- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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Welp. I was hoping that he'd possibly run again. I do hope Megan Leslie sticks around though.
quote: Don’t take the news that outgoing Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar will work for his New Democratic Party as an adviser as a sign that he’s sticking around politics.
“I’m interested in doing something different for a while. Whatever that might be. I haven’t had time to look at what the options are,” he says. “It’s been almost 10 years and a lot’s happened. I’ve had a lot of really interesting experiences, and not in the big-P politics sense. There’s been a lot of international stuff that I’ve really enjoyed. And some local causes as well.”
So his gig as a senior adviser to leader Tom Mulcair on the NDP’s transition down from Official Opposition to third-party status is strictly temporary, he says. A few weeks. Couple of months at the very most.
Yes, you might think of helping the party figure out its new place in the world as being the leader’s job, which ultimately it is. But Mulcair asked Dewar to help, and Dewar says he couldn’t refuse.
“Since I’m here in Ottawa, have experience in caucus, I know most of the staff. It’s just to help with that transition from where we are to where we’re going,” Dewar says. “I’m not pursuing any kind of ongoing role.”
Faced with a similar situation in 2004 — after an election the Liberals won with a minority — Stephen Harper named star Quebec candidate Josée Verner to his shadow cabinet even though she lost her local race. (She won in 2006 and 2008 and then lost in 2011. Harper, by then the prime minister, immediately made her a senator.)
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath did it after her party’s disappointing showing in the 2014 provincial election, giving former MPPs Jonah Schein and Paul Ferreira advisory jobs in her office. She’d been left with just one Toronto member, but Schein and Ferreira had been seen as rising stars in Toronto-area ridings. The idea was to give the provincial New Democrats more than one big brain to work on big-city issues and to keep the pair from wandering off to other careers before the next election.
But this won’t be that sort of patronage appointment, Dewar says. The NDP faces real but temporary nuts-and-bolts problems. For one thing, despite the mass defection of voters that gave the Liberals 184 seats and the New Democrats just 44, a startling percentage of the New Democrats in the next Parliament are rookies.
“This is kind of strange because have these 16 new members. Our geography is changed a bit. We have Quebec members in there … but we were shut out in the Maritimes and certainly in Ontario, which was important to us,” Dewar says.
Ordinarily there’d be veterans like Dewar to be den mothers for the newbies but, like Dewar, many of them — such as Jack Harris of St. John’s, Peter Stoffer and Megan Leslie of Halifax, and Pat Martin of Winnipeg — got wiped out. Party warhorse Libby Davies retired. Of those who remain, many were elected in 2011 and have no memory of life as third-party MPs, with less support from a well-staffed party apparatus. Hundreds of party workers are losing their jobs, too, taking many years of experience with them out the door.
“My skill set is simply to help,” Dewar says. “It’s as simple as how you help set up offices and how you go forward.”
In many ways, it’s a shame. Dewar won three elections handily and many voters in downtown Ottawa lamented that they had to choose between him and the Liberal who defeated him, Catherine McKenna — they weren’t dying to throw Dewar out. Having someone close to Mulcair as intimately familiar with the capital as Dewar is would be a help when the new Liberal government makes decisions that affect the city.
I inquired of Emilie Taman, the federal prosecutor who was fired when she ran for the NDP in Ottawa-Vanier in defiance of instructions from above. She didn’t respond. Dewar says he’s heard nothing either from or about her since the election a week ago.
As for Mulcair himself, who’s turtled since election night, Dewar says his party leader will make an appearance in public. “Very soon. I honestly don’t know. I know he was at home over the weekend celebrating a birthday. But I don’t know. Soon,” Dewar says.
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Oct 27, 2015 03:06
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May 8, 2024 11:21
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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That was mostly a throw away comment, it could just as easily have been about law school or poli sci or economics. But basically it's that public policy programs seem to be producing a generation of policy wonks and political operatives who think that think governing is mostly about achieving very modest technocratic and incremental solutions to problems, such as very mild adjustments to the tax rate. It's like a political science version of an MBA, inculcating all kinds of dumb ideas, dressed up in the pseudo-scientific terminology of neoclassical economics, and catering to the kind of scumbags who dream of one day being a cabinet minister.
