Roundup: Stripping the riding associations

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In the wake of the election, we are starting to see a few post-mortem thoughts bubbling up, and this one caught my eye over the Twitter Machine on what went on in the NDP campaign:

https://twitter.com/JessaMcLeanNDP/status/1440366348341694465

This is troubling in several respects – it gives some context as to why the NDP couldn’t get the ground game in ridings where they thought they had a chance to pick up seats, and it explains why their campaign spent as much as it did. This shouldn’t be a surprise for the party however – they are a very centralised organisation, and 2011 was ample demonstration that they have very few grassroots organisations in whole swaths of the county. That’s why when the “Orange Wave” happened, you had a tonne of candidates who had never even visited their ridings – the riding organisations were pretty much just on paper, much like the candidates. A proper riding organisation would have held a nomination race for someone from the area, not a McGill student who signed up on a form and spent the race working Mulcair’s riding in Montreal. They didn’t nurture those grassroots, as shallow as they were, and lo, they lost most of their Quebec seats in 2015, and all but one of them in 2019, nor did they regain any in this election.

Ground game matters, especially in an election where getting out the vote is crucial. Grassroots organisations matter. They may have them in a few of their stronghold ridings, but it really doesn’t look like they have it very well developed in large parts of the country, especially in places where they think they have a chance at winning. But if they’re simply stripping their riding associations of resources – and from the sounds of it, carrying on with the centralised nominations – then that’s a sign of an unhealthy political culture, and not a surprise that they aren’t getting the traction that they’re hoping for.

Good reads:

  • Several of the tight races may not have definitive conclusions until the end of the week. In one of them, ousted Liberal candidate Kevin Vuong remains in the lead.
  • The defeat of fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan has both sides of the Indigenous fishing dispute saying that this points to the need for a resolution to the situation.
  • The Star profiles ten of the new MPs that won races on Monday.
  • Here are a few thoughts from Liberals and academics as to where Trudeau goes now that he’s returned another hung parliament.
  • George Chahal has won a riding in Calgary, which essentially makes him a shoo-in for a Cabinet position.
  • It sounds like Erin O’Toole will encourage caucus to vote for the (garbage) Reform Act provisions that allow a leadership review to be triggered.
  • O’Toole has also triggered a campaign review to see where they went wrong.
  • Jagmeet Singh thinks his leadership is secure, and wants to press Trudeau on wealth taxes in exchange for his support.
  • François Legault doesn’t regret his endorsements in the federal election, even though they amounted to little change.
  • Kevin Carmichaels gets some economic reaction to the election results, and posits that there is now more political certainty for the markets to react to.
  • Chantal Hébert makes her observations about the election results, including that Trudeau will start entering the “legacy phase” of his time in office.
  • Robert Hiltz remains unimpressed by what was on offer in the election, and in the results.
  • My column looks at why the election was not an unnecessary effort, and what some of the underlying narratives that didn’t get explored were.

Odds and ends:

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Stripping the riding associations”

  1. Another adding to the chorus of responses that Trudeau has entered his “legacy phase.” I can understand why he might be tired of the BS (rocks being hurled at him is really beyond the pale), but I nevertheless hope he proves all of the columnists, academics and pundits wrong and wins a long-shot fourth election. Much as I like Freeland, she is untested as a central campaigner, and I still think no one has the GOTV presence that Trudeau has, even if he’s accumulated baggage over the past six years and will pick up some more in this parliament. Canada unfortunately does not have a good record of rewarding female party leadership either. Just ask Rachel Notley or Kathy Wynne.

    I wouldn’t sleep on the plucky little guy from Shawinigan either, but Trudeau is still their “star candidate” in my estimation. I doubt Carney has the charisma either. Another Iggy. The last thing Liberals would want to bring over soft NDP votes is a banker. Plus we don’t even know who the Cons will put up next time around, so why not wait and see if it’s a loser like Skippy? The only reason we’re in a minority parliament anyway is because the Bloc blocks everyone, so why should Trudeau hurry up and go? He has a lot of fight in him yet and I’m sure the feckless opposition will give him plenty to spar against.

  2. I made a donation to my provincial NDP and got a thank you from Jagmeet. I was furious since I don’t support the NDP federally. Now I understand why that happened.

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