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Ranking Some Potential #skndpldr Candidates #skpoli

So Cam Broten resigned as Leader of the Sask NDP yesterday.

I’m seeing a range of reactions across social media ranging from lots of “Thank-you Cam“-type messages to some that are celebrating his defeat.

Maybe it’s because the Stanley Cup playoffs are about to start (Go Panthers!) but personally, I keep thinking about a sports analogy.

To me, being Party Leader is sort of like being a head coach in hockey.  You’re “hired to be fired”. Even when you get results, you’re just postponing the inevitable.  And if you don’t get results, sometimes you leave unceremoniously – even if you only get one chance and/or even if it’s not fair that one person gets singled out for the faults the players, the managers, the others on the coaching staff, the team’s historical performance or myriad other factors, both within and beyond your control.  (Edit: Ack! I see Noah Evanchuk has already used the “coach” analogy. I didn’t see that before I wrote this – honest!)

(Someone else had another analogy – they said it’s sort of like a funeral where everyone’s saying nice things about the dearly departed but what really needs to be done is to have a frank conversation about why this is the second person to meet the same fate in less than five years!)

So anyhow, I may have some other thoughts about the Sask NDP’s campaign and how they might move forward in the weeks and months to come.  But for now, I think I’ll focus on turning the page with a patented Head Tale list…

Here’s a list of some of the names who might run for the Sask NDP leadership, ranked roughly by their odds of winning the leadership…

Top Tier

Top-Middle Tier

  • Buckley Belanger, Danielle Chartier, Cathy Sproule – existing MLA’s with more than one term in office

Middle Tier

  • Doyle Vermette, Warren McCall, David Forbes – also multi-term MLA’s but whose names don’t come up as much as other current MLA’s in “potential leader” discussions
  • Yens Pedersen – former leadership candidate, former party president
  • Noah Evanchuk – former MP candidate 

Bottom-Middle Tier

Long(er) Shots

  • There are probably numerous others within the party in behind-the-scenes roles (Party President, etc.) or municipal politicians (eg. Charlie Clark in Saskatoon) or academics (eg. David McGrane) or former MLA’s/MP’s or others who are involved in grassroots activism or the labour movement (someone suggested Sask Fed of Labour President, Larry Hubich on Twitter but I think he quickly shot them down.  But maybe Tom Graham who’s President of CUPE Sask?) who might throw their hat in the ring.
  • Maybe some media personality?
  • Possibly a First Nations leader?
  • Some are speculating about a former leader coming back – Lorne Calvert or Roy Romanow – but I think they’re either joking or delusional! 😉
  • [Edit: Along the same lines as a former leader coming back, someone suggested to me that a former MLA who was defeated in 2011 or retired might also consider running – someone like Frank Quennell is tied pretty closely to Cam Broten but others like Pat Atkinson or Sandra Morin or Darcy Furber might consider it.]

Longest Shots

  • Naveed Anwar (sorry, I couldn’t help myself!)
  • Dwain Lingenfelter (suggested by a reader)

As for interim leader, I think it’ll either be Cathy Sproule (if she doesn’t want the leadership) or David Forbes.

Posted 12 April 2016 § List § News § Politics § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Music Monday – “I made something of myself and now you wanna come back/But your love—it isn’t free, it has to be earned/Back then I didn’t have anything you needed so I was worthless”

“American Idol” which has had a massive impact on pop culture ended its 15 season run last week.

So I thought I would post a recent clip from the season one winner, Kelly Clarkson, who gives an amazing performance of a very personal song she wrote that contrasts her absentee father against the father of her current child.

Beyond Clarkson being emotional thinking about where she started and how far she’s come as Idol nears its end, she’s also pregnant as she sings this song which adds even more to the emotional impact if that’s possible.

Watch with the Kleenex handy…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHYBQxURQo

“Piece by Piece” – Kelly Clarkson

Posted 11 April 2016 § MemoryLane § MusicMonday § Sad § United States § Video ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

A Bad Week for the #NDP: Federal NDP Lose Election Then Leader. Sask NDP Lose Election Then Leader? #skpoli #canpoli #yeg2016

So it’s been a pretty tough week for Team Orange…

The Saskatchewan NDP got a shellacking in the provincial election last Monday, a loss which many are blaming at least partly on still lingering divisions between the 50.3% of the party that supported Cam Broten and the 49.7% of the party that supported Ryan Meili in the last NDP leadership race.  This setback for the Sask NDP was capped by the shocking loss of the Leader Cam Broten’s own seat.