These kinds of programs seem like they end up being a training ground for the kinds of sociopaths who use bloodless econ-speak language to explain why we need to cut disability benefits or freeze transfer payments or close hospitals so that we can stimulate corporate investment with another tax cut. Obviously not everyone in these programs is like that but this seems to be what they're ultimately contributing to society: people who can now cloak the preferred policies or our oligarchic ruling class in the language of public interest. And then when some meaningless feel good policy like a tiny tax on vacant homes come along these people get really excited because this kind of policy is exactly what they were trained to debate and dissect endlessly, and the fact it won't really accomplish anything is totally secondary to the fact that they get to put their degrees to use by endlessly debating and thinking about it. Meanwhile, the underlying power imbalances that actually drive our political and economic problems continue to go unaddressed.
Having an overly credentialed and professionalized political class hasn't served our politics well. These are the sorts of people who, in my opinion, have consistently been driving the NDP into becoming a horrible Third Way party.
I guess you’ll be happy to hear that the sunny ways policy wonk crowd is only growing.
Speaking from dealing with these people on a near daily basis for the past few years, for every decent MPA student / grad I’ve met there’s another who fancies him or herself a deputy minister in waiting. The insularity, arrogance and elitism bred in these programs is nothing short of ridiculous. It’s honestly pretty fascinating to see Canada’s establishment self-replicate.
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Jun 22, 2016 23:17
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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The poster is referring to the 1950s, when run-off voting was used instrumentally to subvert socialism.
Fun fact, this actually backfired on the Liberals and PCs and brought about a Social Credit victory with the CCF close behind. They anticipated that Liberals and PCs would exchange preferences but these instead flowed to Social Credit (as did the CCF's).
Master of Stealth fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Aug 4, 2016
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Aug 4, 2016 14:25
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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While I would like to see a MMP or STV+ system, the major stumbling block for me is that it doesn't necessarily fundamentally change the underlying politics / neoliberal hegemony. Assuming electoral support is the same and the parties don't fragment (and that is a very big if), the Liberals would be able to muster Tory support for any crappy neoliberal policies they're trying to push for and NDP support for any (ostensibly) progressive social policies. We'd just be left with the same rotating door of assholes trying to plunder the state. Even if minority governments would be a constant, that'd just increase the speed of the door.
I think more attention should be paid to improving civics education so we don't have the most complacent and ignorant electorate in the western world. Unless there is genuine movement against the neoliberal bloc by society at large, I have no faith in any kind of progressive change. But hey, legal weed.
Incidentally, I'm pretty sure Trudeau and his provincial cohorts can get away with privatizing healthcare and they'd all be reelected with comfortable majorities. They just need to call it progressive healthcare optimization or something.
Master of Stealth fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Nov 23, 2016
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Nov 23, 2016 19:36
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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The Liberals have been pretty good at cramming as much lovely announcements into this week as possible.
I suppose sabotaging electoral reform is better than the Liberals implementing AV unilaterally. I can't get over the Gallagher index comment though, she's trying to mock the opposition for something she clearly doesn't understand. I hope she loses her seat in a landslide.
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Dec 2, 2016 04:55
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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I was never expecting a serious commitment to electoral reform but I'm surprised the Liberals decided to shoot it down in the sleaziest way imaginable instead of just silently dropping it. At this point I'm just hoping they stick with FPTP instead of doing something stupid like pushing AV through.
I know there's no way in hell that Canadians will remember any of this for 2019, but I'll retain some hope that poo poo like this will backfire. Unfortunately it'll probably mean a Leitch Conservative majority with 37% of the popular vote when it does.
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Dec 5, 2016 15:52
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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I wonder how erect the Fraser Institute goons are over the Phoenix fiasco.
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Dec 9, 2016 16:45
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE4qbMVReTM
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Dec 13, 2016 22:27
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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Welp. Not unexpected though.
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May 18, 2017 17:31
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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Haha my riding was up NDP all night until 78/80 polls reported and it flipped to PCs
God loving drat it
Yup! loving liberals
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Jun 8, 2018 04:25
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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Question: what is with liberals including clover in their twitter handles?
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Mar 6, 2019 19:28
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May 8, 2024 11:21
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- Master of Stealth
- Oct 12, 2012
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Okay I'm an idiot never mind, I just noticed it a lot when #istandwithtrudeau was trending lol
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Mar 6, 2019 19:40
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Oct 27, 2015 03:06
