The only NDP leadership hopeful to visit southwestern Ontario sees the Goderich Recovery as a model for what will need to be done in Canada when he sits as Prime Minister.
Ottawa-area MP Paul Dewar’s campaign to succeed the late Jack Layton as Opposition Leader in Ottawa made a stop in Goderich February 15th.
Dewar addressed supporters at an event in the historic Hotel Bedford.
He says his bid to be party leader is based on what he calls, “the Next Seventy.”
Dewar says this means identifying the ridings where his party came a strong second in the 2011 federal vote and working to improve its chances in those constituencies.
He doesn’t pin a label on his lapel in the NDP’s internal debate as to whether it remains a “socialist” organization, or one that should contemplate a merger with the federal Liberals.
Dewar was elected federally in 2006, replacing the retiring Ed Broadbent at that time.
He believes his background in Foreign Affairs sets himself apart from the other leadership hopefuls.
Dewar thinks the public is beginning to pay more attention to the leadership campaign as it moves closer to the March 24th vote.
Those interested in joining the NDP to vote in the leadership selection process have until February 18th to purchase a membership.
Selection will be done on a one-member one-vote basis.
Dewar says it will be a different Canada when he wakes up as Prime Minister in four years time.
He says the Goderich recovery is a model for the intervention that will be necessary to restore peoples’ confidence in federal politics.