Then the Federal NDP had their convention this weekend which many are also portraying as evidence of a party divided – between those who would defend the resource economy and the workers who rely on resource jobs against those who want to LEAP into the future via a quick shift to a green economy.  This convention was capped by the shocking defeat of Leader Tom Mulcair in a leadership review.

This never-ending dichotomy between the pragmatists and idealists reminds me of the post I did after the last Sask NDP Leadership Race summarizing some reading I’d done about how there are two differing approaches to politics – the naive (embodied by idealistic progressives like Naomi Klein) and the cynical (embodied by more pragmatic centrists like Rachel Notley) in a constant push-pull between ideological purity and making concessions to appeal to the broadest swath of citizens so as to gain power and actually have the potential to implement your positions.

Given recent events, that post needs revised though.  Both Cam Broten and Tom Mulcair have shown that there is one faulty assumption in the definition of these two approaches, namely, the conventional wisdom that a strong focus on centrist policies, top-down control, safe over risky in all things, etc. is your best bet for electoral success while “radical” left wing candidates are unelectable.

In fact, with the quick rise of democratic socialist, Jeremy Corbyn who was elected Labour Leader in the UK and leads the official opposition there; the meteoric rise of Bernie Sanders from fringe democratic socialist candidate at the start of his Presidential campaign to challenging and often defeating the best positioned political candidate in history to yes, even Mr. Trudeau, who true to Liberal form, ran as if he were a leftist and ended up being rewarded with a resounding majority for his efforts (yet is back to centrist positions), something different seems to be happening.

People appear to have a hunger for something different – authenticity, honesty, trustworthiness, inspiration – that they’re not getting anywhere else but from the candidates that are normally easily dismissed as being too idealistic.

Given that, it’ll be interesting to see where the Sask NDP and the Federal NDP end up with their respective leadership situations.

(Quick clarification – As I said in my initial post a couple years ago, the lines between “naive” and “cynical” aren’t always 100% in one direction or the other and are more along a spectrum that mixes aspects of both.  Or as a colleague put it, “Why are people shocked to hear that supporters of the NDP can hold and consider the pros and cons of two opposing positions in their head at the same time?”  On that same point, I think it’s safe to say that Mulcair/Broten were both chosen because they were “safe” centrist candidates who were seen as giving their parties their best chances for electoral success.  Yet even those two clashed on certain policies even though they otherwise had many political similarities.  These variances are partly due to the spectrum and partly due to different perceptions in different parts of the country about what is “moderate”, what is “progressive” and so on.)

Posted 10 April 2016 § Canada § MemoryLane § News § Politics ‡ Comments (0) °

Saturday Snap – Maybe At Assassin School Though?

I don’t think “Hiding in small places after class” is something he learned at parkour…  

Posted 09 April 2016 § Family § Pace § Photo § SaturdaySnap § Sports ‡ Comments (0) °

Friday Fun Link – Hack The Menu

Some interesting ideas on how to “hack” the menus of various chain restaurants.

Posted 08 April 2016 § FridayFunLink § Meme ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – A Creative Use For Assistive Technology in a Public Library (March 2013)

When I worked in RPL’s Outreach Unit serving Regina’s homebound & visually impaired citizens, one of my projects was to facilitate the purchase and implementation of  a number of pieces of Assistive Technology equipment.

Due to an inquiry from a colleague who was setting up a series of Lego programs, we also realised this equipment could be re-purposed in creative ways.  For example, the example pictured below where a member of the Sask Lego Users Group (SLUG) was able to use one of our magnifiers to help people attending his program (including Pace and I) get a better view of the figures and other creations he was showcasing.

img4904

Posted 07 April 2016 § Library § MemoryLane § Pace § Photo § Saskatchewan § ThrowbackThursday § Work ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Yay For Meaningless Internet Points! #feelthebern #whichhillary

I occasionally post on Reddit but most of my comments get a handful of upvotes (maybe) then disappear into obscurity.

