It comes as no surprise that Niki Ashton is pondering another run at the leadership of the federal NDP.
As the Winnipeg Free Press reports, the Churchill-Keewatinook Aski MP is thinking about whether to enter the leadership race when the time comes.
“People have been asking me and are encouraging me to consider it,” Ashton told the Free Press last week. “I appreciate it.”
It would be utterly shocking if Ashton decides not to run – and at least a little bit remarkable if she does not win.
Ashton is one of the more recognizable New Democrat MPs, particularly now that the party has been reduced to 44 seats and many of its past stalwarts are no longer in the House of Commons. It’s not uncommon to read her name and quotes in major news publications.
She is also unflinchingly left-wing. As the NDP’s disposal of centrist leader Tom Mulcair demonstrates, the party’s rank and file is no longer interested in shifting to the right to try and broaden the base.
Ashton even has experience running for leader following a failed 2012 bid that was most certainly designed not to win, but to bolster her national profile in preparation for a second, more serious run.
For a few years now there has been speculation that Ashton, a Thompson resident, might move to provincial politics. She has always denied those suggestions, and given that her father Steve Ashton just lost his Thompson seat to the Progressive Conservatives, there is no obvious reason for her to make the switch.
Just as Steve Ashton’s riding was formerly a “safe” NDP seat, Niki Ashton must wonder whether the Liberals will eventually overtake Churchill-Keewatinook Aski after coming mightily close in 2015.
But Ashton is of such prominence in the party that even if she did lose her northern Manitoba riding, surely the NDP would find her a safe seat elsewhere – assuming, of course, she would choose to remain in politics.
But back to the question of the party leadership. Would the NDP select as leader an MP from a riding as remote as Churchill-Keewatinook Aski? Don’t you have to reside in a major centre such as Toronto or Calgary, or at least live in Quebec, to lead a major party?
Not necessarily. Note that Audrey McLaughlin, NDP leader from 1989 to 1995, represented Yukon.
It might be a different story if the New Democrats were competing to form government, as they were a scant seven months ago.
But this is a rebuilding party in search of a coherent, progressive identity and a leader that will back it up.
Whether you prefer or abhor her politics, Niki Ashton could well be that person.
Local Angle is published on Fridays.
