The NDP exists for a reason: to express certain principles and to represent certain voters. Today it is not easy to say what the Ontario party’s principles are or for whom it speaks.
This lament, which Gerald Caplan places near the beginning of his open letter to Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, expresses both the sadness and the frustration I suspect many feel. For those of us who still believe that government can be a force for positive social change, Andrea Horwath's direction and leadership as it is emerging during the Ontario campaign has been a profound disappointment. No vision. Just what many call populist policies or 'chequebook issues' that promise a modicum of relief from a few financial burdens, while leaving the fundamental underlying issues untouched and unspoken.
Her rejection of a progressive Liberal budget in the hope, presumably, of pursuing political gain, disappointed many, as Caplan makes plain:
Here was a win-win for the party: Many of those in need – the NDP’s people – would have directly benefited, and the NDP could have taken the credit. It would’ve been an entirely plausible claim, since it was true. The Liberals crafted it expecting your support. I expected it too, as did many others. Our disappointment was compounded when you could offer no sensible rationale for doing the opposite.
Pointedly, he chides her for what is missing in the current incarnation of the NDP:
No coherent theme, no memorable policies, nothing to deal with the great concerns of New Democrats everywhere: increasing inequality, the precarious lives of so many working people, reduced public services, global warming.
Instead, here is where her sights seem to be set:
...your real target seems to be business people large and small. Yes, they have their needs too, some of them legitimate. But they also have their parties who cater to those needs. If business want a sympathetic party to support – and they do – you can be sure they don’t need and won’t buy the NDP.
There are, of course, those die-hard NDP politicos who will be outraged by Caplan's letter. A circling of the wagons seems a natural reaction when attacked by one of your own. But what they need to remember is that he speaks for many who have grown disaffected with a party apparently more interested in pandering than in adhering to principles that provide a voice for those who have none.
For me, he speaks a sad but undeniable truth: the NDP has lost its way.
UPDATE: The discontent expressed by Gerald Caplan is spreading:
You may also like to check out these links here, here and here.
Here's a link to what I think is a follow-up piece from the G&M:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-ndp-rift-over-shift-to-right-goes-public/article18834824/
Thanks, Mound.
DeleteThe NDP exists to get elected and to enact policies, not to support the right-of-centre, corrupt Liberals.
ReplyDeleteGiven their past support of the Liberals, Anon, despite their well-known corruption, suggests there may be other motives at play here. As well, the thing that bothers so many people is the fact that such a progressive budget was spurned, even though it reflected a lot of traditional NDP values.
DeleteI would be the first to criticize the NDP for straying from core values - Social Justice and auto insurance reform but in order to get legislate those positions you have to win power. How long do we want to be the sanctimonious losers convinced that we have the right policies but can't enact them?
ReplyDeleteDoes Caplan et al really think that the Libs will ever listen to them, or even deliver any of the promises in the rejected budget? Hells Bells, we are still waiting for last years promises to be fulfilled!
Your point is not lost on me, Ben, but I guess some would argue that a de facto alliance with the Liberals might have been a better risk than the one chosen, which could see all progressives' worse nightmare, Tim Hudak, get elected.
DeleteProblem is there is no chance of an alliance with the present players, arrogant libs who think they can win it all aren't going to share and misguided dips who don't trust the libs enough to think that can get a share.
DeleteFortunately, Anon, there's little chance of the NDP getting elected, much less enacting policies. They're in a race to the bottom where they belong. I say that as a British Columbian who knows too well what happens when you put any faith in the NDP. It's the same story federally with Layton/Mulcair steering the NDP to the centre, ably assisting Stephen Harper in achieving his prime directive to move Canada's political centre well to the Right. A Blairified NDP will give rise to the same two-party state that Britain now endures. Eventually that leads to the uniformity that prevails in America where Democrats and Republicans are so often reading from the same page. Once you narrow the political spectrum as today's NDP are so bent on doing, democracy pays a horrible price. While I'm no New Dem, I was lucky enough to know David Lewis and Ed Broadbent. I didn't always agree with them but I respected their integrity and valued very highly their positive contribution to Parliament. Sometimes holding a government accountable and restraining its excesses is more valuable than governing.
ReplyDeleteThe Wynne budget was a peace offering to retain/gain support from the NDP. I no longer live in Ontario, but FFS I am more than disappointed with Horwath's rejection. What has come to light during her campaigning (i.e. saving tax payers money, establishing an accountability department) has more than alarmed me so I say kudos to those signatories.
ReplyDeleteWhy must Ontarians or Canadians suffer major losses to their quality of life with monsters like Harper or Hudak, just so the NDP can register gains against the Liberals? It will take a revolutionary like Chavez to freaking undo the damage Harper has done. And this latest Wynne budget was the first step in a long time to undo the damage Harris did to Ontario.
It is in some ways ironic, Beijing, that the NDP should be the major impediment to that effort at reconstruction post-Harris.
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