by Mac Olsen
I haven’t seen much good news lately, but last week seemed to be the best in a long time.
Current federal NDP leader Tom Mulcair is soon to fade into history. He didn’t garner even 50 per cent of the vote at their convention in Edmonton during the weekend of April 9-10.
Coming out of the federal election last October in the distant third position, I expected him to resign immediately and make way for a leadership race. No such luck at that point.
But then, I see on CTV News that he received just 48 per cent of the vote at their convention in Edmonton.
He looked so teary-eyed after the result. Listening to some of the people interviewed, some were sorry to see the result, while others were cheering, feeling that it’s time to take the NDP in a new direction.
I won’t shed crocodile tears for him. Mulcair was a one-hit wonder for the party. His power base was in Quebec, until Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stole his thunder and brought the Liberal Party back into power. (Shudder!)
Granted, Mulcair is staying on as the leader until a new one is chosen. So, we’ll have to wait and see who throws their hat into the ring.
One thing we Albertans will have to watch for in the upcoming leadership battle is if there is anyone who would desire to impose the Leap Manifesto.
This is as left wing as this NDP can get, whereby no more pipelines would be built to send our oil to domestic and foreign markets.
If the federal NDP has its way, petroleum production will be totally eliminated if the Leap Manifesto is imposed. Check out the radical document at https://leapmanifesto.org.
Premier Rachel Notley is at odds with the federal NDP over the Leap Manifesto.
“These ideas will never form any part of our policy,” Notley said in a CBC News report on April 11.
“They are naive, they are ill-informed, and they are tone-deaf.”
But the premier hasn’t done anything to demonstrate that she is getting this province’s petroleum engine revved up again.
She’s letting it sputter on and on, and watching the layoffs continue, with no clear agenda or plan to revive it.
And I hope that Mulcair’s ousting sends a clear message to her that her job could be vulnerable, too, if she doesn’t put the province’s petroleum industry front and centre once again.
Meanwhile, we can’t forget former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the second-place Conservative Party.
The former Prime Minister stepped down after he lost his bid for a fourth mandate last October.
However, Harper didn’t just throw in the towel and troll off because he lost that election. Although not acting as public figure anymore, he has remained as a Conservative MP while the party holds its own reassessment of the direction it wants to go in. And nobody has yet put their names forward for the leadership role.
The Conservative Party should study Mulcair’s ousting carefully. If they are to make a comeback in the next federal election, then learning about the NDP decline should be a top priority.