generated shitstorm that is sure to engulf the new leader. (OTOH, she probably has a lot less baggage than Mulcair, from what I understand, so it would be a lot harder for the CPC to run attack ads against her.)
Oh well. We shall see where this takes the NDP.
Guess I’m the only person in BC who didn’t know anything about Cullen before this,
although when Mansbridge interviewed him after the 3rd ballot, i was impressed, have to say..
I was really hoping for Peggy Nsh, lots of top-level union experience, lots of economic experience and a good idea of what she stood for..I liked her feistiness, and it would have been nice to see a strong woman go up against the Cons…but, the usual, low voter turnout and the lowest common denominator always seems to win (witness Harpo)
I found it interesting, again, when Mansbridge interviewed Mulcair after he won, that when asked who he thought would be his biggest challenger he said Peggy Nash…
Be interesting to know how many women, as opposed to men, voted this time…pointless, but interesting.
I found out about Cullen when I was researching a story about how the conservatives were appointing “shadow MPs” in NDP ridings out here (and sending around flyers saying this was the “Go To” person for government stuff). Cullen’s riding (Skeena) was targeted, and his shadow MP was the infamous Naked Mayor of Houston, Sharon Smith.
Later on, there were other issues where he was contrarian to the party line, and I like that. It means he listens to his constituents.