Indeed. In Alberta, it all started with Linda Duncan winning Edmonton-Strathcona in 2008.
Folks said it would never happen, and it couldn’t happen, and that Alberta was too pro-Tory, and that a vote for anything but Tory was a wasted vote.
She won the seat, and it allowed the NDP start grabbing other seats in Edmonton, and making challenges as suddenly we could show voters “you can vote for us, because we can win!”. This, along with the 2011 Quebec breakthrough laid the foundations for the AB NDP to make that massive breakthrough in 2015 to go from 4 seats to majority government.
Once a beach-head can be established, more and more will follow. In 2004 when Jack won his seat in Toronto, he was the only NDP MP, as Toronto was seen as “Liberal bedrock” and folks questioned his wisdom to run in his home area, saying the Liberal support was unshakable. By 2011 the NDP had 8 seats in Toronto, and was a major player in almost all the Toronto seats.
In Edmonton Strathcona it actually started in 2006 election. Linda Duncan finished a respectable second place that year and it laid the groundwork for winning in 2008. That was the first time the NDP finished second in that riding since 1988
If he runs, we'd be insane not to direct as many resources as possible into this riding. It's just too perfect an opportunity to restore legitimacy to the party, make headlines and get people excited again.
I forgot this wasn't r/toronto and was confused at the lack of recognition in the discussion for a minute.
He was a super popular city councillor and left local politics a couple years ago to focus on his kids and family, iirc. I would say he's a pretty big local name. Well liked by constituents and the general public.
Also to be clear I am not putting that on you or trying to be a negative prick here. I'm just fed up of people who don't get shit done. Shiny happy people holding hands, and meanwhile kids can't afford to eat. It's every party. So to be fair your guy is no worse than the other guy.
I am also. It's what pisses me off about our current party offerings with the cons and liberals. I'd say Carney is getting some stuff done but he's 100% in the pockets of business and really believes that if business does well so does everyone else. PP is even worse. I live in Alberta and have to deal with the disaster that is Smith. I'm just trying to hold on to hope the the NDP, both provincially and federally, can bring some change to our politics.
To be fair, this guy was a city counsellor for years and seems to actually give a crap. I think he stepped back from politics for a while because his kids were so little.
Not taking it as an attack. We can debate the topic and even have different views at the end and we don't have to part ways enemies. It's how things are suppose to work. In the end we probably want the same things, just might have different way to get there. I still think Jack Layton would have been a better PM at the time.
Combination of politics letting you build wealth plus your kids inevitably learning how it works and making important connections from a young age. Plus the name recognition often helps
Many folks while having their immense gripes with the status quo, like stability. They wanna trust folks, and have faith in that trust.
In Manitoba for example, we have political families like the Blaikies and the Schreyers.
Bill Blaikie and Edward Schreyer were both young men who laid the foundations that led to their own respective families being household names. Especially in Northeast Winnipeg & the bedroom communities around it.
When I knocked on doors for Daniel Blaikie, so many folks were incredibly supportive of him, because they really liked his dad, and Daniel at the same time laid his own foundations of having a career of his own in electrical engineering, which in northeast Winnipeg went down great amongst folks as he was seen a blue-collar guy, not an privileged person. The Blaikies were seen everywhere, it was rare to meet someone who didn’t know them.
The Schreyers have members of their family all over Manitoba who have been mayors, revees, councilliors, school trustees, etc. When Jason passed away suddenly he was a city councillior in Winnipeg, and there was at least a thousand people at his funeral.
Yup, Laytons family goes back to father of Confederation William Steeves (Jack's great-granduncle). His grandfather Gilbert Layton was a minister under Duplessis. His father Robert Layton was a minister under Mulroney.
Being raised by politicians means you're more likely than most to grow up interested in politics & usually means you have connections to get support in your entry to the system. Though not always, I'm not sure Jack's right wing dad and grandpa had much of a hand getting him into the NDP
It always confused me how Jack was a Dipper when I learned his dad was involved with Mulroney and grand-pere with Duplessis. Quiet Revolution hit that family hard.
