50 years later, NDP hope they’ve come of age
Alberta’s political conscience still struggles to catch voters’ attention
I’m not sure why but 1962 seems to have been a year of unusual portent.
Fifty years ago the Rolling Stones were formed. So, too, the Beatles. It was the year of the first James Bond film (Dr. No) and the beginning of Amnesty International. Diehard cartoon fans will know this is the 50th anniversary of The Jetsons.
But only the most dedicated of political fans will realize that 1962 marks a milestone in provincial politics. It has been 50 years since the birth of the Alberta New Democratic Party.
You could argue that event also marked the birth of Alberta’s political conscience. That’s certainly what New Democrats will be celebrating this weekend at their annual general meeting in Edmonton.
New Democrats may never have enjoyed a Beatlemania moment here — heck, they’ve been treated so abysmally by voters at times they should
Just how the NDP can create a bigger tent and form government is very much a mystery.
have qualified for Amnesty International’s intervention — but there’s no doubting that the party has had a significant influence on Alberta politics.
From 1986 to 1993, New Democrats formed an official Opposition that offered a thoughtful counterbalance to the Alberta Conservative government of the day.
The party has proven to be an effective thorn in the side of government even in those years when it was reduced to nothing but a two-person sliver of a caucus.
One of the NDP’s proudest moments came on March 10, 1998, when the government of Ralph Klein introduced a piece of legislation to limit the rights of those forcibly sterilized under the old Social Credit government.
NDP MLA Pam Barrett — a tiny wisp of a woman physically, but a dynamo politically — immediately denounced the law that would limit the ability of victims to sue the provincial government.
“This act calls for overriding the Canadian Charter of Rights, the Alberta Bill of Rights — and, yes, they are invoking the notwithstanding clause — and further, insults the people who were wrongfully institutionalized, sexually sterilized and abused,” said a furious Barrett during question period.
“How can the minister justify directing the courts to limit the amount of compensation these victims can receive? How can he possibly justify this?”
Listening to Barrett’s passionate appeal, Klein realized the law was a huge mistake and revoked the legislation the following day.
I was reminded of that moment in Alberta history when listening this week to the eulogies showered on former premier Peter Lougheed, who died last week.
It was Lougheed who as a newly elected premier in 1971 scrapped the province’s eugenics act that had sterilized 2,832 Albertans.
Lougheed rightly ended the practice, but it was the New Democrats who ensured the victims were treated fairly.
Listening to the eulogies, you couldn’t help but notice the links between Lougheed and the NDP.
He called himself a Progressive Conservative but he shared a passion for social justice and intervention in the economy that made him more progressive and less conservative.
Lougheed raised royalties on oil companies and used the money to start the Heritage Savings Trust Fund and invest in private companies such as Syncrude and (the defunct) Pacific Western Airlines.
In 1985, one Calgary oilman complained that Lougheed “would better fit in a socialist party.”
In retirement, Lougheed supported higher royalties on energy companies, encouraged a slowdown of the oilsands industry and called for more bitumen to be upgraded in Alberta rather than exported. That pretty much sums up the NDP platform from last April’s provincial election.
“New Democrats sound closer now to what Lougheed stood for than do the Conservatives,” says former NDP leader Ray Martin, who feels in some ways the NDP is more a fitting heir to the Lougheed legacy than the PCs. “I hope Premier Redford is listening.”
In his speech to convention delegates today, NDP leader Brian Mason will be talking about how Lougheed’s vision has been “subverted” by subsequent leaders of the Conservative Party.
But of course Lougheed did something the NDP has failed to do over its 50-year history: form government.
Mason says his speech today will examine how to make the NDP more attractive to more Albertans.
“We need to be having some conversations with progressive people who may have been supporting some of the other parties about what we need to do to make them feel more comfortable in our party.
“For me it’s very much a question of how do we make the NDP broader and create a bigger tent?”
Well, they won’t do it by merging with Alberta Liberals. Party delegates have introduced a resolution at the convention reaffirming their opposition to any merger or non-compete deals with other parties.
Just how the NDP can create a bigger tent and form government is very much a mystery.
And this year marks that mystery’s 50th anniversary.