What We Knew
McPherson entered the leadership campaign with both the advantage and the burden of being the first choice of the party establishment at a time when the party itself isn’t seen especially positively, and when that establishment itself is made up disproportionately of a niche (urban contenders for government in two-party Western provinces) which fall far short of covering the ground the federal party needs to win.
What We’ve Learned
McPherson has predictably won a slew of endorsements throughout the campaign. But her experience as an MP hasn’t translated into an advantage in either organization or communication. Instead, she’s tried to walk a fine line between avoiding being seen as the pro-dirty energy candidate, while trying to benefit as the alternative to Lewis’ more focused commitment to a clean energy transition.
What She’s Proposing
One standout proposal from McPherson however is her combination community work placement program as associated job transition plan. While it’s important to deal with the loss of hope throughout the working class, there’s a particular need to offer young voters reason to think they have a path forward - and McPherson has done well on that front.
What to Watch For
Ultimately, McPherson hasn’t been able to turn her advantages into a great deal of momentum for herself - so while to would be a surprise to see her rank below second on the first ballot, her prospects will likely come down to the efforts of the other two main contenders.
There’s a chance Lewis could take an insurmountable lead early with his greater appeal beyond party lines, or conversely if he can’t match his fund-raising momentum with motivated voters there’s a chance McPherson could win out as the default alternative. Or it’s possible that Ashton could pave the way for her to win by both mobilizing labour, and persuading members not to support Lewis (particularly in down-ballot rankings).
But it’s hard to see what would change for the better in the NDP with McPherson at the helm and the current powers that be left in place.
McPherson is a competent business-as-usual politician. If that was what we needed, then she would be the leader one should vote for. But the NDP has been run by competent business-as-usual politicians for some time now, and it has not been working well at all. And, the country has been run by competent business-as-usual politicians for some time now, and that has not been working well either. (The US has been run by INcompetent business-as-usual politicians until recently, and that wasn't much use either, albeit less bad than the current incompetent fascist lunatics)
ReplyDeleteI trust McPherson the least of the contenders, but it's still clear that her intentions are fundamentally good. I think she's basically a good person. But I think her mental frame of how things should be done and how things work is wrong. She has a touch of the Democrat disease. A lot of what she's said in the debates boils down to, we should keep on doing what the NDP have been doing, only do it harder, and I'm a hard worker who can do it harder.
But she's wrong. If it was ever workable to incrementally compromise our way to either electoral or policy success, it isn't now. Contradictions have sharpened, the class war from above is being pushed harder than ever, it is a time to go big or go home, and her ideology won't let her go big.
If anything my concern is less with Acheron personally than the people at the core of her support. She’s been reasonably strong on Palestine and peace causes as an MP, and she’s been willing to support a reasonably ambitious set of policies in the leadership campaign (unlike someone like Mulcair who never went an inch further left than the party’s previous platform). But the messages being used to promote her suggest both continuity with a failing party apparatus, and hostility toward anybody willing to challenge entrenched wealth and power - and it’s hard not to see that as a guide to how she’d approach the leadership once elected.
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