NDP Leadership candidates debate at Concordia

Challenged by the loss of one of Canada’s greatest political leaders, the New Democratic Party of Canada still has a leader to elect. Nathan Cullen, Niki Ashton, Peggy Nash, Brian Topp and Martin Singh were all at Concordia’s Oscar Peterson Hall on Wednesday night for an unofficial debate.

Topp says getting Quebec voters on board is crucial for his party:

“So one of the key priorities of the next leader, certainly mine if I’m elected leader is gonna be to keep building the party here in Quebec theres no doubt about that. Including showing up to events like this.”

But much of the talk surrounding the event was who did not show up. Thomas Mulcair decided to attend a campaign event of his own in Montreal’s east end. Paul Dewar and Romeo Saganash also didn’t go.

For the candidates there, much of the time was spent hating on Prime Minister Stephen Harper with Nathan Cullen leading the charge.

“We have to find ways to work with those other progressive Canadians that are out there, so that Stephen Harper can’t get those vote splits, can’t narrowly win a majority and continue to destroy this country. We can’t. We don’t have the time. If 8 months has been terrible with this guy imagine 8 years.”

Speaking to a crowd of mostly students, candidates were critical of the Quebec Liberal government’s proposed tuition hikes for students in the province. Niki Ashton is the youngest candidate at twenty-nine years old. She says young people shouldn’t have to pay higher tuition for the older generations mistakes.

“We’re gonna be told increasingly as young people that we gotta tighten our belts, we gotta take cuts, we gotta deal with an increasingly unaffordable, increasingly expensive future. Well that’s just not on. ”

She also said she wants to bring Quebec on par with the rest of Canada for tuition, not the other way around.

“Quebec has been a model in terms of affordability. And to see that model be attacked is just wrong.”

The NDP leadership race so far has been criticized for being flat in terms of disagreements. On limiting credit card fees, instituting proportional representation and fighting the keystone pipeline they also saw eye to eye. A two state solution in the Arab/Israeli conflict was also popular among candidates. Concordia University is known for involving itself in that conflict. Listen to the crowd roar when the question was posed:

“Would you vote in favour of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations?”

Without being asked it, many of the candidates answered one of the biggest questions of the leadership campaign. Can they speak French? Topp said this about his advantage as a fluently bilingual Montrealer.

“I think it’s very hard to imagine being leader of the Federal NDP official opposition of the Government of Canada with 58 Quebec MPs and not be bilingual.”

The next official debate is this Sunday in Halifax and all eight candidates are expected to be there, even Mulcair. The leadership convention takes place on March 24^th.