Cape Breton Labour Leadership Election - 1989

[DC Al Fine]

While the 1987 election was a success for CB Labour on paper, the party was in disarray. Never able to secure business backing (they were ardent socialists), they also had trouble securing the backing of the unions who mostly funded the NDP. Cape Breton Labour swept all 11 Cape Breton seats but were deeply in debt and about to be challenged from an unlikely source...

After getting wiped out in the 1987 election, the Liberals quickly selected retired MLA Vince MacLean to be their leader. Cape Bretoners were upset that a free trading Tory government had been elected and MacLean won support by arguing that only the Liberals could present a unified front to stop the Conservatives. This hit Cape Breton Labour hard.  The Tories were non-factors in most of Cape Breton, allowing  Labour to win many seats easily. The Liberals however, still had a strong organization in Cape Breton and could challenge Labour on their own turf.

In 1989, CB Labour MLA Reeves Matheson resigned his extremely safe seat in Cape Breton Centre. Liberal leader Vince MacLean took a gamble and ran in the ensuing by-election. Alexa McDonough, still bitter about Labour's attacks on her party in the last election put money and staff into a candidate with no chance at winning. This created a vote split and allowed the Liberals to win the seat by a mere 15 votes.

That by-election loss and the fact that the Liberals and Labour were polling even in Cape Breton prompted Billy Joe MacLean to challenge Paul MacEwan for the leadership. MacLean has created headlines by promising to merge Labour with the NDP.

Paul MacEwan
MLA for Cape Breton Nova since 1970 and former deputy leader of the NDP, MacEwan formed the Cape Breton Labour Party after being expelled from the NDP during the party's civil war. Bitterly opposed to Alexa McDonough, MacEwan refused to cooperate with the NDP during their minority government. MacEwan believes that Cape Bretoners won't vote for a Liberal party that only managed 4% of the vote last election and that his campaigning prowess will lead the party to another sweep of Cape Breton.

MacEwan is adamantly opposed to merger with the NDP arguing that they have sold out in order to win the votes of well off progressives in Halifax. He points to the proposal to raise the gas tax and the NDP raising the sales tax as evidence that they have nothing in common with the workers they claim to represent. MacEwan has also vowed that regardless of the results of this election, he will not be a part of any movement led by Alexa McDonough...

Billy Joe MacLean
MLA for Inverness South since 1984 and Mayor of Port Hawkesbury, MacLean was a star candidate for Cape Breton Labour in the 1984 election and a major reason for Labour's success in the rural parts of Cape Breton. MacLean wanted to prop up the NDP minority government in order to achieve some of their socialist aims such as nationalizing the coal industry.

MacLean is promising to merge Labour with the NDP, arguing that only by providing a unified front can a socialist party lead Nova Scotia. Although MacLean is less known than the popular MacEwan, he has a strong machine throughout rural Cape Breton that promises to  make the leadership election a close one.



Paul MacEwan



Billy Joe MacLean


You are a delegate at the Cape Breton Labour convention. Who do you select as leader?

Voting is for 4 days.

[Hatman 🍁]

Time to unite the left. I voted for Billy Joe. (What a Southern name for a Cape Bretoner, eh?)

[DC Al Fine]

Bump

C'mon lefties. Here's your chance to create a united front.

[DC Al Fine]

Bump

[Peter the Lefty]

Go Billy Joe!

[TNF]

I'd rather remain separate and overtake the NDP if that's possible.

[Leftbehind]

I'd rather remain separate and overtake the NDP if that's possible.

I don't think it is, given the nature of the party. If it were, we would've seen it by now - instead all their successes have been restricted to Cape Breton.

Very tough one actually, even giving what I said in an earlier thread about how they'd just end up being spoilers for the NDP if not resolved. I don't believe the tax rises on gas/consumption are evidence enough they've irrevocably sold-out, and a strong Labour presence inside the party can only help to reverse it so voted, with some reluctance, for BJM.

[DC Al Fine]

I'd rather remain separate and overtake the NDP if that's possible.

I don't think it is, given the nature of the party. If it were, we would've seen it by now - instead all their successes have been restricted to Cape Breton.

Very tough one actually, even giving what I said in an earlier thread about how they'd just end up being spoilers for the NDP if not resolved. I don't believe the tax rises on gas/consumption are evidence enough they've irrevocably sold-out, and a strong Labour presence inside the party can only help to reverse it so voted, with some reluctance, for BJM.

@TNF
Cape Breton Labour is a regional party. They only run candidates on Cape Breton Island and a few paper ones on the mainland for the sake of maintaining official party status. They can successfully overtake the NDP in terms of seats, but they cannot form a government on their own.

@ LeftBehind
The regional nature of CB Labour means that vote splitting is a minor concern. Vote splits have screwed lefties out of exactly 2 seats in two elections so far. The main issue with division is the refusal of Labour and the NDP to work with each other.

[Leftbehind]

Yeah, included in my (perhaps incorrect) use of 'spoilers' was the winning of seats NDP would need for a majority and then not cooperating.