Fumbling for a future in the long shadow of Jack
In the race to replace Mulcair as leader, the NDP finds itself at a familiar fork in the road: Power, or purity? Layton’s widow, Olivia Chow, believes the party ‘can absolutely’ have both
OTTAWA— One way to look at the history of the New Democratic Party is to see it as a movement in search of a way forward: forever groping for the best path to power, riven by the competing forces of ideological purity and pragmatism.
In the wake of more than a half-century of electoral defeats, its fortunes measured in an oscillating tally of opposition seats, the NDP frequently finds itself at a crossroads marked with the question “What do we do now?” And here they are again. The race to replace Thomas Mulcair as leader is finally heating up. But as candidates gather endorsements, money and policy ideas, the party is also surveying the wreckage of the 2015 election.
Jack Layton — le bon Jack, credited with widening the NDP base and spearheading the party’s elusive Quebec breakthrough — died at the zenith of the party’s success. He left Stornoway, the official Opposition leader’s residence, to Mulcair. Then, in 2015, the party missed the only real shot it has ever had at forming government in Ottawa.
Where do you go from there? Whom do you choose as leader? And at a time when populist angst is buffeting many Western democracies, what strategy is best for Canada’s party of the left?
Should the NDP run for power as a generally progressive, trust-uswe’re-not-socialist party? Or is it the country’s “conscience,” the political group that espouses social democratic principles — tax the rich, good jobs for all, affordable education and all that — even if it never gets elected?
Olivia Chow, for one, is tired of the whole argument.
“You can absolutely do both,” said the former MP and Toronto mayoral candidate — and Layton’s widow — in a recent interview.
“New Democrats have always been fairly clear about where they stand on key issues, on the importance of social justice, on democracy. No one would accuse Jack Layton of being not true to the roots of the NDP, but he was also semi-successful in increasing the seats in the House of Commons.”
At the same time, Layton’s tenure as leader is often seen as a period in which the NDP professionalized its operations and, at least in appearance, became more moderate in a bid to appeal to more Canadians.
The changes can be seen as a precursor to the type of campaign the party ran under Mulcair in 2015.
Many felt the NDP was too cautious with its push to appear fiscally responsible, allowing Justin Trudeau to pluck promises from the New Democrats’ playbook — such as electoral reform and marijuana legalization — while pledging to go into deficit to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure projects.
“It’s been apocalyptic for the NDP’s fortunes to move toward the centre,” said Avi Lewis, who along with his wife, activist and author Naomi Klein, dropped a bomb during the election campaign with the release of the Leap Manifesto, a list of demands to purge the country’s reliance on fossil fuels, protect the environment and create jobs.
“It’s not just consigning itself to electoral failure; it’s consigning itself to historical irrelevance,” Lewis said.
Many in the party now feel that the push for moderation is behind them. There is a sense that Trudeau’s left flank has become vulnerable to a more avowedly progressive NDP. The Liberal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and its decision to break a promise to change the electoral system may offer openings for the NDP.
Marit Stiles, NDP president, said, “If I learned anything from the last election, it’s that we need to be bold and innovative and take a few risks.”
Some in the NDP feel that yawning income inequality, a sense of betrayal that the prime minister isn’t as progressive as he let on and the perception of simmering anger about an out-of-touch national elite could combine to offer the party a chance to spark a Bernie Sanders-style enthusiasm on this side of the border.
The pitch to Canadians, as Lewis describes it, goes like this: Decades of “neo-liberal” policies such as free trade and corporate tax cuts have given big companies gargantuan profits while governments have slashed social programs even as wellpaying jobs disappear.
This populism of the left is already popping up in the leadership campaign.
Peter Julian, the British Columbia MP who was first to enter the race, has promised free university tuition and wants to stop major oilsands pipeline development. Rhetoric from Charlie Angus and Niki Ashton has taken an anti-elitist flavour and Guy Caron is leaning on his economist’s pedigree to place income inequality at the centre of his campaign.
Whatever happens, Stiles said the next leader will have to find a way to “connect with a broader base of Canadians.”
The only question is which road will get them there.