I pay attention to all leadership races, because I believe sometimes it’s more important to vote for the leader instead of the party. After all, the world needs more leaders. I find myself aligned with a lot of the values of the NDP party even though I don’t traditionally vote NDP, but I consider leaders like Tommy Douglas, Ed Broadbent, and even Jack Layton to have made a tremendous contribution to the welfare of Canadians and our workers.
A recent “tweet” by Andrew Coyne (National Post, and formerly Macleans) brought a YouTube video to my attention. It featured a heckler (Jennifer Bush) confronting an NDP leadership hopeful, Jagmeet Singh, at a town hall meeting held in Brampton, Ontario. It was intended to show how racist Ms. Bush was and how calmly Mr. Singh handled the situation. Watch the video here:
I admit that when I first viewed it, my impression was that was Ms. Bush was racist, and maybe not too bright because Singh is a Sikh, not a Muslim. Now, it’s not often I read the Toronto Sun these days, but a column by Sue-Ann Levy after this incident, led me to realize there’s a story behind the headlines.
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/09/11/singh-selective-when-protecting-freedom-of-speech
Jennifer Bush confronted him about his support of Sharia law in the Legislature. Jennifer Bush IS a racist (she is a supporter of the anti-Islamic group Rise Canada) but she did have a couple of valid questions, she just lacked the polish (or panache) to ask them properly.
Did YOU know that Singh voted to support Sharia law?
Singh keeps saying it’s important to stand “united against hate”, but after doing a bit of research, I find that statement to be a bit hypocritical. After all, he recently held a press conference that was sponsored by assorted anti-Israel activists. How does that jive with his claim to stand united against hate?
I’d like to see the best person possible as the leader of the NDP party, but I’m not going to take things on face value. The media are very careful about telling us what they want us to hear. We all need to become colour blind while we scrutinize each of the leadership contenders, their history, their views, and their various stances, to determine if they are who they say they are. Don’t just rely on the headlines, tweets, or news-bytes; dig a little deeper.
To determine if they are the best person to lead a federal political party. The party of Tommy Douglas, Ed Broadbent and Jack Layton.
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