03.17.2014 06:30 PM

In Tuesday’s Sun: why everyone should vote for Joe Cressy

Conventional wisdom says the New Democrats are going to lose plenty of seats to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the 2015 general election.

Conventional wisdom also says the NDP are going to lose their official opposition role – to either the Liberals or the Conservatives – and be returned to their traditional role as the third party in the House of Commons.

Conventional wisdom evidently hasn’t met Joe Cressy yet.

Joe Cressy – who you might not know much about, but will soon enough – is a handsome young fellow seeking the the NDP nomination in the Trinity-Spadina riding in Toronto. He is not just one of the most organized and committed guys I have ever met in politics – he is also the most likeable.

Oh, and this: If NDP leader Thomas Mulcair had a national army of guys like Joe Cressy, he’d have the biggest majority in the history of Canadian democracy.

Now, Joe is going to be mad at me for saying this kind of stuff, but too bad. Over the past year or so, Joe and I have become – full disclosure – very good friends. We got together to volunteer on a potential municipal election campaign and, despite our alleged ideological differences, we hit it off big time.

His mom told me once that she would prefer I call him Joseph. So, periodically, I do so. When I do, Joe winces. To everyone in Toronto politics and media, you see, he is just Joe.

No one knows if the guy called Joe is going to win the NDP nomination in Trinity-Spadina, which has been held by the party for many years. But it’s a pretty safe bet he will. The New Democrats very much want to hold the downtown Toronto seat in a byelection that is expected to come sooner than later.

If Joe is the NDP candidate, he will win. He is assisted, in this regard, by his opponents.

The Conservatives are only protected in Trinity-Spadina by endangered species laws. The Liberals, meanwhile, have made a bit of a mess of the riding.

Here’s why. When he won the Liberal Party leadership, Trudeau promised he would not intervene in riding nomination battles.

In the view of not a few Liberals, Trudeau didn’t keep his word. He certainly seemed to make his preference known in another Toronto riding, Toronto Centre. Then, last week, he much more directly intervened in Trinity-Spadina, saying he would not permit a woman who had run there twice before to run again.

The woman is married to a man who formerly held the riding for the Liberals. Apparently the man used angry words with some young Liberals, and so his wife is being denied an opportunity to participate in the race.

As someone who has used angry words with young Liberals since the dawn of time, I found this claim highly suspect. I also found the notion that a woman would be penalized for the alleged sins of her husband to be more sexist than anything heretofore seen in Canadian politics, and that’s saying something.

But back to Joe. His departure from the municipal campaign we were both working on is a big loss.

But, bottom line, this guy has got it. He’s the kind of person we need more of in Parliament.

I’m a dirty rotten Grit, but if I lived in Trinity-Spadina, I’d sure vote for Joe Cressy.

If you live there, you should, too.

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26 Comments

  1. SD says:

    I don’t know who Joe Cressy is. He could be a great local candidate for the NDP. On the leader level, I would not under estimate Tom Mulcair. It will be during the next election campaign where Canadians will really get a chance to see Mr. Mulcair shine as a leader. There is no guarantee than the NDP will win a majority in the next election. However, I do think that the party will do better than what the current polling indicates.

  2. MississaugaPeter says:

    Great endorsement WK until you stated you were a “dirty rotten Grit”.

  3. Ryan Spinney says:

    In all honesty who ever advised Justin that banning someone from running would decrease rifts within the Liberal Party instead of increase them, should be let go. Or kept as I vote NDP and this is great for us.

    From what I’ve hear everyone who knows Joe loves Joe, Chow, you, Mulcair, Mike Layton, Jennifer Holliet ect…

  4. Paul Swinton says:

    Now with Zach Paiken abandoning the Trudeau Liberals, the cracks are starting to show in what will be a brutal nomination process and all because Justin is imposing a “green light” approval process on each riding candidate. Doesn’t that sound like selective candidate imposition? Oh well, politics as usual.

    • smelter rat says:

      Green lighting is designed to weed out the loonies. It seems to be working,

    • Ridiculosity says:

      ALL of the parties have a ‘green light’ process, in one form or another.

    • graham watt says:

      Zach Paikin is an asshole.

