My first pass at the leadership race, I feel there are 3 front runners:
Heather McPherson
Avi Lewis
Rob Ashton
They had the NDP Leadership Forum a couple of weeks ago and can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cIuOUtL_M8
My thoughts on the 5 of them:
Tony has some interesting ideas but in my small amount of research I feel he is hung up on two ideas that should be low priority: He is against AI and he wants to merge the NDP with the Greens. Personally, I think AI is unavoidable and not something to be scared of, but it is important to understand it and ensure that you have your own AI that is secure for you and your people. As for merging with the Greens, it isn’t a bad idea but I think it is a tough sale to say you want to be the leader of the party and that you want to merge it with another party.
Tanille sounds great but definitely not as polished as the front runners and aside from some vibes I did not really see any concrete ideas out of her yet. I also think she has a long way to go to be viable for leadership of a federal party.
Heather is the only current sitting MP. I like that she is from Alberta as I think she could be a strong advocate for helping Albertans find a different party to vote for instead of throwing away our votes for another decade on a party that doesn’t respect or care about Alberta. However, I also think she is a status quo selection that is unlikely to drive the party hard into the populist / progressive space that I believe is needed to win.
Rob is a labour warrior. That is the immediate vibe I get from him. He calls out the war between the Working Class and the Owning Class and frames himself as ready to lead the working class into the next battle. Honestly, I like his vibe a bunch but he does not have any platform ideas or positions yet.
Avi is an activist, journalist, and university professor. He hit the ground running with calling out the populist class war, identifies a lot of the problems everyone is feeling and has announced the most policy ideas thus far out of the 5 candidates. I also noted that he kicked off his answers by going to French. Perhaps not the strongest French, but he showed right away that French won’t be a blocker for him in a Federal party.