We are less than a week away from the NDP leadership race, and once again, we’re hearing incredibly dumb things like the fact that the four candidates who don’t have a seat saying that they won’t be in any hurry to try and get one, never mind that there will soon be a vacancy in Beaches—East York (when Nate Erskine-Smith makes the jump to provincial politics), and it’s a progressive Toronto riding that should be something the NDP could hope to actually win if they tried.
I cannot stress enough that getting a seat at the earliest opportunity is critically important, and we have seen plenty of examples of what happens when a leader doesn’t get a seat. Jagmeet Singh refused for the first year, because he wanted to run in Brampton, and figured that he could just show up for caucus meetings on Wednesdays, and hold a scrum in the Foyer, and that would be just fine, but it wasn’t. He was quickly made irrelevant in the national public discourse, and it wasn’t until he could get a seat—swallowing his pride to run in Burnaby instead—and be in Question Period daily that he at all filtered into the national consciousness and was a relevant player. Likewise, Bonnie Crombie, Ontario Liberal leader, didn’t run for a seat at the earliest opportunity and was irrelevant by the time the election rolled around and just failed utterly. Having a seat matters, and it boggles the mind that nobody understands that.
Meanwhile, it has been noted that this is the first NDP leadership race in well over a generation where there is actual disagreement between the candidates, particularly with Avi Lewis and the rest. And I think it’s more than just different visions, but different tones where Lewis fails to grasp that his tone in the past cost the party seats in parts of the country. And I get that you have pollsters saying that the party shouldn’t discount the fact that there is an audience for Lewis’ message, but I would also point out that much of that message is geared toward extremely online American Democrat fans, where the policy proposals are largely irrelevant to the circumstances in this country, or at least broad swaths of it. It’s somewhat hilarious that there is an absolute blindness to this fact while they chase those votes, ignoring the readily available votes that could be on the table if they actually listened to the people who are supposed to make up their voter base.
Ukraine Dispatch
A Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia region killed four, while power infrastructure was knocked out further north.
Good reads:
- The departmental plans show the federal government is planning to cut over 12,000 full-time equivalent positions as part of the spending review.
- Some civil servants say that they are “scared to retire” because of ongoing problems with the Phoenix pay system (which won’t help with the voluntary reductions).
- There are some uncomfortable silences around any notion of extending France’s nuclear shield to cover Canada.
- The federal government is giving $5 million to Sport Integrity Cananda for their safe sports programme.
- PBO candidate Annette Ryan will face scrutiny at committee and in the Senate.
- Canadian companies in Cuba are pausing investment because of the liquidity crisis, and past debts that could lead to bankruptcies.
- Heather Scofield remarks on the government sending the CRA after the poorest in the country over tiny amounts while not addressing their larger revenue problem.
- Susan Delacourt makes her own observations on Poilievre’s US trip, and how he has been deferential to Carney on it throughout.
- My weekend column looks at what enforcing the Canada Health Act looks like, as people demand they do so with Alberta (hint: They already are).
Odds and ends:
Who needs diplomats? Carney will fly there to negotiate directly. It's not like he has to be in the House of Commons or anything like that.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-21T18:43:28.197Z
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