Ottawa

Crushworthy: The case for Brian Topp

From my interviews for this week’s piece about the Topp campaign, here is an online exclusive assessment of Brian Topp’s cuteness, offered happily by Libby Davies.

“There’s almost like a cuteness about him, you know? He kind of tilts his head on one side and kind of listens to people. And he’s got very nice brown eyes … and dimples. Don’t usually talk about men like this, do we? But there is. There’s something warm and nice about him.”

And that is the closest I will likely ever come to realizing my dream of writing for Tiger Beat.

A few other raves from Ms. Davies (some of which appear in slightly abridged form in this week’s magazine).

“I’ve watched him very carefully and I really thought about this leadership question a lot, about what it is that we need … and I really feel like he’s got excellent leadership qualities and capabilities. We’re a big caucus now, there’s the whole Quebec wing, which is new, for us, and I feel like he’s really ground, he’s very thoughtful, he’s super smart … the guy is quite brilliant. But I feel like he’s got the right characteristics to not only hold the caucus together, but to move it forward in a very unified and dynamic way. And that really drew me to him.” 

“I know he’s not been elected before, but in my mind’s eye, I can really see him going up against Harper. I think he’ll outsmart Harper. Brian’s not a rah-rah-rah rhetorical person. He’s thoughtful, but he has a great sense of humour. He has a quiet way about him that grows on you. I just have this image of him going up against Harper and Harper really meeting his match that way. I think he’ll outsmart the guy.”

“So one was the leadership qualities, the other was just his incredible depth of experience. With policy, with campaigns, with the political scene, with being in government. And I feel like if we’re serious about potentially being a government, we have to show we can do the job. And I feel like he’s the person to bring us forward on that.”

“I really feel he’s got guts. When he’s ready to do something, he’ll do it. He’ll go for it. Like his policies that he’s been announcing on economic inequality. He’s not afraid to take something on. I don’t want someone who’s going to kind of move us more to the middle and I don’t want someone who’s going to go for the lowest common denominator, if I can put it that way. I want someone who’s got guts, to know who we are as New Democrats and move us forward with a new kind of politics.”

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