Patterson wins Brampton West NDP nomination

Adaoma Patterson, Canadian born of Jamaican parents, is the newly minted NDP Brampton West Riding Association candidate for the federal election.

She posted on Twitter: “Tired of the smears and spin from Stephen Harper’s Conservatives? Join the #NDP Truth Team: ndp.ca/truthteam#cdnpolitics.”

A veteran volunteer, she praised her Jamaican-born parents. Her father Horace Patterson was a founding member of the African-Caribbean Association of Manitoba. At 18, she got her feet wet politically when she was elected a youth representative to the National Council of Jamaicans and Supportive Organizations in Canada.

“Congrats Adaoma Patterson. It has been 30 years since Rosemary Brown’s attempt for leadership,” posted columnist and community leader Samuel Getachew.

She told The Camera that “our campaign team is ready to go. I am committed to the advancement of social justice and progressive public policy, among other things.”

Patterson mentioned Rosemary Brown..30 years now.  how time flies!

what a run for the NDP leadership Brown made made.  Brown was no joke or flake.  she was solid, solid, solid. not my fave but respect commands itself.  she made a diff and has left a legacy, a real legacy that makes it natural for Patterson as a candidate.

Patterson's win does not feel any way out of the ordinary. it feels absolutely natural.  and that is because Rosemary Brown once passed this way.

RIP! she mus' be smiling down at this point

I did not know Rosemary Brown personally..nor much about her otherwise.  her upper class manner ticked me off di'ze all. 

but since I saw her name in Patterson mouth this time around, she has been on my mind and the impact she had me me back in the day.  it was powerful and I feel it more now, or recognize it now, more than back in the day.

she was for real, an extraordinarily capable person, ahead of most of us, to conceive of that run at that time in Canada as a black person and actually carry it out to such great effect,  not that she would defeat Broadbent but all things being a lil' more normal, had she been more prominent for longer period of time, she might have pulled it off, given what she actually did

the win was Broadbents' from the start but Brown was a powerful leader and candidate, for real, much more attractive and solid than Broadbent, she would have been a great Canadian prime minister.  as I look back I am glad for the memory.  she was a factor in my time. 

Rosemary Brown was one of the great personalities of Canadian politics since 1970..my time