The race to lead the New Democrat Party is officially underway.
Voting opened on March 9 and ends March 29, when the party will gather in Winnipeg for the NDP convention.
Five leadership contestants are in the race to replace former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh: Edmonton Strathcona MP Heather McPherson, labour leader Rob Ashton, activist and documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis, social worker and Campbell River Coun. Tanille Johnston and organic farmer Tony McQuail.
Sanjay Jeram, a political science lecturer at Simon Fraser University, said Ashton, McPherson and Lewis have emerged as the race’s three front-runners.
Lewis has been able to fundraise more than twice as much money as the next candidate, with nearly three times as many people contributing to his campaign.
You almost had me there until you said “it’s not about more money”.
I don’t understand where I lost you. What I meant is: what’s important here is not the amount of money. If the guy was connected to billionaires, he could have raised all that money from like 3 people. The impressive thing about the Lewis campaign is that because of the lower average donation, the overall amount is an indication of a much broader appeal. So it’s not the amount that’s impressive, it’s the broad appeal of the candidate to the NDP member base. This is compounded by the higher average donation of his opponents, which means that they appeal to fewer, more well-off donors, and still didn’t manage to out-fundraise him.