The NDP - Just Another Political Machine - UPDATE

Although I will likely vote NDP federally in the next election, I am under no illusion that the party is much different from its two major competitors. Indeed, I see it as occupying the middle ground that the Liberals once laid claim to, and quite frankly, compared to the latter's leader's apparently policy-less platform, Thomas Mulcair looks statesmanlike and intelligent.

Of the NDP in Ontario, the province in which I reside, I am less certain. While leader Andrea Horwath has made noises about doing politics differently, increasingly she and her party appear to represent nothing except the same old backroom machinations aimed at maximizing seats at the expense of principle. A strong case in point is found in today's Star column by Martin Regg Cohn. Entitled NDP fights for its soul in Scarborough civil war, it tells the rather sordid tale of how disgraced former Toronto City Councillor Adam Giambrone, wending his way back from political purgatory, essentially 'muscled out' Amarjeet Kaur Chhabra, the very person he thought best to contest the upcoming Scarborough byelection.

But at the 11th hour, Giambrone had second thoughts — concluding that he was the best choice. He telephoned his fresh recruit, Chhabra, to confess that he would challenge her for the nomination.

In no time, Giambrone rounded up a posse to push him over the top at the weekend nomination meeting.

Unfortunately, these new supporters did not appear on a printed list of members signed up before the 30-day cut-off, and 12 names are being contested. Given that she lost by only two votes, the betrayed candidate, Amarjeet Kaur Chhabra, by all accounts an ideal choice, is prepared to take legal action to invalidate the nomination that Giambrone 'won.'

Party leader Horwath appears to be missing in action on the whole issue.

Unquestionably, when party democracy takes a back seat to political expediency, it cannot bode well for the future.



UPDATE: Amarjeet Kaur Chhabra has announced that she will not be pursuing legal action over the subversion of her bid for the NDP Scarborough nomination. She said that while she remains “disappointed” in the NDP over the debacle, she is letting the matter drop because the Aug. 1 vote is so close.

Andrea Horwath's Dance With Dalton

While I continue to remain dubious of what will happen when the Ontario Legislature votes on Dalton McGuinty's budget, I give the leader of the Ontario NDP, Andrea Horwath, top marks for what she says are her demands for NDP support.

It is, however, interesting to note how her plan, especially regarding a two-point increase in the marginal tax rates for those earning more than $500,000 per annum, is being met. Today's editorial in The Hamilton Spectator is a case study of the reactionary mind. The writer, Howard Elliott, while claiming to endorse her noble goals of increasing day-care spaces and boosting social assistance rates, decries her methodology, dismissing any prospect of raising taxes on the rich as "blatant wealth redistribution and social engineering," code words undoubtedly designed to appeal to and provoke the extreme right-wing.

A much more mature and nuanced assessment is offered by The Star's Martin Regg Cohn. While giving approval of her initiative to put "taxes back on the agenda," he does offer an additional suggestion for the use of some of the monies raised - defraying the deficit.

A tale of two newspapers, and a telling distinction between the bush league and the major league players.

The Ontario Budget: Andrea Horwath's Dilemma

Being the leader of an opposition party in Ontario just got a lot more difficult for one person yesterday. No, I'm not referring to young Tim (not ready for prime-time politics) Hudak, whose response to the Ontario's austerity budget was both swift and predictable:

“It fails to address the job crisis or runaway spending … and we can’t support it,” Hudak said, but he stopped well short of threatening to dethrone the minority Liberals.

The translation of young Tim's response? The cuts weren't deep enough, and taxes weren't lowered to create jobs, hardly a surprise given the Tory leader's simplistic world view and faith in magical thinking.

No, the real problem is for NDP leader Andrea Horwath who has deferred judgment on the budget in order to poll Ontario residents to see whether they believe Finance Minister Dwight Duncan’s budget is so unpalatable that they would be prepared to see the minority government fall.

“We are going to be having a very serious discussion with Ontarians as to how far short it falls,” she said.

On the one hand, political realities being what they are, Horwath's party cannot afford to seem too cozy with the public sector unions who will bear the main brunt of this budget through wage freezes and pension reductions. On the other hand, of course, the NDP cannot afford to abandon its support of working people, no matter how reviled by other working people certain segments are.

For Horvath to opt to support the budget on the morsel tossed to her by McGuinty, the freezing of further reductions in the corporate tax rate until 2017-18, would seem too small to earn her approval. How can that freeze balance out what essentially is the abrogation of public sector bargaining rights for the next two years?

Will she approve the budget after consultations with the public, the outcome of which is predictable? (Ontarians have told us they are not happy with the budget, but do not want another election over it.) Will she stand on principle and defeat the budget?

But wait, there is a third, though hardly honourable option.

I may be dead wrong here (it wouldn't be the first time) but Horwath, after a suitable period has elapsed, could announce that she will not be supporting the budget but, taking a page out of the playbook of the federal Liberals, ensure that two members are not in the Legislature on the day of the vote, thereby ensuring its passage.

It is a maneuver I neither advocate nor favour. It was that same repeated practice by the Liberal Party in the House of Commons that convinced me that they really stand for nothing except the bald desire for a return to power.

While the outcome will be fascinating to watch, I do not envy Andrea Horwath the choices that await her.

The Timidity Of The Ontario NDP

I wrote earlier this month about the growing call from certain monied sectors for an increase in their personal taxation rates, arguing that they are not paying their fair share to support the country in which they grew and prospered. That plea, as noted earlier, is being egregiously ignored by all political parties, including Ontario's NDP, led by Andrea Horwath, a politician who is becoming increasing difficult to distinguish from the leaders of the other parties.

My observation, and I don't think it is a particularly startling or perceptive one, is that slowly and inevitably, the party, both at the federal and provincial levels, is becoming very 'mainstream' as the prospects for increasing their electoral success improve.

Take, for example, Ms. Horwath's position on corporate taxation. As reported last May in The Toronto Star, the NDP would raise corporate taxes by a mere 2%, to 14% from the current 12%. As well, as reported in today's Star, the party would cancel the entertainment tax breaks enjoyed by corporations, such as being able to write off some of the costs of a corporate box at the Air Canada Centre.

While I do not dispute that these would be useful measures that would hardly send corporations fleeing to other jurisdictions, they also strike me as extraordinarily timid, a kind of nipping around the edges of fiscal policy. I do realize there is an argument to be made for proceeding slowly in a compromised economy, but I worry that the stated policy direction suggests that should they ever regain power, the NDP would once again make the same kinds of mistakes that were made during the disastrous Bob Rae years, when the now interim federal Liberal Leader bent over backwards to placate business at the expense of party policy and principles.

Until I hear someone talk about raising the personal income tax rate on the ultra-wealthy, I shall remain dubious of the integrity of NDP principles.

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