Saturday, March 7, 2009

Ontario NDP chooses Horwath

One ballot remains, but with Horwath up 43.6-31.7 on Tabuns, and third place finisher Bisson endorsing Horwath, I feel confident in calling Andrea Horwath the next leader of the Ontario NDP, and the first female major party leader since Lyn McLeod of the Ontario Liberals. Tabuns was seen by many as the frontrunner, but it looks like Horwath's hardline pro-union/anti business positions have lifted her over Tabuns, an environmentalist whose union ties were significantly weaker. While having a female, Southern Ontarian leader will probably give the NDP enough of an energy boost to win a handful more seats in 2011, I can't see how Howard Hampton trade unionism in a new package will move the NDP significantly further ahead.

2 comments:

penlan said...

It will be interesting to see if the NDP can now draw more people to the Party. Perhaps more women. Depending on who becomes the next PC leader (I'm dreaming it's Hillier) & if they go hard right I expect to see more PC'ers drawn off to the Libs & the NDP.

Anonymous said...

Oh, man. Hillier and Horwath as the opposition in 2011, that's like the ultimate fantasy!