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Wab Kinew's entry into Manitoba politics seen as boon to NDP
February 6, 2016 - 1:29am
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Great to see candidates of this calibre as opposed to the excessive numbers of economists/business and lawyer types.
Wab Kinew’s entry into Manitoba politics seen as boon to NDP
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/wab-kinews-entry-into-manitoba-politics-seen-as-boon-to-ndp
He will certainly be an asset to the party as it rebuilds post-2016. I wonder where he's going to run in 2020.
super excited, Wab is a great dude
..anyone know his position is on pipelines?
Wab Kinew seeking NDP nomination in Fort Rouge
(video)
Broadcaster, hip-hop artist and author Wab Kinew is seeking the NDP nomination in Fort Rouge in the provincial election. He'll be face to face with Liberal leader Rana Bokhari.
This won't help:
Fort Rouge candidate criticized for past derogatory and misogynistic tweets
As Rob Ford has said "Are you perfect? It's great that you are perfect, never said I was. I'm not being elected to be perfect"
But as Adam Giambrone has said "Leader is not an entry level position"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw1a56OsIFA
offs. try making it into a big deal Liberals. it's not and his lyrics and rap history will get him votes. i guess its what they're scared of and now trying to destroy him.
imv it's ignorant racism where the big old white good boy wants to win no matter.
he can fuck off.
God forbid we should have more intelligent, witty, and passioante peopel seeking public office. It's really important that we make sure our politicians are middle-class white folks who have never taken a risk in their life. Thank goodness there are people out there fighting to keep former hip-hop artists and people who use twitter out of politics.
A Liberal candidate dropped out a few days ago over twitter comments (which the NDP had demanded). Two NDP candidates had to drop out in Saskatchewan. All the parties play this game.
I think Wab is safe, so long as he doesn't mention Israel.
Just as I said, let's welcome it! How marvellous that the lines are policed so that polite, change-averse blandness reigns. and all glimmers of humanity (especially from minority groups) are kept out of politics, and only mundane, genteel, polite-phrased everyday racism prevails. How wonderful that all parties help make sure this happens. It is a fine testimony to the marvel that is our poltical system. How splendid that all parties conduct themselves in such a fashion. The fact that everyone does it makes it an even finer thing that it already was. Truly this is the best of all possible worlds.
So the question is can one change and if they have changed can they be allowed to enter into the world of the holier than thou. I am afraid that with the internet young people will not have a place in public discourse because of intemperate things they may say when they are young and stupid. I don't know the man but if he has actually understood the power that his hateful words can have and has spoken out against them prior to seeking office then I don't see a problem with his candidacy.
Misogyny is wrong, but it is also pervasive in our society (and in most societies). If his apology is sincere and he really has turned a page, I think one can move on. The 8th Fire was certainly a positive production, in terms of women as well.
They should take notes from this. I think Kinew handled it exactly right.
In particular, I'd suggest to the next crop of hopefuls:
1. You need to completely own your words or actions. Saying "I apologize if anyone was offended..." won't cut it. It also makes it sound like you'd stand by your words or actions if you thought you could get away with it. A real apology is for something you did that YOU believe to be wrong.
2. Don't expect your apology to be a moral car-wash. You can't just apologize and then everything goes away.
3. Don't wait until your political opponents force you to apologize (or demand that you step down). Besides not wanting to put control of the situation in their hands, it just looks opportunistic if you sob and plead AFTER you got busted.
4. Bored? Got time to kill? That's a great opportunity to comb through your old tweets. Saying "I don't remember ever saying that" is not only unconvincing, it also kind of makes you look out of touch with your own beliefs. You might not remember that offensive thing you said about Natives, but you should certainly have some recollection of how you used to feel about Natives.
5. If you're considering a career in public service, or even if you just want to leave that option open, now is as good a time as any to learn to speak your mind without crossing the line into "odious" territory. Sure, the internet makes it easy to say horrible things to or about other anonymous strangers (and might even reward you for doing so) but it's possible to disagree with someone without having to suggest that their mother should have aborted them, or whatever. If you'd like to be elected in 2028, you'll need this skill, so why wait?
He seems to have handled it really well: http://wabkinew.ca/ Unfortunately, I don't know whether I know anyone who knows him personally, so I guess one will have to wait and see. If he still says creepy things it will surface.
Sadly, I don't think you'll get many guys from tough, ghetto backgrounds who don't let loose with that kind of crap in public. The posh can be every bit as boorish, but they have filters in terms of where, when and how that stuff emerges.
