Category: Politics/NDP

Can the NDP become the Government of Canada? Did you ever doubt that the party Preston Manning created could one rule the nation?

I mention both in the same breath because I see many parallels in the success of the NDP, their motives, diligence and commitment to political hard work that I've seen in what Manning's Reformers evolved into, today's governing Conservative Party.

And like those Reform-Conservatives, I think this new New Democratic Party may have to go through a process that could take two or three elections to convince enough Canadians that it is not dominated by a bunch of blind ideologues and that, like the Conservatives of the last five years, could find big-time electoral success when/if they can convince enough Canadians that they are not beholden to some ideological basis. Getting rid of the reserved union vote was a good first step. Curious to see if the party faithful wants to elect a leader that will take them further to the centre. I'm not sure about that part.

With that pre-amble, here's the full-text of the press release from the first guy in the race to succeed Jack Layton and take the NDP to the promised land, party president Brian Topp:

BRIAN TOPP LAUNCHES LEADERSHIP BID,PLEDGES TO COMPLETE LAYTON'S WORK,”TO GET THE JOB DONE”

OTTAWA — Flanked by former NDP Leader Ed Broadbent and by Gatineau MP Francoise Boivin, Brian Topp today launched his campaign to lead the New Democratic Party of Canada.

Topp (pic on this page by Sun's Andre Forget) pledged to carry on Jack Layton's work by providing Canadians with a progressive national alternative to the Harper government.

“I know that New Democrats can deliver a successful NDP government in both official languages and in every part of the country,” said Topp. “A fiscally responsible and economically literate government that offers Canadians hope for a better future.”

“That's the work Jack left us to complete, and that's the job I pledge to get done.”

Former NDP Leader Ed Broadbent said that Topp has what it takes to take on Stephen Harper and to win the next election.

“I have known Brian for many years. He has that special mix of character and intelligence that is so important in a leader,” said Broadbent “He's a listener and a team player and he knows how to get things done. He will make a great leader of our party.”

Topp said his top priority will be to fight the growing inequality in Canada, adding

that, “In today's economy we can't afford to waste the talent of a single Canadian.”

“Too many young people can't afford an education. Too many families are living from pay check to pay check. Too many seniors can't afford to retire in dignity. And too many children- one in seven -live in poverty.”

“The time has come to stop this slide. To work towards a more equal and prosperous country for all Canadians. It's the right thing to do. And it's the smart thing to do.”

Born in Longueuil and raised in Montreal, Topp joined the New Democrats under Ed Broadbent. He chaired the NDP's first successful campaign in Quebec and worked in Parliament, before moving to Saskatchewan to join the government of Premier Roy Romanow.

Topp has worked for the credit union system, as a leader in the Labour movement, and at the heart of all four of Jack Layton's national campaigns.

Gatineau MP Francoise Boivin said that Topp has the national experience necessary to lead the NDP.

“Brian is not only fluent in both official languages, he is at home In Quebec and throughout the country. He understands Canada and he understands Quebec. That's key to building our party and winning the next election.”

Topp closed by saying, “Together we can honour jack and his legacy. Together we can build a party and a government that would make him proud. And together, we'll get the job done.”

Colleague Daniel Proussalidis reported earlier this week on a motion that NDP Deputy Leader (and possible leadership candidate) Libby Davies had brought forward for the House of Commons to debate. That motion called on the government to eliminate the 10-year-residency requirement for access to federal Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan payments.

The day after Proussalidis' story appeared, NDP MP Wayne Marston — his party's pensions critic — announced that the motion had been withdrawn. The line from Marston was that it was one of dozens of motions Davies had put before the House and that this particular motion was put there “in error”.

