Communist party candidate engages in 21st campaign
Retired computer programmer says she’s proud of her party’s far-left ideas
For the past 37 years, self-avowed Communist Naomi Rankin has followed a similar routine.
Whenever a federal or a provincial election rolls around, she collects signatures and registers as an official candidate. She sets off on an uphill battle convincing Edmontonians to cast their votes for her, a candidate for either the provincial or federal Communist party with no chance of actually winning a seat.
Rankin, 67, a retired computer programmer, returns as a candidate in this month’s federal election. She’s running as the Communist party of Canada’s candidate for Edmonton Strathcona, notably the same riding where once-new Democratic Party strategist Anne Mcgrath ran as a Communist in 1984. The riding is perhaps the city’s most competitive, with Conservative Sam Lilly, Liberal Eleanor Olszewski and New Democrat Heather Mcpherson locked in a tight race.
Rankin will likely place far behind these candidates, but that has never stopped her from running before. Though she couldn’t tell you (she has personally lost count), it’s her 21st election campaign.
Despite usually finishing with around 100 votes, she said her resolve has only grown with each election, and that individual moments of engagement and success, like at Edmonton’s climate rally last month, fuel her to spread her far-left views outside of campaign periods as well.
“This is our platform for the election, but it’s also our platform for the 46 months in between these election campaigns,” Rankin said. “We’re here with the same platform and the same strategy the day after the election too.”
Though they’re undoubtedly on the fringes of mainstream political conversation — the party ran 26 candidates in the 2015 federal election, one fewer than the satirical Rhinoceros Party — Rankin rejects the fringe party label due to the historic prevalence of Communist parties elsewhere in the world.
For Rankin, a typical election campaign involves door-knocking and streetside pamphleting, attempting to engage with passersby on her party’s main ideas, among them: doubling corporate tax rates and severely cutting military funding. This year, much of that effort has been focused on Whyte Avenue, where Rankin said she has met some sympathetic voters, but finds that many of those people are worried about “wasting their vote” and are opting to cast their ballot elsewhere.
“When an election is restricted to the major parties, it’s a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said. “The first step (to mainstream recognition) is the hardest, but if you’re going to get anywhere, you have to start with that first step.”
A lot has changed since Rankin first campaigned in 1982, though. She said there have been big shifts in public opinion, with the reception she has received generally getting friendlier.
One thing that hasn’t changed for Rankin is the use of the word “communism.”
U.S. politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-cortez define their ideology as “democratic socialism,” a softer term than “communism,” which is a word that can spell political suicide, said Rankin, noting she has been told the party should find a new name but argues a name change would only validate those who object to it.
“We aren’t going to run away from it because we are not ashamed,” Rankin said. “We are proud of our ideas.”