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| Picture from www.facebook.com/JackLayton |
The NDP's temporary loss of Jack Layton has led to much contemplation and speculation. Where would the party be without him? When he eventually has to step down as their leader permanently, will the NDP even be able to survive? When will that be - within a year or not for another ten years?
First of all, Canadians on the most part didn't vote for the NDP candidates themselves. A good example of that is Ruth Brosseau, who was obviously only elected because she was the NDP candidate in her riding. She had never been to her riding before, didn't speak her constituents' language, and was in Vegas during the election.
So were Canadians voting for the New Democratic Party and their socialist principles, or just the guy with the cool mustache leading the party? Personally, I think Canadians wanted the man with the 'stache. The NDP campaign was very good, and focussed almost completely on Jack Layton instead of the party itself. The ironic thing was that he got a lot of support from young Canadians, even though he's in his 60s and was even walking with the help of a cane for a while.
Anyways, I think that when Layton steps down permanently, the party will really need to find another charismatic and likable leader if they want to maintain their current success. That's going to be a tough job. But I think it's also going to be a long way down the road.
In the short term, the NDP should find and develop new leaders from their rookie staff, to both help Jack and prepare for his inevitable departure. They also need to start indoctrinating Layton-fans in democratic socialism, or else people may start leaving the party as quickly as they jumped on the smiling and charismatic 'stache-bandwagon.
