{"id":14384,"date":"2012-04-01T00:05:58","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T05:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=14384"},"modified":"2012-03-31T10:54:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T15:54:12","slug":"scott-feschuk-thomas-mulcair-didnt-say-much-at-the-convention-but-at-least-he-said-it-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/04\/01\/scott-feschuk-thomas-mulcair-didnt-say-much-at-the-convention-but-at-least-he-said-it-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Feschuk: “Thomas Mulcair didn\u2019t say much at the convention. But at least he said it fast.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those of you who don’t follow Canadian politics, Thomas Mulcair is the new leader of the Official Opposition, the NDP (New Democratic Party). His performance at the convention inspired Scott Feschuk<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Most New Democrats who\u2019d be choosing the party\u2019s next leader had voted before the convention even began. Thomas Mulcair could have used his 20 minutes of stage time before the first ballot to repeatedly punch a cat in the face — and still he would have won the leadership. As a bonus, smacking around a kitty would have earned him less hostility and criticism than he took for his speeches.<\/p>\n

Mulcair\u2019s performance during the candidates\u2019 showcase began with a line of drummers snaking its way through the hall. This was meant to go on for three minutes. It went on for 10 because, hey, who doesn\u2019t love an interminable drum solo, right? Suddenly up against the clock, Mulcair could have chosen to pare his remarks — but clearly the man didn\u2019t want to deprive us of a single syllable of genius. And so out came the words, fast and then faster. Sweat formed along his brow and down his nose. By the end, Mulcair sounded like a guy reciting a legal disclaimer at the end of a radio commercial. No one remembered a word of it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

After the vote, the winner’s speech to the party faithful:<\/p>\n

\n

The first five minutes of Mulcair\u2019s acceptance speech were devoted to thank yous. In any campaign, many are owed a debt — and public gestures of appreciation are a key currency of politics. But even here, the address had its odd moments. Mulcair gently ridiculed the labour-inspired NDP tradition of referring to one another as \u201cbrothers and sisters.\u201d He carefully followed a written text in issuing words of thanks to his relatives. And then came this line, delivered in French but translated on TV: \u201cTo my mother — my Mom, who with her brothers and sisters is up north watching us: Hello.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should Mulcair fail over the course of his leadership to develop a common touch and connect with Canadians, these four words may serve as his political epitaph: \u201cTo my Mom: Hello.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulcair then got to the meat of his speech. It made for tough chewing. He said things like \u201cYoung people are active in their community groups.\u201d He said things like \u201cLeadership comes in many forms.\u201d Mulcair spoke with all the dynamism and charm of an economics professor, his face buried in his text. Voters of Canada, the NDP would like to introduce you to its new leader: the top of this guy\u2019s head!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of you who don’t follow Canadian politics, Thomas Mulcair is the new leader of the Official Opposition, the NDP (New Democratic Party). His performance at the convention inspired Scott Feschuk: Most New Democrats who\u2019d be choosing the party\u2019s next leader had voted before the convention even began. Thomas Mulcair could have used his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,57,53],"tags":[572,798,802],"class_list":["post-14384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-humour","category-politics","tag-leadership","tag-ndp","tag-thomasmulcair"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-3K0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14384"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14386,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14384\/revisions\/14386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}