Who will lead the federal NDP hangs over party’s caucus meetings
The NDP caucus is meeting in Hamilton on Saturday to discuss priorities and strategies for Parliament’s fall session, but the party’s leadership race, now in its final stage, is very much on the minds of MPs.
Ontario MP Charlie Angus, one of the four candidates vying to take over from Tom Mulcair as leader, said the caucus is anxious to hear who their new leader will be after months of uncertainty.
“I sense when I talk to my colleagues they are looking forward to having a decision so that we can get a focus, because what we do in Parliament matters,” he told reporters at the Hamilton Convention Centre.
“The caucus is talking and there’s going to be a lot of good ideas coming forward, but I think everybody is ready and certainly our base is ready,” said Angus.
Manitoba MP Niki Ashton, Quebec MP Guy Caron and Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh are the other candidates in the race, which has stretched on for months.
The four contenders will make their final pitches to members during a Leadership Showcase on Sunday, then voting begins Monday by mail and online. The results will be announced Oct. 1 and if no one gets a majority of the votes, further rounds of voting will be held until there is a winner. About 124,000 members are eligible to vote.
‘We blew it’
As they look forward to who will be leading them soon, New Democrats are also looking back at what went wrong in the 2015 election, when they failed to win and they gave up their official opposition status to the Conservatives. Those kinds of questions have come up as members decide what kind of leader they need for the 2019 election and as the candidates make their pitches.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair speaks with a Tiger-Cats and NDP fan at a football game in Hamilton on Friday, Sept. 15, as part of his party’s caucus meetings this weekend. (Petere Power/Canadian Press)
“We blew it,” Angus said bluntly about the last election.
“We became too careful, too safe, and too convinced that somehow it was our time,” said Angus. He said the party made mistakes, he learned from them and he will work hard as leader, if he wins, to earn the trust and votes of Canadians.
Angus said the party drifted too far away from its grassroots during the last election and he believes he’s the right person to make that connection again.
Some members of the caucus, including Mulcair, enjoyed a football game Friday night between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Mulcair stepping back
But the outgoing leader won’t be participating in most of Saturday’s and Sunday’s events. He’s attending the funeral of a close friend. He will be stepping down in a few weeks, once the party has its new leader, and he’s not commenting on the race to replace him.
“I own the world’s best 10-foot pole and I take it out anytime somebody asks me a question about the leadership,” Mulcair said Friday.
“They are all great people, it would be an honour to serve with any one of them,” he said of the candidates.
The MPs will meet in various breakout groups Saturday afternoon, then Sunday they will have a full caucus meeting before the candidates make their speeches.
Angus said the mood at the caucus includes a sense of anxiousness.
“I think that a lot of people feel like we’ve been treading water since 2015 and we’ve got to get down to it. Tom has done great work as interim leader but I know people want to get to it.”
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/who-will-lead-the-federal-ndp-hangs-over-party-s-caucus-meetings-1.4292399?cmp=rss