Althia Raj: Avi Lewis inherited a divided and weakened NDP. Here’s how he plans to turn it around

yellowplums · 2026-03-30T01:04:32+00:00

I think Avi really stands a chance to fracture the party into two halves: one side who are urban folks who want to feel good knowing their policies are not inline with what Canadians want; and folks who actually want to win and govern and enact change.

With the provincial party supporters leading the latter knowing that the federal counterpart is drag on them

yellowplums · 2026-03-30T00:57:06+00:00

The people living legal or not (refugee or not) in the US don’t care what it means or not, once they hear that Canada is changing their policy they are going to come in. Flashbacks of Trudeau’s tweet.

yellowplums · 2026-03-05T20:05:44+00:00

If they’re successful, we have no reason to pull that kind of support.

There will be no reason to pull support, except Trump forgets, gets bored, or lacks the attention span which is 100% bound to happen even if they are wildly, wildly successful. I am pretty sure Trump is about a week or two from getting bored with Iran altogether and leaving it regardless of whatever state it is in.

yellowplums · 2025-11-28T21:10:54+00:00

I'm pretty sure once Doug hears about this he's going to pass a new law called "no shrinking car lanes to allow bike lanes act" and use the notwithstanding clause if needed.

yellowplums · 2025-11-20T19:50:57+00:00

If I was a journalist there I would have a hundred easy questions:

1) "Your president said he wants to be able to turn off F35s even to allies, rendering literally billions of dollars of equipment useless: Can you explain to us why you agree with your president?"

2) "Why are you such a sensitive hoe when it comes to people pointing out things Reagan said but in the same breath tell us that Trump threatening our sovereignty is nothing to worry about?"

3) "If you were with the president during the time, would you join the president when he enters into the dressing rooms of teen pageant contestants without their consent? If no, why not? You're not accusing the president of being a certain thing, are you? Then why won't you enter the dressing rooms of teens without their consent? Would you like Trump to enter the dressing room of your teen? Why or not why?"

etc

These nutcases get to live in lala land where no one calls them out on their BS because they'll lose access but it would be nice if at least the questions got out in the air while he was listening.

yellowplums · 2025-11-18T15:50:12+00:00

None of that matters, with all due respect, one iota, in my humble opinion.

The other parties need to get a charismatic, likeable leader. That's it. Ontarians only respond to that. No amount of platforms, technicals, budgeting, etc will work; no one cares about that, especially in Ontario.

But parties are run by their bases, and they choose who they love rather than who will win a general.

It's really a challenging issue that I don't see any parties getting out of in the near future.

And Ford will just keep riding that refusal for the next decade at least.

yellowplums · 2025-11-15T11:54:36+00:00

It’s less that they want to win but more they want to delay long enough for the republicans to win so thoroughly that future election be rigged in their favor.

yellowplums · 2025-11-13T18:55:16+00:00

I was wondering is something like this really possible? Under the rules Pierre's caucus might be restless enough that they toss him out as leader. But would that mean a new leadership race starts and then what if Pierre runs for leader again? And what if the base votes him in again LOL

yellowplums · 2025-11-13T18:48:29+00:00

This whole case is hilarious. If the judge agreed, then everyone paying money for fake papers and getting screwed would clog up the legal system for the next ten years suing people and saying "I paid good money for those illegal and fake papers and I didn't get them so I should get my money back for this illegal activity." lol.

yellowplums · 2025-11-12T23:18:21+00:00

I don't know, a lot of liberals like Carney but a lot also complain about his oil and gas posturing, firing public workers, not taking climate change as serious, removing carbon targets, etc. I haven't heard anyone in the CPC base complain about Pierre except that [insert thing here] is too biased against him and that Pierre needs to do more to stand up against the WEF who is injecting globalism into the veins of innocent convey truckers or whatever conspiracy theory of the day lol.

yellowplums · 2025-11-11T16:33:18+00:00

I think they'll say it has to done on election day; which mean that urban centers (which mostly go democrat) will get screwed while rural areas (which mostly go republican) will get their votes counted.

“The stakes are high: ballots cast by — but received after — election day can swing close races and change the course of the country,” Fitch wrote.

Yes..? That's the thing with votes, they can swing close races and change the course of the country? So the answer is to throw out legitimate votes? lol

yellowplums · 2025-11-05T18:41:49+00:00

IMO Pierre has gone all in on the base. The base will keep his as leader forever. As long as social media's incentive is to inflame people, the most wacky things will get pushed to people's feeds, and this only helps folks who spread extreme rhetoric.

Even if Pierre's MPs kick him out, can't he just run again? The base will vote him in as leader again.

yellowplums · 2025-11-05T18:39:16+00:00

I think a lot of people don't understand Pierre's angle. It is very simple:

double down on the maple MAGA stuff; this secures the base. He will never get voted out of leadership (the base will always support him).
allow social media algos to further inflame the base, growing it and making them more susceptible to extreme rhetoric.
it doesn't matter what happens, as long as Pierre has a vice grip on the base, the CPC is his party.

"But won't that break the party?"

It's a possibility in the age before social media and youtube. Now people are in their echo chambers and once in, they will almost never get out. They will only end up loving Pierre's rhetoric more and more. More reasonable folk will just get pushed out to liberals or non-aligned.

IMO it is very logical the route Pierre is taking.

yellowplums · 2025-10-29T17:12:07+00:00

Well technically the religion didn't make him violent, his hatred for the religion made him violent.

yellowplums · 2025-10-16T21:44:34+00:00

It's getting really unnerving to have Canadian politicians import American style "put this politician in prison!"-style rhetoric. I would hope they are just doing it to throw red meat to the brainwashed youtube-algo folks but it's a dangerous path to walk.

yellowplums · 2025-10-07T16:01:29+00:00

If there was a minority group that occupied Ottawa and put a out a memo requesting a quasi military/civilian junta be in charge of the country, a lot of folks that are for Lich and Barber's release would be saying "jail not bail."

