Ontario ONDP Leadership (March 2023)

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The Ontario NDP will choose a new leader in March of 2023.  Interested candidates have until December to enter the race.

According to CityTV, "Several NDP caucus members have previously indicated their intention to seek the party’s leadership including:"

Intending to Run:
Laura Mae Lindo (Kitchener Centre)
Marit Stiles (Davenport)
Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls)
Catherine Fife (Waterloo)

Considering a Run:
Sol Mamakwa (Kiiwetinoong)

Not running:
Joel Harden (Ottawa-Centre)
Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth)
France Gélinas (Nickel-Belt)
John Vanthof (Temiskaming-Cochrane)

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Looking down the list of current Ontario NDP MPPs, I do think there are a few who could maintain that labour/progressive coalition. Jamie West (Sudbury) is a union guy who seems to fit in nicely/get along well with with the downtown Toronto ONDP MPPs, he also kind of has the goofy/positive Jack vibes.  Wayne Gates would be another one, as would Jennifer French.  If the Liberals do end up choosing a Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, I do think the ONDP will risk losing many of those urban seats, so might as well focus on maintaining the labour left.  I don't know much about Marit, does I do think she's the front runner at this point.

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We also need to distinguish between wealth and income when we are talking about being "rich".  Northern Ontario (places like Nickel Belt) have high incomes (thanks for labour, working in mining), many are not university educated professionals.  They also don't live on wealth (ie, their houses haven't increased 10x in the past 10 years) like most areas in Southern Ontario. My understanding is the data provided by the Census measures income, not wealth.

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Getting back to the Ontario NDP leadership, I hear rumours that Sudbury MPP Jamie West may throw his hat in the ring. He would be a good alternative to Marit Stiles - though both would make excellent leaders of the party! 

That would be great news!!  I hope so, he's such a likeable guy. Gets along with everybody, labour and progressives.  I think he could lead the party into government.

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I think Marit is well liked, and a great speaker, but I worry about her being able to bring (particularly private sector) labour back to the big orange tent. All of the MPPs listed that support her are Downtown Toronto MPPs (plus 1 newcomer from urban Ottawa). I'll wait to see if she gets any of the Northern/Southwest MPPs supporting her before deciding whether she'll be able to get labour on board.