The only female federal NDP leadership candidate was not flattered by a Globe and Mail headline calling her “a Thatcher for the left”.

“My granny was a fan of hers,” Peggy Nash said during an interview in the Straight offices on November 3. “I thought she [Thatcher] did a lot of very harmful things to Britons. But, again, I think from the Globe and Mail’s perspective, they may be admirers.”

Nash is one of a string of candidates running to replace the late Jack Layton as federal NDP leader. Her riding of Parkdale–High Park includes many new immigrants and low-income Canadians. Nash said she decided to run because “we are at a critical moment in Canada’s history.”

And even though Globe columnist Lawrence Martin noted she was to the left on the political spectrum, Nash refuted the notion that New Democrats cannot manage the economy.

“While the rest of the world and other countries are transforming their economies to position them to compete in a world that invests in renewable energy, that values greenhouse-gas emissions reductions, our economy, through this Conservative government, is falling further and further behind,” Nash said. “These are the ones that are the job killers. We have almost two million Canadians right now that are looking for work. Growth has slowed to a crawl. Corporate investment is down. Consumer debt is at an all-time high. The Conservatives are bad economic managers.”

Like fellow leadership candidate and Outrement NDP MP Thomas Mulcair, Nash said the Conservatives are wrong to suggest environmental initiatives threaten economic stability.

With interest rates at an all-time low, Nash said, it would be a no-brainer to roll out a “national transit strategy” right away.

“This is not like Tony Clement putting up a gazebo in Muskoka; it’s about investing and modernizing our infrastructure,” Nash said. “The Board of Trade, in my city of Toronto, they say that it is a $6-billion annual drag on our Toronto economy because we are not investing in transit [to alleviate costs related to traffic woes].”

Nash said she would also invest in Canada’s disadvantaged First Nations youth, the fastest-growing demographic of young people in this country.

“Why have them get off to a bad start?” Nash said. “Why don’t we invest in housing, reduce inequality, get good education for them? It just sounds like the way to run our society, to run our economy.”