No, I'm not making excuses for him because he is from a poor, Indigenous background, and evidently a victim of family violence, but on a certain level one does have to hope that people can change.
I'm ridiculously pleased to live in a constituency where a candidate not backed by any of the 3 main parties has a realistic shot of winning.
having a protest vote? good for you.
How's the weather in Saanich - Gulf Islands?
magoo, he's taking Manitoba and the Green Party candidate surging in the polls.
and the weather in Saanich - Gulf Islands right now is rain, rain and more rain coming in sideways.
So I was half right.
As far as rain goes, at least you don't have to shovel rain.
Stuff it, quizzical. In some parts of the country, the NDP is just as much a protest vote as the Greens, as the Greens have more public support in PEI and New Brunswick than the NDP does.
I am absolutely sick and tired of hearing NDP supporters dismiss the Greens as a "protest" and "wing nuts." That's the exact kind of arrogance we can expect from the Liberals and Conservatives that is typically thrown at NDP supporters. If you think the NDP is so wonderful in Manitoba, why don't you come out here and tell all the poor, homeless people who keep asking me for change when I go out walking how great the NDP has been for them?
we have the same here when you go to the cities and its a Liberal government.
what's your 1 seat going to do for homelessness?
geez
It can't be any less effective than the 37 currently held by the governing party.
And your average voter who wouldn't walk off a cliff on the orders of a political party hears that excuse and thinks, "Liberal, Conservative, NDP, it doesn't matter who gets in nothing changes" and gives up on the political process entirely.
Did you know that how much money you make is a strong indicator of how likely you are to vote in an election? People don't vote in high numbers in the poorer parts of Winnipeg.
i am old enough here in BC to remember how different it was under a NDP government, with all things relative, compared to now.
nad like i'd waste my vote for greens who are here at least Tories with composters and gardens.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/sask-ndp-candidates-campaign-man...
You know, A24, the MB Greens mention guarnateed minimum income, but there's not a lot of detail on how that's going to work. They mention "income tax reform" but no real details on what that means.
One thing does jump out at me: They want to tie funding for schools to income tax instead of property taxes. This would effectively be a tax break for property owners, and an offload of that expense to everyone, wouldn't it? That's progressive and pro-social?
Sorry, they're not passing the "not conservatives" sniff test for me. Meanwhile, kneejerk voters will help the Tory bid and fuck things up worse than they are for all of us. Ta very much.
Wab Kinew winning a seat, and the Greens winning another, sounds pretty good to me. You know, from a distance and all.
(Jut so long as we keep twitter users out of office!)
Their platform hasn't come out yet, but looking at their policy framwork, there seems to be a lot of diverse policies, some of which are clearly to the left of the NDP.
http://greenparty.mb.ca/platform/
Regarding education taxes, their platform calls for raising personal income taxes (which, could be raised in a progressive manner) and corporate taxes to cover the cost. I haven't studied this question in detail, but I wouldn't immediately write the entire party off as a bunch of conservatives because of this one policy. Not to mention that if we are going to consider a party as "conservatives" based off of one policy, does that mean that the NDP are also conservative and worth writing off completely because a lot of their policies around crime and justice while Andrew Swan was AG were straight out of Harper's playbook?
The Green Party platform also mentions:
- Implementing a Quebec-style childcare program (The NDP hasn't done so)
- Proportional representation (not on the NDP's agenda at all)
- Restorative Justice (pretty much anything is to the left of the NDP with Andrew Swan's more Harperite than Harper approach)
- Opposing energy east (the Manitoba NDP more or less supports it)
- Banning fracking (it's happening under the NDP's watch)
- Oppose CETA
- Implement a Guaranteed Annual Income
- "actively encourage collective bargaining" (though to be fair, I'm not sure the details of the policy change they recommend would work out all that well in practice)
- Extending legal protections to farm labourers
There are a few things in their policy book that could be considered right wing, but the whole "Tories with composters" label doesn't fit, considering I don't know a lot of Tories who are pro-childcare, pro-PR, pro-collective bargaining, and pro-environment. I haven't decided who to vote for yet, but writing the Greens in Manitoba off as a bunch of conservatives isn't fair or accurate (though, I suppose it may serve partisan purposes).
Besides, even if they have a few right-wing policies, it might be good to have one Green MLA in the house, if only to raise all those other progressive issues in their policy book.
Not exactly "offloading" it, unless property owners don't pay income tax.
But given that having kids is kind of an "everyone" thing rather than a "property owner" thing, it's not clear to me why everyone (or at least everyone who pays income tax) shouldn't be chipping in.