Head Tale

(Click here to read All Ten “Reasons I'm Supporting Ryan Meili” Posts)



Since my earliest posts about Ryan I've compared him to politicians like Barack Obama and Tommy Douglas.  But as I said when I began this latest series of posts with “#10 – He's Soft Spoken“,
I knew this wasn't literally the case – only that these kinds of
comparisons worked as a useful shorthand for the type of leader someone
might resemble in policy or strategy. 


The comparisons can also be useful to provide some insight into the
type of leader a candidate had the potential to be.  In fact, in some
ways, I think Ryan's best analogy might be a sort of hybrid of Tommy Douglas and Barack Obama –
a “21st Century Tommy Douglas” if you will.   



The comparisons are useful to a point but in the end, should he become
the leader of the Saskatchewan NDP on Saturday, Ryan Meili won't be the next TC Douglas, the next Barack Obama or the next anyone else.  Ultimately, he will be the first Ryan Meili. 



Still, that's not such a bad thing when (with all due respect to the
other candidates who would each make a fine leader for the NDP in their
own way) Ryan is the only one I see with the potential to be a
transformative leader for the party – the party of Douglas that my
grandfather voted for and the party of Blakeney, Romanow and Calvert who are the
leaders I've known in my lifetime. 



Ryan has his weaknesses, some real and some outright fabrications
that are being passed around as fact. But if you were creating the
perfect candidate for the Saskatchewan NDP at this point in its history, you'd probably have a hard
time doing better than Ryan.   

Here are some of the main characteristics, attributes and experiences he would bring to the leadership:

– doctor

– connected to both rural and urban Saskatchewan

– strong connections to the First Nations community

– tech savvy
– young

– progressive

– accomplished

– innovative

– award-winning

– positive

– intellectual

– idealistic yet pragmatic

– experienced with international development

– his biggest scandal is that he was arrested during a peaceful protest
at the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City (something many NDP
members probably see as a badge of honour as much as anything!)

– multi-lingual

– lives and works in Saskatoon's inner-city (when not working in
various small towns around the province as a rural relief locum)

– and I've been told some people find him quite handsome too! 



There are some candidates who seem to treat the NDP, not as its historic precursor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation but as the Competitive
Commonwealth Federation.  I don't think Ryan operates that way.  Time
and again, he's shown that he will cooperate with his leadership
opponents and can bring others together rather than dividing people (PDF – scroll to page 19).



In the end, it comes down to this.  Against a group of leadership
candidates who were arguably all better known within the NDP than Ryan at the start of
the leadership race, Dr. Meili has vaulted from relative unknown to being a
strong second-place contender in a few short months.  This is due to all of the factors I listed above plus the fact that he's drawn a strong team of party newbies and stalwarts to him because they also recognize Ryan's potential as a transformative leader for the Saskatchewan NDP at a critical juncture in its history. 



If I'm being completely honest, when I first got involved with his
campaign, I probably thought it would take a miracle for Ryan
to win (but after seeing Obama overcome similar odds in the US, that's a miracle I was willing to believe in!) 

After Lingenfelter's membership scandal reminded everyone that
this is as much a choice about doing politics in an old way versus
doing them in a new way, I thought there was maybe a chance that Ryan
could win. 

Within the last
two weeks, with the money bomb and a last minute push of policy releases and events around the province, I've allowed myself to believe that Ryan really
has a legitimate shot at winning. 


Still, to win, Ryan needs votes.  The election results are tabulated on Saturday but you can vote now (don't wait until the convention if you can help it!) 
If you haven't already, I strongly encourage you to consider voting for
Ryan as your first choice (or your second choice if you prefer another
candidate.) 

Take a look at this hypothetical timeline:

I don't know about yout but I like the way that looks!