Zohran Mamdani's Politics of Care

Reflections on Mamdani's primary victory and how that relates to how we think about innovation and the economy in Canada

Zohran Mamdani at his election night party. Source: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

Yesterday, Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old New York State Assembly member and democratic socialist, won the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. In a surprising victory, Mamdani defeated disgraced former New York Governor and establishment candidate Andrew Cuomo.

New York City municipal politics might not be the usual fare of this newsletter. But in many ways, this story is. Mamdani epitomizes much of what I write about here, particularly through his focus on the real outcomes, for real people, in real communities.

Mamdani’s platform and style reflect a “politics of care”. It is this kind of approach that is missing from much of our discourse on the economy in Canada, and around innovation in particular.

In the rest of this post, I’ll explore the idea of a politics of care, how Mamdani reflects that approach, and how we can and should think about innovation in Canada through that lens.