Lately, as I’ve been following the Bernie Sanders campaign from afar and knowing how much the campaign is being driven by Reddit users, I’ve been a bit more active than usual adding my theories, observations and/or snark on various topics related to Sanders’ run for President.

Tonight, I threw out a quick jab in a discussion about a recent development where, about a week ago, Hillary was being all high & mighty and saying Bernie’s should “watch his tone”.

It seemed like a weird comment at the time since Bernie Sanders has been relentlessly positive and refusing to get dirty about Clinton’s various faults and scandals or even to directly attack her by name, instead choosing to link her into a wider problem with American politics.

But that comment about “tone” appears to be a set-up by the Clinton campaign so she’d have an excuse to start going negative on Sanders – who is relentlessly gaining on her – which she has done in the last 24 hours.  This includes her making a disgusting attack on Sanders that attempts to tie him to the shooting at Sandy Hook by saying he supports gun manufacturers over victims of gun violence.

My Highest Upvoted Reddit Comment on Bernie Sanders

I posted a quick comment, almost as a throwaway joke, expecting to maybe get a 10 or 20 upvotes which is what my most popular Bernie comments tend to get.

Instead, in a couple short hours, it’s become my most Upvoted comment ever on Reddit (and still going up as I type this – now at 1348)!

Plus people are also re-posting this comment on Twitter (and probably other places as well.)

As always, things like this make me contemplate the ever-changing role of social media in politics.

I mean, on one hand, lots of people still say social media can’t impact elections.  But every election that goes by, I say the influence of social media only grows.

My quick comment has been seen by *at least* 1200 people in a matter of a couple hours.  If something goes really viral, it can be seen by millions in that same time frame.

No doubt about it – that can have a YUGE impact! 😉

Posted 06 April 2016 § Humour § Internet § Meme § News § Politics § Technology § United States § Wisdom ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

(Not Quite) The Mother of All “I Told You So!” Posts #skvotes #skpoli

As I mentioned yesterday, soon after the last Sask NDP Leadership Race in 2013, with Ryan Meili’s extremely close loss to Cam Broten still fresh and painful, I posted that I wanted two main things from the new Leader:

1) in the short term, genuine, humble outreach to other teams to acknowledge what a close race it had been and to draw everyone together

2) in the longer term, to get the party back to at least the 20-seat level it had been at before the disastrous experiment with bringing Dwain Lingenfelter as Leader so it would be clear the NDP was heading in the right direction.

My take is that the first point never happened which led directly to the failure on the second point.

Instead, last night, the NDP ended up with only one more seat (gaining two and losing one) compared to what they had going into the election.  Apparently, they also ended up with *less* of the overall vote share since the Sask Party recently added three new seats in the province.

On top of that, I think it was beyond shocking for most observers to see the one seat lost belonged to NDP Leader Cam Broten who was upset in an extremely close race in what was probably the nail biter of the night.

There’s all kinds of things I’m thinking and would love to say in the mother-of-all “I Told You So!” posts – good, bad, ugly, angry, sad, sentimental, resentful, conciliatory, and even humourous – but given that the result was probably worse than anyone predicted, I think I’m going to skip all that for the moment.

(Okay, I’ll share a humourous one – one colleague looking for bright spots mentioned that the NDP now have perfect gender parity in the legislature – five men and five women.  I responded that if Nicole White had won her close race in Saskatoon, she’d join Nicole Sarauer and Nicole Rancourt as new MLA’s and the NDP would also be well on the way to “Nicole” parity too!) 😉

Anyhow, instead of loudly blaring “I Told You So!” and unnecessarily rubbing salt into a lot of people’s wounds today, as gently and quietly, as possible, I’ll just say…

“I told you so.” 🙁
Posted 05 April 2016 § News § Politics § Saskatchewan § Wisdom ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged:

Music Monday – “The raven is a wicked bird/His wings are black as sin.” #skpoli #skvotes #skelxn

This musician seems very appropriate for my Music Monday post today – Colter Wall who is still my favourite Wall from Swift Current! 😉

But in all seriousness, though I am not a fan of Colter’s dad’s politics, I respect that he is a masterful politician.

