Mulcair speech sends the right message for the NDP at the right time
Five-point package delivers message many want to hear
The battle for Ontario is well and truly on — with NDP Leader Tom Mulcair signalling in a speech in Toronto Sunday that he intends to put bread and butter, basic kitchen-table economics, at the heart of his party’s bid for power in the 2015 election, and never mind endlessly wrangling about religion, identity or the threat of terrorism.
It was a solid, carefully judged speech. The question is whether any of it can be enough, with just eight months to go at the outside until Canadians cast their ballots — and the NDP seemingly locked in distant third place in national public support.
Here’s what jumped out first in Mulcair’s speech, billed as a major foray in his party’s effort to broaden its appeal in the vote-rich Greater Toronto Area; the absence of a single mention of either Bill C-51 or the niqab, the Muslim veil, debates about which have consumed this country’s chattering classes for days.
This was deliberate, according to a source close to Mulcair, a bid to refocus attention on the economy, where the New Democrats believe the Conservative government is increasingly vulnerable. Mulcair and other NDP MPs participated in protests against Bill C-51 across Canada Saturday, so the party’s views on this are well-known, goes the thinking. Sunday was about pocketbook issues in the GTA, home to the tightest concentration of federal ridings in Canada, and 11 new seats in the vote scheduled for Oct. 19.
First came an unabashed play for Torontonians’ sympathies, (which may be a trifle hard to swallow for Canadians from, say, Vancouver or Halifax): “Because only when Toronto is strong, is Canada strong,” Mulcair said. “Canada thrives when Toronto thrives. And as your prime minister, we will build a better Toronto and a stronger Canada.”
From there the NDP leader proceeded to a straightforward plug for his team of seven Toronto MPs — Rathika Sitsabaiesan, Dan Harris, Matthew Kellway, Craig Scott, Andrew Cash, Mike Sullivan and Peggy Nash — whom he said have been fighting the good fight for their constituents in various domains, from precarious jobs, to child poverty, to housing, to rail safety. This is a fair claim: Agree or disagree with their politics, no one can accuse this batch of Dippers of being lazy at the constituency level.
Mulcair then spent the body of his speech highlighting five areas where the NDP says it would improve Torontonians’ daily lives: “permanent, stable and predictable” federal funding for transit; a $15-a-day childcare plan, previously unveiled; “longterm, stable” federal help in building affordable housing; accelerated family re-unification for immigrants and quicker recognition of foreign professional credentials; and a promise to cut the small business tax rate from 11 to nine per cent, also previously announced.
Notably absent was any hint of highfalutin’ idealism, union-boosting, eat-the-rich rhetoric or environmentalist sabre-rattling. This was an unadorned pitch intended to appeal to the basic economic interests of a broad cross-section of Torontonians, solidly working class, with a minimum of fuss and bother.
As he wrapped things up, the NDP leader spent some time burnishing his personal street cred, seeking to differentiate himself from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Mulcair noted, as he often has before, his 35 years’ experience in public life; his humble roots as the second oldest of 10 children, and his family life as a father and grandfather.
In essence, the NDP’s message on leadership goes as follows: Mulcair is wiser and steadier than that callow, inexperienced Trudeau, yet kinder and more compassionate than that mean, controlling Harper. It’s a Goldilocks strategy, in which the NDP leader casts himself as possessing the more appealing personal qualities of each of his competitors, yet none of their weaknesses.
All told, then, this was a not-unhelpful foray for the NDP leader. He has finally, after three years as leader of his party, found an approach, borrowed in part from the Conservatives, that is calibrated to win GTA votes — especially if he can spread the word in the megacity’s rapidly growing, poorer suburbs, where precarious work and low-paying service-industry jobs are increasingly the rule, not the exception.
Here’s the reality check: In every byelection round since the May 2, 2011 election, the NDP has seen its vote share plummet. Mulcair’s visibility in Ontario remains low. His plan is not costed, in a way that would reassure Ontario voters he won’t raise taxes or run up billions in new federal debt; and Justin Trudeau, with his foray on pluralism and the niqab a week ago, has effectively, yet again, seized all the Conservative-opposing oxygen in the room.
Mulcair has made a creditable start in his bid to persuade Torontonians that he’s no one-trick pony, that is to say a Quebec politician interested only in holding Quebec seats. But he’s late to the game, and will need to spend a good deal more time in Canada’s largest province than he has so far, to have a hope of catching his rivals.
Notably absent was any hint of
highfalutin’ idealism, union-boosting,
eat-the-rich rhetoric or
environmentalist sabre-rattling.