The Unity Bill gambit

Greg Fingas considers the NDP’s Unity Bill.

Of course, there may be other strategic thoughts behind the introduction of Scott’s bill. Maybe the hope is to lead the Libs’ leadership candidates even further down the same path to allow Mulcair to frame them as remaining out of touch (in which case, mission accomplished). Or perhaps the intention is to present a single bill now as a marker to point to when the subject is raised later, while planning to turn attention back to more substantive issues at the first available opportunity.

Even if so, I’d still have some timing questions as to why that’s being done right this minute, rather than after NDP members have had a chance to shape the party’s direction under Mulcair. But more importantly, while the NDP certainly needs to think about how to position itself compared to its competitors, it also needs to keep its own priorities in order - meaning that the true test for Mulcair may be whether he keeps the NDP’s focus on the issues he knows to be more important.

Justin Ling considers Justin Trudeau’s reaction. And Nick Taylor-Vaisey notes that the country’s editorialists are displeased with Mr. Mulcair.