{"id":3134,"date":"2011-09-12T19:48:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T23:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=3134"},"modified":"2011-09-12T19:48:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-12T23:48:00","slug":"on-topp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=3134","title":{"rendered":"On Topp"},"content":{"rendered":"

I find the media generally tends to assign too much importance to endorsements during leadership races. After all, Christy Clark came out on top in BC earlier this year with a lone MLA backing her.<\/p>\n

But some endorsements do mater. And since Olivia Chow has said she will stay neutral in the race, this is as big as it gets<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Broadbent backs Brian Topp to replace Layton as NDP leader<\/span><\/p>\n

OTTAWA Brian Topp burst out of the blocks in the NDP leadership race Monday, taking an early head start powered by some muscular endorsements.<\/p>\n

The Montreal-born party president became the first official candidate in the race to succeed the late Jack Layton, who died of cancer last month.<\/p>\n

He was accompanied by party icon Ed Broadbent, the most popular and successful federal NDP leader \u2014 until Layton.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Without fail, the quickest way to get intoxicated during a federal election is to play the “Ed Broadbent” drinking game at an NDP rally. Broadbent is adored <\/span>within the NDP and his endorsement is widely considered to have been the tipping point that pushed Jack over the top in 1993.<\/p>\n

So this was a big score for Topp who, despite never holding elected office, is now considered the frontrunner in the Race for Stornoway. That said…a little perspective people! <\/span>From Stephen Maher<\/a>:<\/p>\n

With Broadbent behind him and deep roots in his party, Topp now looks to be in the same situation as Paul Martin in 2003.<\/p>\n

Thomas Mulcair, the most likely effective challenger, must have been very disappointed to see Broadbent today. He may not want to play the role of Copps in this race.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ummm….no.<\/p>\n

There’s a long list of frontrunners in leadership contests who found out 6 months is a long time the hard way. Topp will be building an organization from scratch. He lacks both experience and charisma. He’s also spilled a lot of ink over the past decade as a pundit, so I imagine there are at least one or two controversial comments he’ll need to climb down from.<\/p>\n

Broadbent’s endorsement makes him the frontrunner. But being the frontrunner doesn’t mean much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find the media generally tends to assign too much importance to endorsements during leadership races. After all, Christy Clark came out on top in BC earlier this year with a lone MLA backing her. But some endorsements do mater. And since Olivia Chow has said she will stay neutral in the race, this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}