Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Peggy Nash - her best option in this race

Peggy Nash is a dark horse in the NDP leadership race, she has no realistic chance of coming anything better than a distant third.   If she holds on in the race to the end she misses her chance to have a major impact on the race.  Endorsing either Mulcair or Topp would be the signal of who is most likely to win the race.

Given that this is a one vote per member election and that I assume it is an phone or online based preferential ballot, if you do not have a serious chance of winning, you need to drop out early enough to be able lend your support to who you think will win.   The one member one vote model does not allow for horse trading on the convention floor.   You will know how you did in the race after all the votes are cast.

Peggy Nash also needs to accept the fact that she is really too old to be a serious contender for the leadership.  She is 60 now, which is not too old if she was in the run up to a federal election, but that is not the case.   She will be 64 in time for the next federal election, which I am quite certain the NDP will not be able to win.   2019 is the first realistic election that the NDP could win government and she will be 68 years old.   That would make her the oldest person to become Prime Minister of Canada in 123 years.   She would be the oldest person to ever win their first term in government.

She is just four years younger than Kim Campbell.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's called ageism, and you should be ashamed of yourself. Peggy's my second pick on my ballot.

Anonymous said...

Who is your first pick? Just asking

Bernard said...

My first pick is Nathan Cullen, though I am not a member of the party.

As to second choice, likely Brian Topp