I am old enough to say that I have been observing politics for almost 40 years. So I remember when the Federal NDP were a force in Canadian politics. Yes they never held power but I remember when Ed Broadbent lead a third place political party that could convince Pierre Trudeau to adopt policies that they might not have done otherwise and this was when the former PM was leading a majority government. The NDP at that time seemed to always be able to punch above its weight and everybody respected the party because it always seemed to oppose the government on principle. Also Ed Broadbent knew how to effectively oppose the government, something none of the current crop of Opposition leaders seems to have figured out.
I often feel sad that the old NDP is gone to be replaced by the current party which does not seem to have any principles and has been completely ineffective as an opposition party. I know some NDP partisans seem to believe that they have "forced" the current Liberal government to adopt some of their polices but they have been saying that for as long as I can remember and it is simply untrue. Since the last election the Liberals have managed to convince all of the opposition parties to support the government at least once during this parliament.
So why has the NDP fallen so badly?
The simple answer is power corrupts, or in this case believing that you are close to achieving power corrupts.
In 1993 the Canadians political scene saw a sea-change. The Liberals roared into power as the revulsion towards the Mulroney Tories manifested itself at the ballot box on election day 1993. When the dust settled the old Tory Party was virtually destroyed, the Bloc Quebecois and the Reform Party exploded onto the scene and the NDP did not win enough seats to achieve official party status.
Thus began a decade of futility for the NDP, which went through three leaders in two elections. They languished as the fourth party in Parliament for that whole time and it seemed that they would stay there for quite some time.
Then they selected Jack Layton as leader of the Party and the Liberal government, which was getting very long in the tooth anyway , became mired in the Sponsorship Scandal. (Note that was a true scandal and they deserved their fate for it.) Suddenly, NDP fortunes picked up and the NDP began feeling good about itself again. In 2004 and in 2006 the NDP picked up more seats and then in 2011 they became the Official Opposition, supplanting the Liberals in that role. Many NDP partisans have pretty much sainted Mr. Layton for that feat but I have always thought they have overstated his achievement. In reality all he did was lead the NDP to Official Opposition status opposite a majority government, one of the most frustrating positions to find yourself in the Canadian political system. But now they believed that they were the "government in waiting" and that they would finally gain power in 2015.
Then the unthinkable happened. The Liberals roared past them, relegating them to the third party yet again and they did not like it. They believed their time had come, that it was their turn and they did not take their fate very well at all. Any vestiges of their principles that they had left went out the window as they tried everything to regain their old position and have another shot at governing and people noticed. The 2019 election saw their caucus cut in half and although some of that would have been people deciding to vote strategically to prevent a Conservative government that has always been overstated in Canada. The reason for that reduction was Canadians turning away from the NDP.
Many have condemned Mr. Singh for his political tactics but I would assert that they predate him. They began when Mr. Layton won the leadership because he decided that the NDP would cease to be the "conscience" of the Canadian political scene and become a political party that would shoot for power. From his election to the present the NDP have continued to place the pursuit of power over principle. 2011 convinced them that they have an actual shot at it when all evidence and eight decades of historical voting patterns indicate that they are deluded themselves. As long as this delusion persists the NDP will remain where they are and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they will suffer the same fate as the NDP did in 1993.
The NDP is not the same party as it was 40 years ago. Of course, none of the parties are but the current NDP has diminished itself by blind ambition and more and more Canadians are noticing.
1 comment:
Orange is the new blue. It's also the same color as Trump. Like the CPC, the federal NDP have been hijacked by the worst extremes of U.S. politics, and the horseshoe ideology that pits the far left and far right as common enemies against the sensible center. Power over policies, using the politics of personal destruction. You have the Cons with Trump/Tea Party/QAnon/Karl Rove smear campaigns and other dirty GOP tactics, and the NDP with "Bernie Bro" aggressive left purity populism. The toxic behavior of Bernie Bros was a major turnoff to mainstream Democrats, especially women, and got the fringe "squad" contingent no closer to winning power even within the Democratic Party itself. But the NDP think it is not only effective, but a morally righteous crusade. The "Trudeau stole the brass ring" bitterness left over from 2015 is a big part of it. The Liberals have expanded their tent so much with Trudeau at the helm, that both the Dippers and Cons are irrelevant.
The party of No Damn Principles does nothing but echo Con talking points about "Crooked Justin" and the "Laurentian elites," which are themselves echoes of GOP memes about "Crooked Hillary" and the "coastal elites." Then they get mad when Liberals point out that they are behaving like Cons, instead going with the same "Liberal/Tory same old story" gaslighting slogan the same way Justice Democrats and the DSA go on about the "Republocrats" and "establishment uniparty". It's called heightening the contradictions and it's a '60s New Left tactic revived from its European forebears that has only ever emboldened the right.
Just like the Cons, they stand for absolutely nothing but a vessel of anti-Trudeau, anti-Liberal animus that is emboldening the worst instincts of their most fervent acolytes. Charlie Angus smearing Margaret Trudeau as a gold-digging crook who rode the coattails of her husband's last name and was a willing participant in her son's alleged "corruption" is another black eye on the so-called conscience of parliament. So is aiding and abetting the likes of QAnon supporters who shout their incendiary rhetoric into Catherine McKenna's office intercom while calling her unrepeatable slurs.
Add Singh's ignorance or willful obtuseness as regards jurisdictional matters to this, and it's plainly obvious the rose bros of the north are a shambolic disaster with nothing to offer but the politics of knee-jerk outrage. Running roughshod over provincial matters is what got them wiped out in Quebec, not Singh's turban. They're out of money and out of ideas, and so their only play is to fling crap at Trudeau and cry racism over any legitimate pushback. Their toolbox, like their war chest, is empty. To borrow from an old saying, when all you've got is a hammer and sickle, everything looks like a nail.
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