Saturday, March 24, 2012

Thomas Mulcair new leader of official opposition New Democratic Party

  After four rounds of  balloting Thomas Mulcair finally defeated Brian Topp to become the new leader of the New Democratic Party. On the final ballot Mulcair received 33,881 votes to 25,329 for Topp. The Montreal MP was able to win despite that Brian Topp had the endorsement of many high profile MPs and the former party leader Ed Broadbent. However Mulcair was believed to be the front runner.
   After the third ballot quite a few MPs supported Mulcair after their favorites were defeated or were eliminated. There was on-line voting but the vote had to be extended several times to allow more time to vote. Apparently there were attacks on the system although the system was apparently not hacked.  Brad Lavigne a senior party official say that two IP addresses suspected in the attacks have been identified.
     The NDP has a strong contingent of  MPs from Quebec where Mulcair has considerable influence. However Mulcair wants to bring more people into the party and expand its base. In effect this will meaning turning the party to the right. The politically correct description though is moving towards the middle. Former leader and elder statesman of the party Ed Broadbent was sharply critical of Mulcair. For the most part however the 7 candidates refrained from sharp criticisms of their running mates. Everyone must live together afterwards. The Liberals and Conservatives always like to make note of such criticisms and use them for their own ends in election campaigns. For more see this article.

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