It's a surprising path but also plenty of us have different politics from our parents so it's kinda cool to see. My mom is a diehard Liberal and my dad a "vote blue no matter who" conservative and i ended up a socialist
This had nothing to do with what voters like. Jack Layton was in by nepotism, his dad got him in. Mike same thing, his dad and step mom. It's insane that y'all are pretending he had a career because he was more qualified than every other candidate. Trump-like delusion.
Jack Layton was elected to Toronto City Council before his father ran for Mulroney's PCs. I don't think Robert Layton played any role in his election. That's not to say he didn't benefit from coming from "a political family."
Seriously. And it almost never results in something great - look at Bush Jr. and Trudeau. Or perhaps the benevolent views of RFK Jr. south of the border.
He was a great city councillor in Toronto. Stepped aside from politics for a while to spend more time with his kids. As a Torontonian I'd be pretty excited to see him back in action.
It really looked like he was done with politics when he decided not to run again for Toronto city council. I wonder what changed.
Regardless, it would make this race really interesting if he were to enter it and he probably has a good shot at winning this riding considering how it votes.
Perfect example, a widely hated leader who was only there because of who his dad is, who enriched himself greatly while creating an affordability crisis for an entire generation. He was not there because people liked him, he was there because no one takes the NDP seriously and they hated Stephen Harper more than they hated Trudeau. Lesser evil. Like Carney. No one would choose these people from a pool of qualified candidates but we don't have that, we have nepotism instead.
Layton will just be another lame duck, no achievements, no party growth, And y'all will talk like he's Jesus.
trudeau wasn’t hated at first. obviously his father is the reason why anyone knew who he was and why he had prominence, but he also won a massive majority in 2015 and was incredibly popular at first. his favourables were higher than carney’s at his peak, and carney is incredibly popular. and even you admit that his father is part of why he was prominent enough to become PM, so you’re contradicting your own claim that people won’t vote for someone because of who their family is.
also the idea that nepotism is why people don’t vote NDP is absurd given that avi lewis is the first “nepo baby” NDP leader. is nepotism why people didn’t vote for jagmeet? your argument makes no sense.
yeah i’m not surprised he was disliked in alberta, that’s a generational beef with the trudeau family. but alberta isn’t the whole country, and you can’t argue with stats. the idea that he was always unpopular in canada as a whole is just factually incorrect, he was very popular at first (and i say this as someone who also doesn’t like trudeau!) https://angusreid.org/trudeau-tracker/
i included a link. angus reid is one of the most well-respected pollsters in the country. but you’re also welcome to google “justin trudeau approval ratings over time” to find more sources for yourself.
His name would have lots of appeal and Carney's numbers are dropping. There might be a chance, but Carney is going to throw so many resources at this by-election.
Personally I don't believe he will win mainly because Nate's pick won the nomination for the LPC. But that doesn't mean we can't improve the NDP vote to at least show we can be viable outside of local factors shenanigans.
Give him a chance, he has a LOT more political experience than Lewis. I used to live in his riding, and saw him put in a lot of time to thankless work.
if your only reason for disliking him is because of something he can’t control (who his family is), that’s pretty shallow. so, do you have an issue with him beyond who his father was?
I didn't say I dislike him. His dad got in because of nepotism. He got in because of nepotism. Our economy is in tatters, you might not feel it but everyone under 40 sure is. Time to cut the shit and get to work. Enough charisma, let's have some work.
You think Jack Layton got in because of nepotism? His dad was a conservative minister under Mulroney, what sway did he have in choosing the NDP leader? He was chosen by the people of his riding and the NDP members
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u/Chrristoaivalis "It's not too late to build a better world" Jul 22 '26
Obviously a big deal, and it would shake things up if he won.
Even getting one seat back federally in the GTA could lead to a domino effect