So congrats to Premier Brad Wall for his third majority victory in a row (and how cool that he apparently got to walk out to give his victory speech to one of his son’s own songs? But the Sask Party also missed an opportunity – I saw a picture of Twitter which showed they were serving Bud Light at their Victory Party.  Should’ve been Great Western!) 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N5dm4oVWtM

 

“Kate McCannon” – Colter Wall

Posted 04 April 2016 § Family § MusicMonday § News § Politics § PopCulture § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

Some Thoughts on The Eve of #skelxn 2016 #skpoli

(I have no idea what the statute-of-limitations on being known as a “Meili guy” is but since I was such a vocal supporter of Ryan during the last SK NDP leadership race, I feel obligated to mention that everything in this post in my own opinion, no former Meili team members saw or approved this article before I posted it, and I am neither trying to build bridges nor stir the shit – I’m only trying to make a few honest observations about how this election campaign has played out from my perspective.  And now that I’ve used a swear word on the Internet and guaranteed I’ll never be a candidate for the NDP anyhow, here we go…) 😉

So the Saskatchewan provincial election happens tomorrow and it’s been probably one of the quietest, most status quo elections I can remember (or maybe I’m just biased watching the non-stop twists & turns of the US elections that are also happening right now?)

In terms of polling, both parties are pretty much exactly where they started a month ago with the Sask Party hovering around 60% support and the NDP around 30%.  No single issue appears to have ignited the electorate (even when there should be plenty of options to choose from), and you get the distinct impression that Brad Wall’s highly popular Saskatchewan Party are just trying to run out the clock by playing zone defense, dropping the writ on the last possible day then filling the news cycle with distractions rather than substance.

Barring a major political upset of the highest order, the only unanswered question is where the Sask NDP ends up once the votes are counted tomorrow night?

Can they increase their number of seats (they’re projected to go from their current 9 to possibly up to ~15 seats if they can make some gains in urban areas) or is it even possible that they could end up losing ground (unlikely though that might be) if they struggle in ridings that are projected to be tight races?

Obviously, I shouldn’t speculate too much until tomorrow’s results are in but I will observe that, no matter what happens tomorrow, there is at least one major positive the NDP can claim, specifically that they fielded the most diverse slate of candidates in Saskatchewan history.  (I paged through the Sask Party’s “Our Team” page and the contrast was stark in terms of which party better reflects the entire population of our province.)

On the flip side, there’s also a major negative looming.  If things go the way it appears they might and the NDP end up with around the same nine seats they have now (or even if they gain back a handful of seats in previously safe NDP ridings), that means they will have little to show for any work that’s been done since the last leadership contest in terms of rebuilding the party, inspiring the people of the province and fielding one of the most diverse slates of candidates in recent memory.

After the Leadership contest back in 2013, I posted that my hope was that the new Leader could get the party back to the 20-seat mark where it had been before the disastrous experiment with bringing back Dwain Lingenfelter as Leader.

Of course, no one who’s being truly honest with themselves expects the NDP to win this election.  But I believed then and I still believe now that 20 seats is a fair and reasonable marker to show the party’s at least headed in the right direction, whomever the Leader is.

Back then, I also said I would post the “mother of all ‘I told you so’ posts” if the NDP didn’t reach this mark.  But that was with Ryan Meili’s leadership loss still fairly fresh and painful in my mind.

I don’t know what I might write after the election (which is part of the reason I’m posting these musings on the eve of the election instead of the day of.)

But I will say that a lot of time has passed and although some will try to tell you otherwise, I think it’s fair to say that the NDP membership is, for the most part, unified behind and supportive of the current Leader.  (Proof?  Meili’s campaign manager is running as a candidate on Cam’s team, many of Ryan’s other supporters are also either candidates and/or workers and/or volunteers and/or donors in this campaign as well as still remaining involved with the NDP in various other roles.)  The bigger problem, in my view, is that the people of Saskatchewan haven’t seemed to connect with Broten in any meaningful way.

I sincerely hope the NDP ends up with 20+ seats.  But if they don’t, I also think the party has to take a very serious look at itself – not just the Leader but their entire philosophy and approach, not just since the last leadership race but going back to the last time they were in government and maybe even before that since there’s been a steady decline in their number of seats since 1991.

If the province’s natural governing party allows Wall to have a history making third mandate in a row, it’s time for some serious soul searching.

Posted 03 April 2016 § News § Politics § Saskatchewan ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , ,