Monday, September 5, 2011

Mulcair And Topp Split On NDP Leadership Convention Rules

A difference of opinion has emerged between the two top NDP leadership contestants Tom Mulcair and Brian Topp regarding the rules to elect Jack Layton's replacement. Currently NDP policy is to guarantee a minimum % of votes for organized labour (which Topp supports), where Mulcair wants all NDP members being treated as equals. While I'm inclined to agree with Tom on this one, this is unlikely a clash of pure ideologies and rather both men trying to maximize their probability of winning the race. I would be willing to wager that Topp is more popular than Mulcair with big labour and that is his motivation for "defending tradition" against a more populist position.

In almost every kind of contest participants will favour the rules that make them most likely to win. It is difficult to say with certainty how the rule change would affect the victory odds of either candidates without digging into internal NDP polling numbers (which are not public). Mulcair might have the more palatable position, but don't believe for a second that he wouldn't be doing the exact opposite if he were more popular with the union establishment.

3 comments:

  1. The above is true:
    The candidates have already started their progression towards the pecking-order which will see continuous infighting, until a new leader is chosen.
    "Let the games begin."

    ReplyDelete
  2. the unions are the ndp livelihood. therefore, the ndp are dictated too which means, in the near future, if the ndp do get the chance to run this country, the unions will demand their piece of the pie.

    So, it really doesn't matter who becomes the ndp leader just as long he or she (leader) follows the Unions' rule book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did Jack manage to keep all this bickering out of the limelight, did it exist then. This can't be new.

    ReplyDelete