Ontario ONDP Leadership (March 2023)

[Benjamin Frank]

Bump

So, is Marit Stiles going to win by acclamation? The deadline to enter is less than 5 days away.

[Benjamin Frank]

Odd. I can't believe nobody would challenge Marit Stiles. The past 4 Ontario NDP leadership races all had 3 or 4 candidates.

Niagara Falls MPP Gates decides against running for Ontario NDP leadership
https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/news/niagara-region/2022/12/02/gates-decides-against-running-for-ontario-ndp-leadership.html

From wiki, the Ontario CCF/NDP has never had a leadership race won by acclamation.

According to Wiki, the party only had a spokesperson who was designated as the leader during elections from 1934-1942.

1942
Ted Joliffe
Murray Cotterill

1953
Donald MacDonald
Fred Young
Andrew Brewin

Donald MacDonald was acclaimed as leader in 1961 as the CCF transitioned to the NDP. I wouldn't really count that as an actual leadership race.

1970
Stephen Lewis
Walter Pitman
Douglas Campbell

1978
Michael Cassidy
Ian Deans
Michael Breaugh

Michael Cassidy is a brilliant person but should never have been elected leader. I remember one critic saying 'he's the first robot to to win a leadership race.'  Ian Deans seems to have been too right wing for most New Democrats though, and Breaugh seems to have been unable to get along with enough people (he clashed with both future provincial leader Bob Rae and federal leader Ed Broadbent whom he briefly succeeded as the federal M.P for Oshawa.)

1982
Bob Rae
Richard Johnston
Jim Foulds

Richard Johnston was the 'Waffle' candidate and Jim Foulds was the candidate of some academics and social activists, but Bob Rae had most of the union and party establishment backing.

1996
Howard Hampton
Frances Lankin
Peter Kormos
Tony Silipo

Frances Lankin was considered the frontrunner as the arguably most capable cabinet minister in the Bob Rae government, but was ultimately rejected as being too much of an insider minister in the Rae government that many New Democrats weren't happy with.

Peter Kormos was the anti establishment left wing outsider MPP.

Tony Silipo, although a capable cabinet minister in the Rae government and a Toronto school trustee prior to that, lost out to Peter Kormos as the left wing choice and to Frances Lankin as the choice of Toronto New Democrats.

Howard Hampton was a senior cabinet minister but was not seen as being an insider in the Rae government. He was also the only northern candidate.

2009
Andrea Horwath
Peter Tabuns
Gilles Bisson
Michael Prue

[Benjamin Frank]

As the leader of the procrastinator wing of the Ontario New Democratic Party, I am officially annoucing that I *might* start to prepare my campaign to run for the leadership of the Ontario NDP tomorrow.