      • yeah, I heard him interviewed on CBC Radio. The first thing he said was ‘I am withdrawing from nomination race’, to which his interviewerer replied’ I thought you had not entered the race yet?’ I have no problem with very young people getting into politics, but while Zach seems very well spoken, and earnest, he also struck me as having a very high opinion of himself and his influence. On my part, I never heard any promise that Trudeau would not interfere in nomination battles. Not once. What I heard, repeated a number of times was that there would be contested nominations in every riding. And no, I do not think that I am splitting hairs. From the very minute Trudeau made that promise, it was evident that there would still need to be mechanisms to screen prospective candidates. I read some cogent arguments right here on your website that, for example, pro-lifers would be stacking nominations. That said, I did find the argument for disqualifying Innis more than a little weak. Trudeau/the Liberal party made weak arguments that would have been better left unsaid.

  5. Ryan Spinney says:

    I believe the dirty rotten grit was meant tongue in cheek, not seiously.

  6. MississaugaPeter says:

    What I knew about Zach I had created a negative opinion of him, but

    http://o.canada.com/news/zach-paikin-quits-hamilton-race/

    shows that perception can be wrong.

    Wow!

    Shows there are some under 40 Liberals who have not been blinded by the light.

    All because of your candidate WK. She has caused an indirect shit storm.

    Do you know who The Dauphin really wants to run for the Liberals in Trinity Spadina? Is it Amanda?

  7. barleyboy says:

    Yep, once again this guy is showing his true colours. And once again, I’ll predict that a Trudeau the Second PMO will be no less controlling than the current PMO. And I too, find it absolutely appalling that Christine suffers for the alleged sins of her husband.

    • Kaspar Juul says:

      Yet you are tarring the sins of the father to the son. Classy

      • MississaugaPeter says:

        It’s his birthright!

        Do you think he would be leading the Liberals if he was not the son of the father?

        • Kaspar Juul says:

          Nice try. So are you saying that people should be punished for the transactions of their predecessors because you view it as their birthright?

          I know you like to carp on about the youth but seriously, with that attitude were you born in the 17th century?

          • MississaugaPeter says:

            Kaspar, you are criticizing barleyboy for stating “Trudeau the Second PMO” will be like Harper. I don’t see anywhere that he is “tarring the sins of the father to the son.”

            Of course I do not believe that we should be punished for the transgressions of our predecessors …

            just like …

            I don’t think we should be elevated because of the accomplishments of our predecessors.

            If you seriously think that The Dauphin would be PM-in-waiting if he did not have the Trudeau name, you are out-to-lunch.

            My concern with you and the Trudeau defenders, is 1) your knee-jerk defense of Trudeau without even reading two line comments; and 2) folks who want it both ways (hypocrites), are willing to downplay PET’s transgressions without realizing that it is based on being PET’s son that The Dauphin is in the position he is.

            Look, it is what it is. People and society will elevate someone for the craziest of reasons. In this case, it is because his father was prime minister. I accept that. But don’t expect everyone to just blindly allow you to ignore the father’s transgressions when it is because of the father that the individual has this unique opportunity.

            Sometimes, it is better to read the two line comments or just ignore someone’s post.

          • Kaspar Juul says:

            Okay peter. Geez did someone miss Matlock today?

  8. reddo says:

    Someone at party hq has pissed off Kinsella. Please stop doing that.

  9. Ryan Spinney says:

    From the looks of it they’ve pissed off more then Warren, the other liberal bloggers on progressive bloggers seem pissed about it too, as is Paikin of course.

    I mean Justin basically blew any shot they had at taking TS, if I was a Liberal I’d be pissed too, but I’m not, so honestly I’m pretty happy about this as it helps us in the NDP.

  10. Tiger says:

    Federal Liberal infighting warms my cold blue Tory heart.

    Need to get comfort where I can, as I’m not so optimistic about provincial and municipal politics this year…

  11. Eric Weiss says:

    Great endorsement. Too often, great local candidates are overlooked because of historic party loyalties and partisanship. I’m a small-c conservative, but not a partisan one. I’ve voted LPC and even NDP at one point or another in my life if I feel they’re the best candidate in my riding.

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