Well, if that's true, it's an error Davies — now the deputy leader of party that is the “government-in-waiting” — has made over and over and over and over again for more than 10 years:

• M-141 — June 6, 2011 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should eliminate the 10-year residency requirement, based on an applicant’s country of origin, for Canadian citizens to qualify for Old Age Security benefits.
• M-233 — March 3, 2010 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should eliminate the 10-year residency requirement, based on an applicant’s country of origin, for Canadian citizens to qualify for Old Age Security benefits.
• M-233 — January 26, 2009 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should eliminate the 10-year residency requirement, based on an applicant’s country of origin, for Canadian citizens to qualify for Old Age Security benefits.
• M-233 — November 20, 2008 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should eliminate the 10-year residency requirement, based on an applicant’s country of origin, for Canadian citizens to qualify for Old Age Security benefits.
• M-96 — October 16, 2007 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should eliminate the 10-year residency requirement, based on an applicant’s country of origin, for Canadian citizens to qualify for Old Age Security benefits.
• -seconded Ms. Savoie, Mr. Martin, Ms. Bell
• M-96 — April 4, 2006 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of the House, the government should eliminate the 10-year residency requirement, based on an applicant’s country of origin, for Canadian citizens to qualify for Old Age Security benefits.
• M-100 — October 5, 2004 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of this House, the government should ensure that eligibility for the Old Age Security is based on a fair and just application by removing the ten-year waiting period required for some seniors who are sponsored immigrants.
• M-168 — February 2, 2004 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — That, in the opinion of this House, the government should ensure that eligibility for the Old Age Security is based on a fair and just application, by removing the ten-year waiting period required for some seniors who are sponsored immigrants.
• M-168 — October 4, 2002 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — On or after Friday, October 18, 2002 — That, in the opinion of this House, the government should ensure that eligibility for the Old Age Security is based on a fair and just application, by removing the ten-year waiting period required for some seniors who are sponsored immigrants.
• M-77 — January 30, 2001 — Ms. Davies (Vancouver East) — On or after Tuesday, February 13, 2001 — That, in the opinion of this House, the government should ensure that eligibility for the Old Age Security is based on a fair and just application, by removing the ten-year waiting period required for some seniors who are sponsored immigrants.

 

 

There is speculation from unnamed sources in the Hill Times today that the NDP brain trust will set up rules for the upcoming leadership contest that would hurt prospective candidate Thomas Mulcair, whose political base lies in Quebec.

This assumption, if you think about it for a second, defies all logic and assumes that all the political smarts that New Democrats have shown in the past decade also died with Jack Layton.

For if someone is trying to game the rules to shut out Mulcair, they are, in essence, saying to the province that just gave them 59 MPs — thanks, but the rest of Canada will choose the next NDP leader. Your help is not required.

And of course, that won't happen.

In fact, for New Democrats, the only silver lining that I can see to the very dark cloud that is Layton's death, is that it could hasten the work that Layton and others had already started to “consolidate” their historic gains in Quebec.

And to do that, a strong Quebec candidate — like Mulcair — or perhaps another, like, say, Alexandre Boulerice or Guy Caron (see below), is vital.

As every political organizer knows, there is nothing like a leadership race to build interest in a party and find new card-carrying members. And this is precisely what the party was starting to do in Quebec — sign up new card-carrying members.

I cannot under any circumstances envision the NDP's ruling council foregoing such an opportunity by, say, limiting voters in a January leadership contest to those who were members four months prior to the vote (something the NDP has done before). In fact, I quite expect the ruling council to go out of its way to encourage Quebecers to get involved in this leadership race.

And, if they don't run themselves for the leadership, I expect Boulerice and Caron will be invaluable to prospective leadership candidates both of whom have strong ties to organized labour in Quebec which would be, if you ask me, an easy source of new NDP members.

 

The first day of the NDP convention  since the party hit its historic high of 103 seats in the House of Commons was, I'd say, a good day for those within the NDP who are looking to set themselves up as a “government-in-waiting” when the next general election is held in 2015. The sense I get here here in Vancouver is that policies or proposals that might alienate the broad swath of Canadians whose political leanings might go slightly right-of-centre or slightly left-of-centre on any given day are not the views of a healthy majority of delegates here. For example, there were some New Democrats pushing what could be described as an anti-Israel line but delegates rejected even talking about those policies in any forum that might be captured on live television.

