On unclaimed territory

When Yens Pedersen released his platform in the Saskatchewan NDP leadership race, I noted that he'd likely have to retool his message to adapt to a race where the youth/renewal message had largely been claimed by Ryan Meili. But Pedersen may now be hinting at a reinvention which could well provide him with a strong narrative for the rest of the race - even if it also makes him some adversaries in the process.

Here's a piece of Pedersen's latest blog post, which deals generally with qusetions from the Saskatchewan New Democratic Women about the candidates' views on gender parity within the party:

We also need to elect more women - not just nominate them. If we are to achieve this goal, an obvious place to begin is in our strongest seats. As leader, one of my first actions will be to privately discuss with our MLAs their plans for the next election. If any MLA is overdue for retirement, I will not hesitate to pointedly (but respectfully) encourage him/her to move on. All organizations need to continually renew their leadership.

Now, the post raises some obvious followup questions as to just which MLAs Pedersen would classify as "overdue for retirement". And while I wouldn't anticipate his naming names, the fact that he views at least some current caucus members in that light figures to raise more direct resistance than Pedersen might otherwise have encountered from those who might see the description applying to them.

But then, the hope for one or more of the last outstanding caucus endorsements aside, Pedersen didn't figure to get all that much traction among the current occupants of the Legislature in any event. And with nobody else in the race taking on the title of shoot-from-the-hip populist, Pedersen may well be able to carve that out as his niche (not to mention attract media attention) if he plays up that angle between now and June.