The NDP marches toward irrelevance

Attracting notice as the fourth-largest party in Parliament isn't easy, so the NDP is opting for a high-risk strategy: carrying Liberal water.

To be sure, there are some upsides to planting one's nez firmly up the backside of the governing party: The NDP was able to extract more pandemic income support for unemployed workers and expand federal sick leave. That's a win.

But there are downsides, too.

For one, the NDP win, such as it was, won't be remembered as an NDP win. It will be remembered as a government win. Each time a new federal cheque comes in, it won't be Jagmeet Singh or the NDP that springs to voters' minds. It will be

Justin Trudeau.

Now, it might have been different had the NDP invented a new pandemic support out of whole cloth, and not just an expansion of existing programs, but even then the credit would have accrued to the Liberals in power. Welcome to the inherent unfairness of being a junior coalition partner.

Only the NDP aren't even that. They're just rented votes in the House of Commons. No Dipper sits in cabinet, just as no Dipper is around to make a good news government announcement. And even then, what's a few million or even billion to your name when Trudeau and his team are spraying hundreds of billions around the country?

If the all-but-guaranteed anonymity of its successes weren't bad enough, the NDP also runs the risk of looking like it's carrying Liberal water on less munificent files too, such as the parliamentary investigations into the WE scandal, where the NDP has stymied a potential avenue of inquiry at the House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee.

And while the NDP says this is because of poorly worded motion, it doesn't appear to be operating on a principle of inflicting political pain on the party it needs to overtake to become government, or at least knock back to become a bigger player in a future minority Parliament. Sure, the NDP's proposed “special committee” on all of the government's pandemic spending might shake out another

WE, but why dilute the one bona fide scandal you've got?

The NDP rebuttal might be that inflicting pain is petty at a time of national crisis, and that the greater good must come first. Fine. So let's see some of that greater good then.

Where, for example, are the NDP's plans to force the Liberals to table a budget? Lest we forget, Canadians haven't seen one since March 2019, an incredible state of affairs in a mature democracy, pandemic or no pandemic. And where, for that matter, are the NDP's plans to force the House of Commons into regular sittings so the Liberals receive an appropriate level of scrutiny?

Judging by this week's House appearance, we know the prime minister won't “take any lessons” from the Conservatives on the pandemic response, but the NDP should consider taking some from Erin O'Toole's Commons strategy. The NDP and Conservatives need to join forces and ride herd on the federal government's often-lacklustre response to the pandemic. So far, Trudeau has been able to convince Canadians that a pandemic response equals money out the door, not money plus well-timed and well-planned public-health interventions. This must change, because that response is now trending in the wrong direction (albeit with the provinces “leading” the way).

The NDP's path back to relevance follows that of Canada's pandemic response. If Singh and Co. can force improvements that save lives (or force Liberals to accept responsibility for their failures), they will be noticed. The current NDP practice of simply trading more benefits for less scrutiny, on the other hand, is a long-term vote loser.

If Singh has any aspirations of leading his party to Laytonian heights, he needs to find a way to knock Trudeau down a peg or 12, and more sick leave ain't gonna do it.

In a minority Parliament, it's the minority parties that are meant to have the party with the plurality of the seats over a barrel. We all know about the NDP's money woes, but with the Throne Speech now passed, it is up to Jagmeet Singh to drive a much harder bargain.