First came the announcement on Wednesday that Michael Byers - the premier critic of Harper’s foreign and defence policy - has decided to run for the NDP in Vancouver Centre. Even cynics acknowledged the magnitude of Byers lacing up for the NDP, given his formidable intellect and relentless critique of the Harper Conservatives.
But the good news keeps on coming, with two more amazing star candidates uniting with Jack Layton to take on Harper in the next election.
Anne Lagacé Dowson – the popular host of CBC Montreal’s radio noon show has stepped forward to carry the NDP colours in the Westmount-Ville Marie riding vacated by Lucienne Robillard. While the riding is nowhere near a certainty for the NDP, the star power of Lagacé Dowson is out of this world for the NDP in Quebec, which is one part of the “Outremont formula” that sent Thomas Mulcair to Ottawa last September. The NDP will make an attractive pitch to people in this English-speaking riding as Quebec remains the one part of the country where the legacy of the Sponsorship Scandal continues to hold the Liberals’ heads underwater.
Anne Lagacé Dowson – the popular host of CBC Montreal’s radio noon show has stepped forward to carry the NDP colours in the Westmount-Ville Marie riding vacated by Lucienne Robillard. While the riding is nowhere near a certainty for the NDP, the star power of Lagacé Dowson is out of this world for the NDP in Quebec, which is one part of the “Outremont formula” that sent Thomas Mulcair to Ottawa last September. The NDP will make an attractive pitch to people in this English-speaking riding as Quebec remains the one part of the country where the legacy of the Sponsorship Scandal continues to hold the Liberals’ heads underwater. 
Ray Martin – the only New Democrat MLA to ever have been Leader of the Official Opposition in Alberta is back to take on underwhelming Conservative backbencher Peter Goldring in Edmonton East. Martin remains very popular in Edmonton, having lost his seat by only the narrowest of margins earlier this year. Martin benefits from a few things: his strong name recognition, with Edmontnians having elected him four times; the strong campaign of Linda Duncan next door, who very nearly knocked off Rahim Jaffer in 2006; and the fact that Edmonton East is an Alberta seat the federal NDP has a history of having won. (Incidentally, a Martin win would finally give the NDP bragging rights over the Liberals as the caucus with the most “Martins” – Ray, Tony and Pat vs. Keith and some guy named Paul).While the Jack Layton is building a stellar team to take on Harper in the next election, both Harper and Dion appear more focused on assembling their legal defence teams.
6 comments:
Very cool news about Ray!
By the way, it's LINDA Duncan (no 'y'), and her campaign site is www.electlindaduncan.ca. *g*
Thanks, IP. Noted and corrected!
And of course, you are right: It IS very good news abour Ray. And it's good news about Michael and Anne too!!
The stars are begining to align, so to speak.
"the legacy of the Sponsorship Scandal"
If the Liberals can get 45.68% of the vote in the riding of Westmount—Ville-Marie during the hight of Adscam, I doubt it will be much of a factor in the upcoming by-election. That said, the Liberals Afghanistan compromise could hurt them.
Hello Blues Clair, yes and then the liberals abstained to vote on over 40 confidence votes. Garneau is using the same old tactics and has learned the old liberal games very fast. The Westmount Liberal Association Executive has wanted an open election for years now after years of being told what to do by Lucienne and was promised that under Marc things will and would be different but guess what the whole team was just named again without a general assembly same old same old! The conservative candidate Dufort lives in Ottawa, ran in Hull in 2000 and now feels its good for him to run in Westmount is quoted as saying that he only believes in 80% of the Harper agenda because he believes in social support programs...??? this from a Harper candidate. I think with confidence that 45% isnt going to stay! Rock and roll Dowson we are behind you.
Then we have Vancouver Hysteric Hedys expiration date is overdue and what better choice than Byers!Go Mike Go!
look out, vancouver! michael byers is on the way!
i particularly enjoyed his comments about a terrorist attack in toronto not impacting the rest of canada.
i'm also sure voters will love the fact that he was negotiating with the liberals before he jumped ship to the ndp.
finally, i am confident that voters in vancouver won't mind that byers doesn't live in the riding, nor does he have any intention of moving.
vote michael byers -- faster than you can say "iggy-lite".
WCP said: "i'm also sure voters will love the fact that he was negotiating with the liberals ..."
The only person with a version of the story that has Byers running for the Liberals is Liberal organizer Bruce Young.
Byers has through his words and actions demonstrated that the NDP was his first choice.
The Libs couldn't convice Byers to run because of their disasterous carbon tax. So where precisely are the Liberal stars??
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