March 20, 2012
By Hugo Rodrigues

In the rushed days prior to the NDP leadership convention, candidate Peggy Nash made time Tuesday in Brantford for a few more stops – her last of the campaign.

With 15% of local members having already voted by advance ballot, Nash met with supporters at the Brantford District Labour Centre in the afternoon and at the Piston Broke Pub in the evening. It was one last visit to discuss issues and express how excited New Democrats are to renew the leadership of their party.

“There’s an enormous amount of energy and optimism. We’ve increased our membership over 50% over the course of the leadership campaign, which is pretty significant,” Nash said at the labour centre. “The (national) media is saying boring, that we’re not engaged. It’s because they’re sitting in Ottawa writing their stories.”

Continued on Brantford Expositor »

NDP leadership candidate Peggy Nash says she would make a difference in Canada’s electoral system, economy, environment, foreign policy, social programs.

March 19, 2012
By Jessica Bruno

NDP candidate Peggy Nash says the biggest obstacle standing between the New Democrats and a majority government is money, but the NDP has a few years to catch up.

Ms. Nash, 60, who represents Parkdale-High Park, Ont., has attracted a number of influential endorsements from top Canadian and NDP women, including former federal NDP leader Alexa McDonough, Nova Scotia Cabinet Minister Marilyn More, Evelyn Gillespie, the former Minister for Women’s Equality in British Columbia and actor and director Sarah Polley.

Ms. Nash’s union roots have also garnered her endorsements from senior names in CUPE, the Canadian Auto Workers union and a number of provincial labour federations.

Q: Pundits have criticized a lack of division between the leadership candidates. What sets you apart and makes you the right person to lead the federal NDP?

“I am the only candidate with the perfect combination of skills our party requires in its next leader.

“One distinguishing asset is my extensive background in community building and grassroots organizing. I have been uniting groups and individuals around important issues and campaigns all my life. I know how to bring people together, fight those standing in our way, and win.

Continued on The Hill Times »

March 16, 2012
By Mark Kennedy

NDP leadership contender Peggy Nash, who represents a Toronto riding, is rejecting the notion the next leader of her party must come from Quebec to help ensure political success there in the next election.

Nash, one of seven candidates in the running to be chosen leader on March 24, made the comments in an interview with Postmedia News.

Continued on Vancouver Sun »

March 14, 2012
By John Doyle

Nash’s presence, measured tone and nuanced answers had the strongest resonance. There’s a fortitude and pragmatism projected in her onscreen persona that’s vivid and, memorably, she uses wit, not put-downs. There’s the air of a woman who has seen and heard plenty of male bluster but knows that bluster doesn’t get the job done.

Continued on Globe & Mail »

March 9, 2012
By Joanna Smith

Peggy Nash lights up when she talks about her favourite place in the city — the heart of the neighbourhood where she lives and works.

“High Park,” Nash, 60, says without hesitation when asked where she goes to find rejuvenation.

Her slow, deliberate way of speaking picks up pace as she talks about how much she loves the zoo, running in the park, how her children, now three grown men, played sports on its grassy lawns, how the trees surrounding Grenadier Pond change with the seasons, the deer, foxes and coyotes she has spotted there.

“To me, High Park is a magical place,” she says.

She is deeply concerned some of that magic will disappear, as the year-round, free-admission zoo is threatened with closing due to municipal budget cuts.

“The mean-spiritedness of eliminating one of the pleasures we have in this city,” Nash says when she talks about the possibility of saying goodbye forever to the wallabies, peacocks and other animals in the paddocks. “We need our bread, but we also need our roses.”

Peggy is always there.

The statement echoes like a refrain through every conversation about the role the New Democratic leadership candidate plays in the Parkdale—High Park riding she represented from 2006 to 2008 and reclaimed in the federal election last year.

Continued on Toronto Star »

March 6, 2012

What a difference a year can make in the life of Peggy Nash.

Last March, the longtime Roncesvalles resident could be found knocking on doors and volunteering at local events.

Not 12 months later, Nash is a member of parliament, representing Parkdale-High Park.

Give it another month and she may well be leader of the official Opposition.

Nash is one of six candidates vying to replace the late Jack Layton as party leader of the New Democrats.

Continued on My Town Crier »