Wednesday, January 22, 2003
The dead New Democrats - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER – Doug Saunders, a columnist at The Globe and Mail, in his column on Saturday recounted an old Canadian political wisecrack, that's both fact and fiction. He noted that when Liberals hold a political convention, they go to get laid, while Tories go to get drunk. New Democrats? Well, they go to convention to get pamphlets. True enough. This weekend New Democrats will be heading to Toronto for a convention that by Sunday will see a new leader for the New Democratic Party of Canada. The party of the left in this nation has been in the midst of a leadership race. You didn't notice? You're not alone.
In 1995, Alexa McDonough took over the reins of the party when her predecessor Audrey McLaughlin led the party in the 1993 election from 43 seats (its all time high) to a meagre nine. Without party status in the House, the party was desperately trying to find its place amongst the new Parliament that saw the Liberals restored to power, the Conservatives obliterated and two upstarts, the Reform Party and the Bloc Quebecois the leading opposition caucuses. McDonough had an unenviable task and in 1997 she did manage to bring eastern Canada into the fold, for the first time electing some NDP MPs, and restoring the party to some visibility. In 2000 however, the party slipped again, the left always fractious. Even in the wake of anti-globalisation mayhem across the world, the NDP barely registered with voters.
Now, McDonough bows out and a race ensues. The NDP at this critical juncture in Canadian politics has a chance to define itself in the 21st century. Will it continue to be the staid NDP, at the periphery of the debate in this nation's political life? Will the NDP remake itself into the force it once was in the 1980s? Or will the party make itself over into a truly left-wing voice, tapping into the boiling energies of young people and the new left in this country and world?
Clearly, New Democrats have great choices to make. Doctrinaire socialists will claim the NDP's purpose was to be a rump flailing and bitching in Parliament. That's how Canada got medicare. That's how the 1980s debate over free trade got spearheaded. Others believe that the NDP should fashion itself to be a real contender in national politics. So instead of voting for a Liberal government all the time, perhaps some consideration should be given to the NDP, not as a perpetual opposition rump, but as a possible government. Not likely, but there are NDPers willing to give that a shot. It worked for Tony Blair, so why not? Right? Well, then there's the cabal that wants fierce reforms not just for the system (socialists are never satisfied), but for the party itself. They want the NDP to go further left, to tap into the masses that oppose globalisation and American hegemony. Those protestors at the WTO in Seattle and Genoa, they need a home.
There are six candidates vying for the post of leader of the New Democrats. Bev Meslo, Pierre Ducasse and Joe Comartin are deemed also-rans. They're in it for some reason, and winning isn't one of them. Meslo, a Vancouver activist, is a fierce supporter of the New Politics Initiative, that the NDP voted down at their last convention. NPI would have seen the NDP turn itself into that hard-left party, the party of the anti-globalisers etc. Ducasse is the token Quebecker candidate. The party never able to attract votes in Quebec, have Ducasse to suppose that the party is truly national. And Comartin is from Ontario, a sitting MP who's probably just in the race to stalk for one of the major candidates in a future ballot. The man who will surely come in third is Lorne Nystrom. The long-time Saskatchewan MP has run for the leadership in the past. He's lost twice and this time he doesn't look like he can pull it off. He's in the mood for turning the NDP into the New Labour model of Tony Blair. Be left-wing, but not too left that we can't grab the reins of power. That's the Nystrom platform and it's one that I believe that the general voting populace could support. Really, the middle is in the mood for a left-wing party, as the Liberals have generally moved to the right as it is; and will no doubt move farther right with Paul Martin ready to take over 12 years ago.
The two real contenders for the job are Bill Blaikie, the long-time Manitoban MP and Jack Layton, long-time Toronto City Councillor. Blaikie wants to turn the NDP into the force that it was in the 1980s. Not necessarily running to form government, yet forever entrenched to do the bidding of the left-wing, namely unions and activists and the lot of them. Layton wants to remake the party completely. He wants it to cater to the anti-globalisation movement. Layton wants the NDP to become a force to be reckoned with, yet be dynamic and be in tune with the other leftie forces in the world. Blaikie is from the old guard, whilst Layton is fresh. Blaikie and Nystrom both warn that perhaps Layton is too fresh, too glib and too much like Stockwell Day, the supposedly great right hope, who was supposed to do politics differently. Alas, he turned out to be a boob. The left doesn't need what the Alliance got in Day and that's why Nystrom and Blaikie are trying everything to stop Layton. However Layton is from Ontario, where at least half of the NDP's membership resides. Layton is surely going to sew up the vote there, and across the country as he's gotten a ton of endorsements. The New Democrats in this province support him, as do former leaders Ed Broadbent and Audrey McLaughlin.
But if the NDP chooses Layton, as I suspect they will, will the NDP be better for it? Will the NDP win more seats? I suppose they'll pick up a few seats in Ontario considering Layton is from there, but other than that, how strong can the NDP get with the kind of tenuous political reality we've got in this country. The results from 1993 on have been status quo. The NDP just doesn't seem to resonate, and even if it does, they don't get votes, because voters, across the country, avoid the NDP so as to avoid getting the Reform/Alliance elected.
In my political activities, through the years, I have been a member of the New Democratic Party. I left the NDP, because I realised the left was not me, and that the party despite all its lip service to the contrary, the party was not reforming itself to becoming an outfit that wanted to get elected. Layton seems a fresh face who is ready to get the job done. It is an unenviable task, but he's willing to risk his political capital to bringing fresh ideas to a tired and limping party.
I have also been a member of the Canadian Alliance. I was around when Stockwell Day was elected, being one of the idealistic dim bulbs who elected the all-too glib Day. It's easy to get stars in ones eyes and go for the most appealing candidate. But the voter will snuff you out in an instant, and see that it's all just a new paint job on an outfit that wasn't so hot to begin with. Sometimes the hopes and desires are too much, that nothing can be delivered and all that's left is a telegenic talking mouth that's short on everything else. Layton has been charged with being too flashy and too shallow, short on substance, yet long in style.
Whatever the case, the NDP, as it was when I left it, must reform or die. Whomever they choose this weekend, they've got to step on it to getting things done, or risk the inevitable death that they seem destined for.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .