Ontario ONDP Leadership (March 2023)

[lilTommy]

I'm wondering if Fife might be a good fit for someone who could perhaps bridge the two; She's not from Toronto but represents an urban seat which is a bit of everything like most medium sized cities are; a mix of working class and professionals. She comes with a lot of the experience at Queens Park and has been the parties finance voice. I don't think she has a union background though, mostly educational and elected experience.
Stiles does have some union cred, but it comes from her time with ACTRA, so not really the same union pool. More in-line with Public Sector unions rather then Industrial/manufacturing unions that are the small city ones the party needs to get back into. More of an insider I think, she was federal party president for a time.
West is an interesting name, and on paper he does have that strong blue-collar AND urban progressive feel to him, a Layton-like guy. Just as comfortable at a labour day parade as he is a Pride parade. BUT I think he is much less known then the others mentioned.

[lilTommy]

It doesn't look like anyone else filed in time; there was chatter about Jill Andrew having filed papers to run but I don't think that happened.

I was looking forward to having a leadership race, but Stiles came out hard and fast, it just looks like no one who had potential or a desire to also run could compete.
Looking at other names, all of whole said no, most are cut from the same cloth as Stiles anyway. The biggest difference would have been messaging or tone perhaps.

It would have been interesting to see a Stiles/Gates or Stiles/West matchup as Gates and West are  much more populist-left then Stiles (Gates more so, but West to some degree, he seemed like a half-way candidate between the two).
If Harden had decided to run, that would have been a much more policy oriented leadership race for sure.

Pros of not having a race in this case would be a) the leader can be the leader now and get into the public eye. Tabuns has been doing a decent job but the media likes to avoid the NDP and not having a leader is enough of an excuse. b) no guarantee a leadership race gets media attention, look at the last OLP race... c) more time to get Stiles's name out there, more time to get her known and set the narrative which the party has had months of no-one-else interested to do. d) no potential party infighting or division over a race, can present a united front