Candidates want return to roots
Federal New Democrats’ future could use ‘a bit more Bernie Sanders,’ says supporter
In the minds of many of its followers, the NDP lost its way in the last federal election — and paid the price.
Many blamed leader Thomas Mulcair for advocating centrist policies like balancing the budget without rising taxes, allowing Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to outflank them on the left by promising to run up deficits and increase social spending.
“He took our program and he ran with it. And he won,” said Bob McDonald, a lifetime New Democratic Party supporter who came out to see the new NDP blood Saturday at a Unitarian church in Notre-Dame-de- Grâce.
After the 2011 “orange wave” that saw the NDP become Canada’s official opposition party, 2015 brought crushing defeat, with the loss of more than half of their seats and relegation to third-party status. Months later, Mulcair lost a leadership review vote, unprecedented for the leader of a major federal party, and opened the door to a leadership race.
The four main candidates for the leadership of the NDP were in Montreal on Saturday for a meetthe-candidates event organized by the N.D.G.-Westmount NDP association, the day before their scheduled debate Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Palais des congrès. Members like McDonald were out to see if the new prospects would return to the party’s roots.
“I’d like to see a bit more Bernie Sanders in the NDP,” McDonald said, referring to the Vermont senator known for railing against economic inequality and taking on Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
In their brief messages delivered in fluent English and French, the prospective leaders appeared to have got the message.
Charlie Angus, the MP from Timmins—James Bay since 2004, said Canada needs an alternative to Justin Trudeau, who he said campaigned as a progressive, but has ruled more in the vein of former prime minister Stephen Harper.
“I don’t think Justin Trudeau knows what the middle class is, because it has disappeared under the watch of Liberal and Conservative governments who have undermined the economic stability of working people in this country.”
Guy Caron, MP for Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouta—Les Basques since 2011, noted his position as the easternmost NDP member of Parliament is indicative of the party’s fall, and its need to expand into Atlantic Canada and improve its fortunes in places like Quebec, Toronto and Alberta. He said he chose to study economics after seeing major cuts made to education and health sectors and determining the country’s economic policy was being dictated by the Conservatives and the business sector.
“We (in the NDP) have a few economists from labour and organizations like the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. That’s it. And you know what? This is where the war is taking place right now. We need to reclaim that field.”
Peter Julian, MP for New Westminster—Burnaby in British Columbia since 2004, said the Liberals’ recently announced federal budget was a “Seinfeld budget,” referring to the popular sitcom.
“It was a budget about nothing. Nothing about housing, nothing about child care.”
It’s time for the NDP to speak to its socially progressive organizations and put forth more daring policies, such as his pledge to create 250,000 affordable housing units nationwide, and eliminate tuition fees for post-secondary education and tax havens for the wealthy, he said.
Candidate Niki Ashton, the MP for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, said the NDP should take the last elections as a teaching moment.
“We have a lot to learn about being proud of who we are as a leftwing party, as a progressive party. That is the way to build a brighter future for the NDP,” especially important in an era when rates of inequality are growing ever wider, she said.