Why I’m Endorsing Brian Topp as the Next Leader of the NDP
I’ve been a New Democrat since I was 15.
It had started years earlier. Watching images of American warplanes reign hellfire on Iraq in the early days of the 2003 invasion, something inside of me started to shift. I wasn’t even 13, yet I still sat in front of the painful images on CNN, outraged.
Now, I don’t want to get into my life story here. Suffice it to say, that I was reading the Communist Manifesto at 14, Noam Chomsky at 15 and, by 16, I was a pacifist. When I turned 17, it was 2008, and I joined the NDP. I walked into the campaign office of a local teacher, actor and activist who was running for the NDP in Sydney-Victoria - a Liberal stronghold in one of the most economically depressed regions of Canada; Cape Breton.
So I cut my teeth. By 2009, I was in the campaign office daily - working to get our candidate elected as an MLA. While we didn’t win, the NDP formed government in Nova Scotia. A few months later, I was in Halifax. I found myself travelling across the province working on by-elections whenever they sprang up. I served on the executive council of the provincial party as co-chair of the youth wing.
I was on the firm left of the party. I became frustrated with half-measures and “tough, but necessary solutions.” I spent more time on the activist and journalism side of things.
I became re-engaged when 2011 rolled around. With Jack bounding back on the stage as a real, progressive candidate to fix the country, I joined the staff at a small campaign in the Halifax suburbs. I worked 12 hours a day, sometimes more, every day for every week of the campaign. In the end, we lost, but had an amazing showing (and were declared the winners for about a half hour.)
Quebec was the next step for me. I got a dingy apartment in Montreal and I ended up disengaging with federal politics to focus on journalism, knowing that the party could get along without me.
Then Jack died.
I knew that any leadership race offers some dangerous choices. You can chose your Svend Robinson, or you could go with Lorne Nystrom. My model was never after Jack Layton, because I know his mentor in turn was Tommy Douglas.
Without, I hope, inducing gagging - we needed a leader that is willing to tell the mice to stop electing cats.
I had my favourites to enter the race. Megan Leslie, Libby Davies, Peter Julian - none of them offered to run.
And I found it curious when Davies endorsed Brian Topp.
I knew Topp’s name. I read his Globe column closely. I had heard his name branded about in the campaign office. I knew of the work he was doing in Ottawa that trickled down to the ridings.
But he was a backroom guy, I thought. He was too right-wing.
I liked Ashton. I liked Peggy more. I was curiously interested by Saganash and Mulcair.
And it only took about 20 minutes and two beers to convince me to support Topp.
All I had to hear was Topp’s experience in Ottawa and Saskatchewan, an assurance that he’s one of few who is fluently bilingual, and - much more importantly - he was the most progressive candidate in the race.
One of his first moves was to come out in support of a free, independent Palestinian state. He’s since taken bold stances on tax reform, fighting inequality and reforming parliament. A policy wonk after my own heart.
And what have the other candidates proposed? Rehashed policy from 2010 - that Brian was central in writing.
Don’t get me wrong - the other candidates are great, and I still like them (my personal feelings about Mulcair aside) but Topp has cemented himself as my first choice.
The Question of Bias
Yes, I’m a journalist.
But, I’ve been a New Democrat longer, and I find it hard to stay entirely out of the race.
As much love and respect as I have for those people in the Parliamentary Press Bureau, I’m not sure it was ever something I thought I could do. I’m not concerned about burning that bridge.
And no, Tom supporters, I was not a campaign attack-dog sent out to hit Mulcair. I made up my mind on my own over the past few months to join Topp’s campaign because of the work I was doing. At no time did the campaign alter the content or direction of my stories. Scream bloody murder all you’d like, but I was merely expressing my personal opinion about Tom that exists outside of my feelings about Brian.
Political Hactivism
No, I will not become an annoying partisan hack. You will not find me donning a Twibbon or exposing talking points here, or anywhere else.
Like I’ve always done, I will be offering my thoughts on the good, the bad and the ugly - regardless of who its directed at. I will still be able to criticize Brian Topp or laud Peggy Nash without my shock collar going off.
But yes, I do believe Brian can bring about a Canada I believe in - out rooted in peace. One that tackles inequality with unparalleled ferocity. One that becomes a good steward of the environment. One that modernizes Canada and creates a clean, efficient economy. One that makes life affordable for everyone.
Leftist solutions to fix Canada.
Do I believe other candidates can do that too? Sure. But I trust Brian to do it in 2015, and to do it without sacrificing our convictions or moving to the center.
This isn’t about necessary evils, compromises or the lesser of many evils.
No, Brian is the guy.
EDIT: I got this comment just a minute ago:
Brian Topp was a Third Way advocate in the Romanow government. Ask yourself why he has such little support from Saskatchewan where he worked for several years. He’s doing a classic “run to the left for leadership… track to the centre afterward”. Good luck with that :)
I don’t buy this. Before the leadership race, Brian was also slotted to go out to BC and work for Adrian Dix, arguably one of the more left-leaning provincial politicians. He also worked for Jack while the party was pushed to the left.
At the end of the day, these people serve at the pleasure of the party. I’m sure there were left-leaning people working for Alexa McDonough and there were right-wing people on Tommy Douglas’ team.
Brian is now running on his own merits, and those are fundamentally left-wing ones.
