Leadership 2012 Roundup

Followup commentary from the final NDP leadership on Sunday, as well as a couple more days worth of developments in the campaign.

- Most of the post-debate coverage focused on a Thomas Mulcair-vs-the field contrast, while Quinn and Adventures in Socialism offered a few more interesting observations.

- Niki Ashton released her arts and culture policy, including a couple of proposals which could offer far better rights for art consumers and producers alike:

•Promoting ideas like the “creative commons” which provide a means for artists to protect the use and integrity of their work while allowing others to build on their work;
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•Fighting censorship and protecting free speech by ensuring that decisions about arts funding or tax incentives are based on objective criteria and are made by independent juries of artists, not by politicians or bureaucrats, and by rejecting proposed Conservative legislation that would force Internet Service Providers to invade Canadians’ privacy...

- Nathan Cullen was the subject of Barbara Yaffe's latest column.

- Paul Dewar provided a first example of what his issue-based advocacy might look like - though he's a little bit behind the curve in encouraging leadership voters to pay attention to the Cons' attacks on retirement security.

- Mulcair's anti-coalition stance is starting to attract some attention, with Ian worrying that a refusal to work beyond party lines will undermine the NDP's message in Quebec.

- Finally, Bill Tieleman raised some questions about the timing of the last debate within the voting window. Greg Morrow endorsed Mulcair based on experience and leadership, while Marc Laferriere gave his nod to Paul Dewar based on his grassroots building approach. Chantal Hebert is sticking with the line that Mulcair and Cullen are two of a kind no matter how diverge on the central theme of Cullen's campaign. Lysiane Gagnon reminds us how quick some in the media were to anoint Topp as the next leader - but makes the same mistake again by pretending he and Mulcair are the only two candidates in the race. The NDP's Persons with Disabilities Committee offers questionnaire responses from four of the candidates.