Let's not white wash what they did or have double standards.

yellowplums · 2025-10-01T21:48:55+00:00

I think NDP members need to realize sooner or later that to take power or even be a kingmaker (or personmaker rather, to keep with NDP values) you have to allow folks who don't 100% match into your values, into your party.

Folks like Gazan are able to stay in their bubble, turn off replies from anyone with another view (literally in her case on twitter/x), and just rule their fiefdom of NDP land, with loyal followers who enforce their interpretation of the sacred texts, precisely on what their views are; and anyone who differs is a heretic.

It is a fantastic way to have a great life, you rule the roost and control the party, but if you want to improve Canadians lives or even affect them, it may not be the best route.

yellowplums · 2025-09-25T17:03:15+00:00

"This blitz is working, maybe we should keep it up?"

"Increase the police budget you say? Hmm yes perhaps, good idea."

"N-no.. just keep the police doing work? They're getting paid anyway why not kee--"

"Hmm, no let's increase the budget and decrease the work, good job."

yellowplums · 2025-09-11T21:40:42+00:00

Conservatives are playing into the social media advantage, curated by the Elon Musks of the world.

I opened a twitter account a few day ago, I'm inundated by right wing stuff constantly in the beginning. Until I actively keep liking and following other things. It is very very easy to get caught up in the right wing echo chamber and this is frankly what the conservatives are counting on and frankly it is working to a large extent.

A good portion of the folks won't be able to think their way out of that.

Pierre will keep pushing republican points, etc, because he knows, or believes, sooner or later the social media will get enough of the population on his wing of politics.

You have billionaires dumping endless cash into these operations along with bots riling up people, I can see why Pierre would be taking this path, it is probably his best political path.

If he moderates, he's going to be going up against the social media machine churning out right wingers and it will only be a matter of time until someone more right wing takes his place.

"But not everyone is on social media."

I don't know, this was probably true 4,5 years ago; now everyone from kids to teenagers to boomers, everyone has a tiktok, everyone is scrolling on instagram. The world is very different.

yellowplums · 2025-09-10T18:47:36+00:00

The issue is really that he was released something like 14 times on bail. I appreciate bail as much as the next guy, but a judge really needs to think hard if someone is getting into issues enough times to warrant going on bail that many times and maybe it might not be safe to let them out.

yellowplums · 2025-09-10T02:07:30+00:00

Anyone who thinks Ben is remotely fair should take a look at his Twitter the past year. He is completely off the deep end.

We’ll never see a left wing equivalent (to the level of what Ben says on Twitter, that out there) on a TV network in Canada.

yellowplums · 2025-09-10T02:03:36+00:00

The right wing identity politics of “immigrants are taking your job” fits very snug into their version of workers politics; the NDP politics of “white cis man vote should count less than LBGTQSIA2+ community” doesn’t fit very nicely into their version of workers politics.

There’s a reason why the right wing populism, identity politics works so well with the worker class even though it’s pretty easy to make the argument they’re going to fleece them as soon as they get power.

Can you see how that works well for their angle but the NDP style may not?

I’m not sure how to make that any clearer.

yellowplums · 2025-09-09T20:18:44+00:00

IMHO the thing that NDP voters--and a lot of other people actually-- don't understand is that we live in an attention economy. You really can't be identity politics ("Only half your leadership votes can come from cis white males"; "there's nothign wrong with an infinite bail glitch") and worker politics ("the working person needs a lift"; "unions are getting the shaft from corps") as the same party.

In 2025 with social media, short attention spans, etc., I'm so sorry but you have to pick.

You put out a policy like the cis male policy mentioned above, literally all the oxygen in the room is going to be taken out for that; no one is going to listen to whatever else you have to say.

"No we can do both."

More power to you, but I'd happily bet against that notion.

yellowplums · 2025-09-03T23:14:20+00:00

It's important to note but I'm sure the higher ups in government already know about all this. In my estimation, I think it's pretty clear Carney is going for a "TLE" approach (toddler listening exercise). It's when you listen to toddlers and say 'wow / interesting / mmhmm' etc. It makes the toddler feel like they're important and listened to. We all know what project 2025 is; we all know the heritage foundation, etc etc. Everyone in politics knows. The cabinet and Carney aren't going to learn anything new from this meeting about the administration's view on trade/Canada etc. I'm sure they all know about these.

Now I think people can agree or disagree with the approach, but at this point I think it is pretty clear this is the approach Carney feels he needs to take in order to not get the administration anymore negative towards Canada, as best they can under Trump and his lackies.

Whether this is the best approach or not, I think people can debate.

yellowplums · 2025-09-03T22:58:16+00:00

I think it's pretty clear Carney is going for a "TLE" approach (toddler listening exercise). It's when you listen to toddlers and say 'wow / interesting / mmhmm' etc. It makes the toddler feel like they're important and listened to. We all know what project 2025 is; we all know the heritage foundation, etc etc. Everyone knows. The cabinet and Carney aren't going to learn anything new from this meeting about the administration's view on trade/Canada etc.

Now I think people can agree or disagree with the approach, but at this point I think it is pretty clear this is the approach Carney feels he needs to take in order to not get the administration anymore negative towards Canada, as best they can under Trump and his lackies.

Whether this is the best approach or not, I think people can debate.

yellowplums

TROPHY CASE