Fair point

A friend has taken me to task a bit about my Charlie Angus/Heather McPherson post the other day. With her permission, I am sharing what she wrote.

“I have tremendous admiration for Charlie Angus, but I have to disagree with him on this one. Heather McPherson has absolutely done a lot of good things, but the last thing the NDP needs now is another shove towards centre. And how can she do anything else? She’s elected in Alberta of all places, for crying out loud. She’s married to the legal counsel for Enbridge (although you do have to dig a bit to find that out as, not surprisingly, she doesn’t go out of her way to draw attention to it). She supported the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

“I think if the NDP doesn’t find its voice again as the true home of the political left, the party is going to be perceived as nothing more than watered down Liberals and the past decade’s slide in popularity may well become permanent. For the NDP to be relevant again the leader has to be bold, and that’s not what we’ll get with Heather. I may not agree with all of Avi’s policies (I suspect for example that degrowth is what the planet needs and you’re not going to find anyone saying that out loud while trying to get elected). But I think his Green New Deal is the kind of vision that can galvanize widespread support. Avi also has a long history of working within the party, including helping to draft the party’s 2016 Leap Manifesto. He’s an activist and a coalition builder and a brilliant communicator (to say nothing of being married to Naomi Klein*).

“As for Charlie’s contention that leading a national political party is ‘not an entry level position’, all I have to say to that is, Mark Carney.”

To start at the end, as I said to her, fair point, well made. Mark Carney.

It’s not the only fair point she’s made well. Another attempt to push the party to the centre is not what it needs. (That said, apparently there were many NDPers who thought that’s what Jack Layton’s leadership represented. You know, the guy who led the part to Official Opposition status in 2011. Okay, perhaps he was somewhat pragmatic, but as someone who had the good fortune to work with him briefly in the late eighties, let me tell you, like Stephen Lewis before him and Avi Lewis now, Jack Layton believed in the dream and could make you believe in it, too.)

But I worry.

Love him or loath him, Jeremy Corbyn never really stood a chance as Labour leader once Rupert Murdoch, social media bots and backstabbing Blairites threw everything they had against him.

What if is a stupid game, but let’s play it. What if the Democratic Party machine had let the 2016 primaries play out without interference? There’s a good chance Bernie Sanders would have been the candidate and, if he had been, he probably would have beaten the Wankmaggot. He would have been forced to pick a nice, safe, middle-of-the-road running mate. How long would it have taken the right wing press and the bots to get him replaced in the Oval Office by said VP?

As soon as the NDP leadership race is decided, the press and the bots will start up. Hmm. Actually, the press might not even mention it, given their decision that democratic socialism died in April 2025. There are good things to say about Heather McPherson, but she ain’t Jack. Is Avi? I don’t know, but he’s certainly the closest of the bunch. And, as my friend mentioned, is married to Naomi Klein, which definitely doesn’t hurt.

* When he was here this week, Avi said there is growing demand within his campaign to make buttons that say: I VOTED FOR NAOMI KLEIN’S HUSBAND.