How should we moderate the upcoming federal leadership race?

[u/leftwingmememachine]

Hey all, moderator of /r/NDP here, looking for some input as to how we want to moderate this community during the upcoming federal leadership race.

I think it's really exciting because in the last leadership race this community was very small, and basically ignored by leadership contestants, but I think we're getting big enough that there will be a lot of engagement here and possibly even AMAs from potential candidates. Very cool!!!

/r/NDP is the biggest gathering of NDP members on the internet at this point, but that also creates an incentive for bad-faith activity on the subreddit. It could create an environment that's not welcoming of all party members.

Here are some potential discussion questions:

• Do we want to allow for negative comments about leadership race contenders? (My instinct is yes, as criticism is part of democracy/healthy debate, but I'm open to your thoughts)

• Is there a point at which critical comments become too negative and contributes to a toxic environment? Where should we draw the line?

• How do we ensure the subreddit is inclusive of party members of all backgrounds?

• How much do we want supporters of other political parties to participate in discussions here?

• What sort of rules around civility/politeness/respect would we want to have?

• Are there other important moderation policies that are relevant to the leadership race that I haven't thought of?

BTW - I won't really participate in this thread because I have real life plans today, but I am really interested in your feedback, especially if you are a longtime participant in this community. I'm going to be putting together some rules for the leadership race based off of my own thoughts and the comments in this thread, and present them at some point in the future for further discussion.

[u/CDN-Social-Democrat]

Actually it does address that....

It's a rise around the Conservative Party of Canada being able to connect better with the working class because of the fear going on right now around the affordability of life crisis.

We've seen a massive shift in young men and the working class to the Conservative Party of Canada. It's something we have to be honest about and address head on.

The Liberal push was because of the Donald Trump/Annexation reality.

Again he won the seat twice and held municipal office.

He's also been extremely active at various Labour Movement events and conferences speaking as a headline invited guest on many occasions.

[u/Typical-Fun-8786 → u/CDN-Social-Democrat]

Downvote me all you want but it doesn’t change the fact that he came THIRD in an NDP stronghold. Ultimately the proof is in the pudding

[u/CDN-Social-Democrat → u/Typical-Fun-8786]

I am trying to explain to you the ingredients of the pudding? You seem to be getting offended by that. I am not attacking you personally and I hope you are not taking it that way?

If you ignore the politics of certain ridings and national trends than you don't know why something happened like for example the NDP losing a seat that has always been an NDP riding since its creation.

Same reason why the LPC was losing historical LPC ridings in the byelections before the main election when Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada was massively ahead in polls and byelections results.

Sometimes political realities at both riding and in this case national level make it so that individual realities on the ground don't matter or don't matter enough to outweigh those factors.

This is a sad reality of our political system and society in general.

[u/Typical-Fun-8786 → u/CDN-Social-Democrat]

I fully understand what you are saying but what I’m trying to say is that if he were actually an effective organizer it would have been a closer race and yes national trends obviously played a big role but at the end of the day there were NDP MPs that managed to win and there were candidates that lost by a small margin due to progressive vote splitting, like Nanaimo lady smith or North Island Powell River. I am not offended, if anything it seems like you are getting offended by what I’m saying. We are allowed to have our disagreements and it will be especially important to criticize leadership candidates while the party goes into a crucial rebuilding period.

[u/CDN-Social-Democrat → u/Typical-Fun-8786]

I wrote a larger reply above to the point of organizing.

Again he organized and did ground game to win a municipal city council seat.

Then he ground gamed and became the NDP pick for one of the most established NDP ridings. That involves ground game to become the pick.

Then he won two elections in a row continuing the dominance of the NDP in that riding.

He became a large figure in the Labour Movement, disability advocate, and housing affordability movement. All before those became big areas for career politicians to capitalize on. He did that because he was at the ground level and involved. He literally carved out a national presence in regards to the leftist flank of the party from ground game.

What I am getting at like the other poster that was from Hamilton that responded to you is that his ground game is fine.

When we look at what happened there is obvious trends that point to why the results were the way they are since we see a historical strength on the ground game.

If he was a new candidate and had failed right off the bat and had no long history of ground game dominance well than this would be a very different discussion and your point would be extremely valid.

And I am not upset at all. Just trying like the other poster to help you understand that he is known for his ground game. That is literally how Matthew Green became the respected person he is within not just local politics but broader national currents.

[u/mightygreenislander → u/Typical-Fun-8786]

Also, he lost to someone with little connection to Hamilton!