““Why ’seek,’ by the way? Because the NDP leaves selection of candidates entirely up to local riding associations…”

“And if you really believe that I have a bridge in Montreal to sell you. They are much better at hiding their backroom machinations, I’ll give you that though.”

Doesn’t always work though … even Ed Broadbent had to fight a nomination battle in Ottawa Centre in 2004 (against Paul Dewar, who had already declared quite some time before). Next time out, after Ed stepped down, Paul ran for the nomination against Layton’s former aide Jamie Heath, and won.

Believe me, NDP members do NOT like to be told which way to vote at nomination meetings. This doesn’t stop the leadership from trying to inject a little persuasion, but it sure doesn’t always work and occasionally has exactly the opposite effect from that intended.

Am I the only person who is mystified by the press’ ranting and ravings about David Emerson’s prowess as a politician? Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t this the same Emerson who negotiated a raw deal for Canada’s forestry industry in the last lumber dispute with the Yanks? I don’t recall hearing anything positive coming from the business community concerning what Emerson negotiated for them.

Since then, what has he done exactly? Or is it that Harper’s cabinet is so useless that we have had to lower our standards in such a way that Emerson’s performance is now considered stellar?

Hey Boudica have you ever stopped to think that (1) maybe the softwood deal wasn’t as bad as the opposition to it claims. Maybe you should have spent some time out here in BC before the softwood deal as things were way worse before and the deal was acceptable to settle things down. Emerson and Harper should have major cudos for getting the deal through and the timing of it. Things could have gotten way worse believe.

Hey T. (1) When it comes to this deal and it’s impact on the forestry biz here in BC I know about what I am talking about you see I work for the Ministry of Forests and have dealt directly with the largest and some of the smallest lumber companies and I am afraid you are misstaken in your judgement not the few facts that you posted. You see it doesn’t matter if we won every tribunal and world court proceeding we entered as the Americans do not have the ability to control the appeals and new charges so therefore any local yankee business and legislator = that has a vested interest = will continue either appealing or submitting new claims this is an old strategy and one that works. At the time before the softwood deal there were several major situations that had to be resolved and was costing us millions on non-recoverable dollars not to mention very large contracts in major danger. The situation had to be dealt with and dealt with fast as it had been going on too long with no end in sight – and it was signed on by all the major players involved and we got some money back which was a major surpise so all things considered it was the best we could do at the time and any other point of view is just that a point of view. The reality is that Emerson and Harper did a good job on this file now you can choose to agree or not however if you were directly involved you would know that it was the best we could at the time and that is how it is.

It’s a difficult riding to predict. The riding contains one of the highest per capita concentrations of university degree holders in the country, so one would think Byers’ public policy arguments might have some intellectual appeal with this crowd. On the other hand, the riding clearly loves its divas, and Hedy Fry can be surprisingly effective in riding debates and out on the street sidewalks during campaign season. Another advantage Fry has over Byers is that she has roots in the community. Outside of the UBC campus, I can’t say the same for Byers. But professors tend not to handle the transition to politics very smoothly. That said, anything can happen. He’ll definitely need to find an issue much closer to home than Arctic Sovereignty – I doubt this riding will allow itself to be used as a prop.

Michael Byers is by far the most outstanding,passionate, honest and intelligent candidate in Vancouver Centre. You do not have to dig very deep to find that this is evident.