Mandryk: Mail-ins win NDP Leader Meili his seat, but now he really has to deliver
© Provided by Leader Post Postal workers like this one appear to have delivered NDP leader Ryan Meili a win in Saskatoon Meewasin.
The “Meili-in” ballots have been counted. The Saskatchewan NDP leader appears headed back to the legislature.
Mail-in ballots in Saskatoon Meewasin have put NDP leader Ryan Meili on the top, sparing the Saskatchewan NDP the dubious distinction of becoming the first Official Opposition party in Canada to lose its leader in three consecutive general elections. This is what’s cause for celebration in New Democrat ranks these days. Wither, the once-mighty NDP machine?
Alas, one party’s minor victory is about to become another party’s punchline.
One can already hear the Saskatchewan Party heckles in the chamber of the Saskatchewan Legislature next month: “Hey Meili! Did you check your mail this morning to see if you’re still here?” “Hey, Meili! What’s your campaign song next time? Please, Mr. Postman?” “What do we now call the rest of your caucus? The Marvelettes?”
It is a cruel place.
And it might be about to get a little crueler for the NDP and Meili if he doesn’t break the current cycle by rebranding himself and his party.
After being 86 votes behind Sask. Party candidate Ryland Hunter on election night, the first 1,065 of a potential 1,656 mail-in votes counted in Meewasin showed Meili pulling 206 votes ahead. It appears the NDP, at least in Meewasin, won the campaign to get the mail-in vote — perhaps unsurprising, since New Democrats seemed more concerned about voting in person during COVID-19.
Some found it a bit presumptuous for Meili to declare victory after Wednesday’s first round of mail-in ballot count voting with a potential 591 mail-in votes yet to come. But it was surely enough to demonstrate a trend in the remaining mail-ins to be counted that provided valid. Hunter conceded late Thursday afternoon.
And let’s face it: The NDP badly need a win of some sort right now.
They lost fortress-like Saskatoon Riversdale and their 2016 gain in Prince Albert Northcote. They lost ground in Regina north of Dewdney Avenue with the defeat of Northeast incumbent Yens Pedersen. Mail-ins allowed Aleana Young — who had a baby the day before election day — to overcome a 178-vote election night deficit and take Regina University from Tina Beaudry-Mellor. Mohammad Fiaz appears to have held on to Regina Pasqua.
But even with Young’s win over the one-time Sask. Party leadership hopeful and even with modest Saskatoon gains in Eastview and University, the NDP are still only at 13 seats — exactly what they had when the 28th Saskatchewan legislature was dissolved.
However, they will at least have their leader in the house . Neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor a disjointed platform shall keep Ryan Meili from his deliveries in the legislature. Having him there is better than not.
As my colleague and Vanier Scholar Merelda Fiddler observed on our CBC election night panel, having to restart the cycle of picking a new leader after the election, introducing him or her to the voting public and getting behind that new leader’s direction and policy shift has been a destructive cycle for the NDP.
Far better would be for all New Democrats — old guard and new — to sheath their swords and get it together.
The 2020 election results can be directly tied to dissension between old and new and left and right since Meili’s selection as leader as 2018 — no place more so than in Regina Walsh Acres, where booting incumbent Sandra Morin stands as a reason why the NDP caucus has one less badly needed seat.
But it’s mostly up to Meili to fix things.
That the Sask. Party probably isn’t all that broken up to see Meili back might have something to do with the fact they already defined him this campaign as too left-wing to be trusted by mainstream Saskatchewan.
If Meili wants to hang around, he is going to have to work on that image; that begins with new approaches and policies that address a broader band of voters and their concerns.
His future and that of the party now depend on it. If he doesn’t, Meili may soon be marked “return to sender.”
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
© Provided by Leader Post Postal workers like this one appear to have delivered NDP leader Ryan Meili a win in Saskatoon Meewasin.
The “Meili-in” ballots have been counted. The Saskatchewan NDP leader appears headed back to the legislature.
Mail-in ballots in Saskatoon Meewasin have put NDP leader Ryan Meili on the top, sparing the Saskatchewan NDP the dubious distinction of becoming the first Official Opposition party in Canada to lose its leader in three consecutive general elections. This is what’s cause for celebration in New Democrat ranks these days. Wither, the once-mighty NDP machine?
Alas, one party’s minor victory is about to become another party’s punchline.
One can already hear the Saskatchewan Party heckles in the chamber of the Saskatchewan Legislature next month: “Hey Meili! Did you check your mail this morning to see if you’re still here?” “Hey, Meili! What’s your campaign song next time? Please, Mr. Postman?” “What do we now call the rest of your caucus? The Marvelettes?”
It is a cruel place.
And it might be about to get a little crueler for the NDP and Meili if he doesn’t break the current cycle by rebranding himself and his party.
After being 86 votes behind Sask. Party candidate Ryland Hunter on election night, the first 1,065 of a potential 1,656 mail-in votes counted in Meewasin showed Meili pulling 206 votes ahead. It appears the NDP, at least in Meewasin, won the campaign to get the mail-in vote — perhaps unsurprising, since New Democrats seemed more concerned about voting in person during COVID-19.
Some found it a bit presumptuous for Meili to declare victory after Wednesday’s first round of mail-in ballot count voting with a potential 591 mail-in votes yet to come. But it was surely enough to demonstrate a trend in the remaining mail-ins to be counted that provided valid. Hunter conceded late Thursday afternoon.
And let’s face it: The NDP badly need a win of some sort right now.
They lost fortress-like Saskatoon Riversdale and their 2016 gain in Prince Albert Northcote. They lost ground in Regina north of Dewdney Avenue with the defeat of Northeast incumbent Yens Pedersen. Mail-ins allowed Aleana Young — who had a baby the day before election day — to overcome a 178-vote election night deficit and take Regina University from Tina Beaudry-Mellor. Mohammad Fiaz appears to have held on to Regina Pasqua.
But even with Young’s win over the one-time Sask. Party leadership hopeful and even with modest Saskatoon gains in Eastview and University, the NDP are still only at 13 seats — exactly what they had when the 28th Saskatchewan legislature was dissolved.
However, they will at least have their leader in the house . Neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor a disjointed platform shall keep Ryan Meili from his deliveries in the legislature. Having him there is better than not.
As my colleague and Vanier Scholar Merelda Fiddler observed on our CBC election night panel, having to restart the cycle of picking a new leader after the election, introducing him or her to the voting public and getting behind that new leader’s direction and policy shift has been a destructive cycle for the NDP.
Far better would be for all New Democrats — old guard and new — to sheath their swords and get it together.
The 2020 election results can be directly tied to dissension between old and new and left and right since Meili’s selection as leader as 2018 — no place more so than in Regina Walsh Acres, where booting incumbent Sandra Morin stands as a reason why the NDP caucus has one less badly needed seat.
But it’s mostly up to Meili to fix things.
That the Sask. Party probably isn’t all that broken up to see Meili back might have something to do with the fact they already defined him this campaign as too left-wing to be trusted by mainstream Saskatchewan.
If Meili wants to hang around, he is going to have to work on that image; that begins with new approaches and policies that address a broader band of voters and their concerns.
His future and that of the party now depend on it. If he doesn’t, Meili may soon be marked “return to sender.”
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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