It's a shame that the release of the Hale report ended up coinciding with (and largely overshadowing) the last day in the Legislature for Lorne Calvert. So I'll take a moment to thank Calvert for the time and effort he's put into building his party and his province. But let's put the leadership campaign and the previous party leader in context with some idle musings about what might have been.
How different would the Saskatchewan NDP look now if Calvert hadn't stepped down, but had instead decided to lead the party through the 2011 election? Would the party have had trouble getting members motivated for another run under Calvert - or would a concerted internal renewal process have been easier without a two-year wait for a leadership race to set the party's future direction?
And where would readers rank Calvert if he were on the leadership ballot against the other current contenders?
For the record, I'd think that the leadership race has been a positive process as a whole despite the downsides which may have dominated the news lately - and there should be plenty of time for the NDP to unite behind its new leader going into 2011 and build on the momentum it's picked up over the past few months. But given the chance to include Calvert among the leadership candidates, I'd have no hesitation slotting him at or near the top of my ballot. And while his tenure as premier may not have produced quite the transformative change that some NDPers would have hoped for, whoever succeeds him will have a tough act to follow.
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