Plante asked about heading NDP
Mayor Plante has been asked if she would consider running to become party chief of the federal NDP after she ends her term as mayor, and her response was ambiguous.
If the NDP wanted someone from Quebec, wouldn’t Alexandre Boulerice be the more obvious choice?
Kevin 16:02 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
I listened to that news conference and she said she wasn’t thinking about anything except being mayor of Montreal until her term was over, then came back and said she didn’t want people to put words in her mouth and would call any reporter who wrote that she was being coy about joining a leadership race.
But she said that in English so maybe La Presse’s reporter wasn’t paying attention.
Joey 16:28 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
Given what Singh revealed this week (credible threats against him), I’d be surprised if Plante was eager to jump back into electoral politics, especially at the federal level.
My impression is that Boulerice would be great but doesn’t want to upend his family life.
Tim S. 18:00 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
Plante entering federal politics is the only way she can keep her promise to build the Pink Line. Be a great bargaining point for supporting a minority government.
Ian 18:37 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
The Bob Rae effect but for Quebec, great. That’s the last thing the NDP needs.
H. John 22:28 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
@Ian I’m trying to understand your reference “The Bob Rae effect but for Quebec”.
The party would seem to have a far more existential threat than who the next leader will be.
Its debt.
Candidates in each riding spend on their campaigns, sometimes with borrowed money, with the hope that Elections Canada will reimburse 50% of their expenses. For the Liberals that will happen for all but one candidate, for the Conservatives it’s two. For the NDP, 296 of their candidates in this election earned less than the 10% of the vote required for a rebate.
H. John 22:32 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
And to provide a comparison in the last election 237 of 338 NDP candidates got the rebate.
Tim S. 22:47 on 2025-04-30 Permalink
That could be an issue, H. John, though my quick glance at the results suggests that in most ridings where they would have run a well-funded campaign they hit the mark. So some refund losses compared to other elections, but not that much. And I hope they had the sense to pull back on spending in the second half when it became obvious the polls weren’t budging.
But what are expensive for the NDP are leadership campaigns, which is one reason they usually hang to leaders longer than other parties. They cost money to organize, donations dry up without a leader, and other donations are directed away from the party itself and towards the contenders. So there’s probably some very careful planning going on to minimize that as we speak.
H. John 00:45 on 2025-05-01 Permalink
@Tim S Interesting point on leadership campaigns.
When the last campaign ended in 2021, even with the vast majority of their candidates receiving rebates, the NDP was $22 million in debt. They spent the next three years fundraising, not to create a war chest for this election, but to pay off what they had already spent in the past. By early 2024 they still owed $1 million.
I’m not sure what you mean when you say “in most ridings where they would have run a well-funded campaign they hit the mark”. Of the 342 NDP candidates in this election only 46 will get a rebate.
Tim S. 08:03 on 2025-05-01 Permalink
What I mean is most of those 296 candidate below 10% won’t have spent much on their campaigns, so losing the 60% rebate hurts a bit in aggregate, but 60% of not much is..not much. Maybe they spend more in rural Saskatchewan than I imagine, but overall that’s not the figure I would be concerned with.
And the NDP always funds its federal campaigns partly through debt. Before corporate and union donations were prohibited, Jack Layton got the unions to contribute enough money for the NDP to buy an office building in Ottawa, which they use as collateral for those loans. As long as they have the building, they’re OK. If they ever have to sell the building, that’s when any supporters should start to worry. Hopefully (from my POV) I haven’t just jinxed them.
Ian 09:41 on 2025-05-02 Permalink
@H.John I meanat hat Bob Rae was so disliked as an NDP Premier that it scuttled the NDP federally for many years, people would just point to him and say “this is what the NDP does”. That he eventually left the NDP and joined the Liberals says a lot.