Outgoing NDP president Peggy Nash told me that the key to the party's success in the May 2 election was, among other things, a focus on so-called pocketbook issues. Canadians are concerned about their pensions and retirement, she said. They're concerned about their household finances with the arrival of the HST in BC and Ontario (but notably, not so concerned in Nova Scotia where NDP Premier Darrell Dexter, slated to speaker here tomorrow, is fine with the HST).

NDP national director Brad Lavigne talked about the party infrastructure now in place to achieve electoral success. Among other things, the party had 30 field agents spread across the country and 12 new field offices to support their work. Lavigne spoke about the importance in the last election campaign of the NDP's decision to support “local campaign capacity” and to build a national infrastructure to “better challenge the Conservatives.”

In the last election, the NDP focused heavily on the Conservatives, with leader Jack Layton reminding voters on a daily basis that only the NDP, not the Liberals, were the ones who could beat Conservatives. On May 2, 4.5 million Canadians voted for that pitch.

And that's one of the reasons this weekend's NDP convention is more important than last weekend's Conservative Party convention. The Conservatives have reached their promised land — a majority government — and are now looking to sustain that success. The NDP, on the other hand, wants to remain on its upward arc. It has not reached its goal of forming the first-ever national NDP government. The decisions the NDP makes this weekend may not make the Conservatives quake with fear but it ought to concern the Liberal Party of Canada. Much of the language on several, but not all, policy proposals up for debate could have been lifted out of any number of Liberal platform documents. And indeed, if the NDP want to be considered as a “government-in-waiting”, it must prevent any resurgence from the Liberals. (The party will vote later this weekend on a proposal that would prohibit any merger with the Liberals, incidentally.)

Canada's political centre, where majority governments are made, was largely the domain for much of the last century of the Liberal Party of Canada. Now that centre is up for grabs. On May 2, one could make the argument that the Conservatives did best at winning the centre.  That was helped by the fact that many 'blue Grits” voted Tory on May 2 to avoid any chance of a Layton-led minority government.

But many “orange Grits” voted for Layton because they didn't like Michael Ignatieff or they believed that a Layton-led government would be progressive enough for their liking. Many in the NDP are keenly aware that many voters — mostly Liberal but also some Conservatives — looked at the post-May 2 political landscape and are now ready to think about some new options. The senior leadership of the NDP wants those Liberal voters who are looking for a home to come to their party and this convention is an important first step towards that goal.

And so, on day one, here is the NDP press release which, it is impossible not to notice, continues to focus on the pocketbook issues — a chief issue for the political centre — that won the NDP so much success on May 2:

NEW DEMOCRATS FOCUS ON SPARKING ECONOMY
Members adopt policies to create and defend family-supporting jobs
VANCOUVER – On this opening day of their national convention, New Democrats passed a number of resolutions aimed at jumpstarting Canada’s economy in the wake of a job-killing recession. “Canada’s job-supporting industries need to be fostered,” said New Democrat Leader Jack Layton. “Our recovery from the this recession is still fragile and we need action to reward job creators and support investment here at home.” One successful resolution calls for targeted tax incentives to encourage job creation and job-supporting investment. Another calls for an overhaul of the Investment Canada Act to prevent corporate takeovers that result in quality jobs being shipped overseas.

“More than a decade of reckless, across-the-board corporate tax cuts have failed to create or even protect decent jobs,” Layton said. “I’m proud to see New Democrats adopting 21st policies to spark our economy with real, family-supporting job creation.” Delegates also resolved to protect farmers’ rights to determine the Canadian Wheat Board’s direction, and to strengthen Canada’s shipbuilding industry through fair procurement policies. The resolutions were part of the first of seven blocks of policy to be debated by 1,500 delegates at the party’s national convention, which comes six weeks after the party’s most successful federal election ever.