Howard Hampton's letter endorsing Thomas Mulcair

The following is an open letter from former Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party Howard Hampton on behalf of NDP Deputy Leader Thomas Mulcair.

Fellow New Democrats,

As we head into the final weeks of this leadership race, I'm impressed by the positive energy that's building behind Thomas Mulcair.

In just the last two weeks, Tom has not only received the endorsements of fellow leadership candidates Robert Chisholm and Romeo Saganash, but he's also picked up support from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) led by Sharleen Stewart, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) in Toronto and former NDP Premier of British Columbia Mike Harcourt.

In Quebec, some of the most prominent media sources in the province have come out in support of Tom's campaign.

That's what I call momentum!

Tom's positive message about uniting progressives is clearly capturing the imaginations of New Democrats from coast to coast to coast. It's that kind of hopeful, optimistic leadership that our party needs if we're going to be ready to take on Stephen Harper once this race is over.

That's one of the reasons why I'm so proud to be supporting Thomas Mulcair.

Since the first day of this leadership race, Tom has run a relentlessly positive campaign.

And that's so important. We need to come out of this race united and ready to bring people together to protect our common values.

Consider this:

Just five days after we choose our next leader, our party's caucus will have to stand up in the House of Commons and respond to Stephen Harper's latest Conservative budget.

We'll have to stand up to Mr. Harper's plans to cut healthcare funding and public pensions.

And to do that, we'll have to stand together.

As Tom likes to say, we've had nine great leadership candidates in this race, and in parliament they'll make a great front bench. We should all be thrilled with the calibre of the talent we have in our party.

So let's stay focused on making this a positive race.

Let's stay focused on the message of hope that our party offers to all Canadians.

And, together, let's take the next step.

Howard Hampton

Fmr. Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party

York U - Bargaining in Bad Faith

Ontario NDP Accuse YorkU of Bargaining in Bad Faith | The Dominion <read full story!

Howard Hampton: "This isn't deadlock. This is a university that decided, "We'll lock out
the students. We'll put them in the street. We'll go through the
motions of making it look like we're interested in bargaining and we'll
just string it out, string it out, and then we'll go to the McGuinty
government and ask them to end it."

You Tell'Em Howie!

Howard Hampton, leader of the Ontario Provincial NDP, took the mainstream media to task today for focusing on issues that are not at the top of peoples' minds.

Will we see the media start to report on the real issues? That would be nice. Let's see proper reporting and information on the Referendum and MMP. Let's see reporting on the environment, proper funding of schools, energy/electricity issues, child poverty, homelessness, seniors homes, and so on.

UPDATE
See James Laxer's

Why Howard Hampton and the NDP Deserve Your Support on Wednesday