Soviet Canuckistanis: Ed Broadbent press conference coming up

[Minstrel Boy]

shortly. Scheduled for 10:30 EST, covered by CBC Newsworld (domestic service, at least).

He's announcing today his return to politics, running for the NDP in Ottawa-Centre.

"He's the closest thing the NDP has to a living saint ... and he's said to be unhappy about what he regards as the right-wing direction in which Paul Martin is taking the country." http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1071671722627_8/?hub=CTVNewsAt11#

Welcome back, Ed - we missed ya!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. Fingers crossed, this is the latest step in a revival of NDP fortune.

The election gets more interesting day-by-day.

[Flightful]

2. Not much chance in Ontario

Too many of us remember the Rae nightmare- 50% income tax, race quotas, decaying health care and trashed schools. I doubt we'd vote for that at the federal level.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Bob Rae's not running.

And if he were, he'd probably be a Liberal.

The NDP's trending-up federally in Ontario, passing the "united right." Today, I think 10-16 seats are winnable. In four months, we'll see.

[iverglas]

8. Liberal propaganda

(Or is it Harris Tory? Or Alliance?)

Ed Broadbent will be running in the riding of Ottawa Centre.

Trashed schools, you say? Ask any school board member in Ottawa (where the school board was ousted by Mike Harris and replaced by an unelected Tory operative), or any teacher in Ontario, just who's been trashing the Ontario schools for the last decade. And hospitals. And ask some Ottawa voters whether they're pleased with new Liberal Premier McGuinty's forked tongue on the Tory's private hospital deal in Ottawa.

And "race quotas"?? Did you have some actual progressive Canadian credentials/ideas you'd like to present, or were you just going to mouth right-wing bile and distortion?


Ottawa Centre has a history of electing NDP politicians (since 1970: Michael Cassidy, former Ontario leader of the NDP, elected both federally and provincially; Evelyn Gigantes, elected and re-elected provincially; Marion Dewar, elected and re-elected mayor) although it more commonly elects Liberals.

The outgoing Liberal MP in that riding is a stupid, useless piece of corrupt crap who is moving on up to the Senate, having sworn unwavering fielty to Chrétien and done nothing but warm a back bench for over a decade.

The likely Liberal candidate, while a charming fellow who has always appeared "liberal", is a Martinite backroom boy with absolutely no profile in the community and no life outside Liberal politics.

There is not the slightest possibility of a Tory/Reform/Alliance/Conservative/ whatever the hell they want to call themselves candidate winning in Ottawa Centre.

There is a notable Green vote in Ottawa Centre, and much of it can be expected to go NDP in a close race.

My money's on Ed.

.

[MrPrax]

4. Ed 'Main St. to Bay St.' Broadbent

Why is he coming back?
To babysit Layton and make sure the NDP don't get too radical...or just steal the leadership.

Isn't he the guy who grabbed a patronage appointment--from Mulroney.
Can. Human Rights Center!!

Hardly a 'living saint' (according to Craig Oliver, a reporter)--Broadbent was the guy that ultimately lost free trade for us...(if he stood down candidates like the executive wanted to do, then the liberals would have got in and free trade would have been defeated)

I'll never forgive him or vote for the egoist...

[Minstrel Boy]

5. He's coming back because Layton asked him,

and because he still has fire in his belly for party politics. He endorsed Layton's candidacy. Good Lord, he's not conspiring to become leader again.

Ed was appointed the first president of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. Something wrong with that? He worked for democracy in Burma and Haiti, and in 1993 was one of the four international judges to sit on the Tribunal on Violations of Women’s Human Rights at the United Nations Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

6. Since when was it the NDP's job to get Liberals elected?

The Liberals fell, what, 70 seats short of a majority. With or without the NDP, they still would've lost the election.

[iverglas]

9. speechless

"... the <L>iberals would have got in and free trade would have been defeated"

And anybody who believes that ... well, I've got a bridge to Toronto Island airport to sell you.

.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Fer Gawd's sake Ed, don't speak in French! LOL

I remember Ed Broadbent as having the worst French accent I ever heard, and I am an anglo. If it was painful to my ears, heaven knows what it sounded like to the Quebecers.