Thread by @Scribulatora, Dear NDP supporters upset that people are upset at @theJagmeetSingh ...I can't [...]

Dear NDP supporters upset that people are upset at @theJagmeetSingh ...

I can't speak for anyone else, but I woke up excited the day after the election. I would have liked @CanadianGreens to get more seats and @CPC_HQ fewer, but it was the minority I had wanted.

#cdnpoli

Here, silly me thought to myself, was a chance for the progressive parties to prove that all their talk about cooperation and better politics in a minority PR-like government was true. Because, you know, I hadn't believed it really.

I know PR/minority are not the same thing.

But they're enough alike that the basic requirements for success are nearly the same. Co-operation, professional and civil inter-party discourse, supporter buy in to compromise and cooperation.

I was so excited that we might be the lucky recipients of government by grown ups, working together for everyone's benefit.

Then Singh started to act ... I don't know ... like a kingmaker. And my excitement started to fade. Fast.

All the divisive, posturing, stuntish, big talk was there. Right where I not only didn't expect it, but where I thought was the least likely source. It felt like we'd traded Scheer for Singh. The majority trade off was looking like a dumb move.

All that positive energy I had seen in the NDP leadership campaign had turned to negativity and the same old, same old. I realized he wasn't going to co-operative, he was going to be combative.

I know it's naive, but you all kept telling us about the magic of cooperation.

Maybe it's just the crap going on in America and my obsessive desire not to go there or anywhere close to there. Maybe it's because I thought the election results meant that we understood what was at stake.

So. Yeah. I'm not remotely upset that Singh wants things, wants concessions, wants progress. I hope so. I'm not upset that he has an agenda. I'm not upset that he's determined to move some files forward. All good.

But I am upset that he's trying to grandstand through Twitter and negotiate through the media. That's what Donald Trump does and, nope, it's not only not okay with me, I'm angry and *concerned* about it.

Maybe he's just trying to keep his base motivated. But what he should be doing, and what I *thought* he'd do, is to help guide his base away from politics by confrontation and towards politics by cooperation.

I believed that because that's how he sold himself to win the leadership.

We ought not to have an adversarial relationship between the progressives.

What Singh is doing, imo, is not just perpetuating nasty politics, he's endangering our future and squandering an opportunity.

He should be working on the glue, instead he's running around with scissors.

Naive? Surely. But I can tell you this, there is no bloody way I'm up for even considering PR until I see some actual proof they can act like adults on our behalf.

Sorry. I know. I rant a lot.

Latest Threads Unrolled: