Is It Time For The NDP To Rebirth Itself

The North American right wing has been overtaken by a vile hateful Donald Trump inspired populist MAGA movement that has spawned the Freedumb Convoy types and infected the Canadian Conservative Party and what was once a principled conservative tradition in Canada, although you have to go back awhile to the former Progressive Conservative Party to find it.

Canada has long had a form of populism of it’s own within the Liberal Party but a much more benign form. Intent on maintaining it’s position as the “natural governing party” the Liberals focused their policies on what would be popular with voters, tending to “campaign from the left and govern from the right” with policies just progressive enough to get them elected without upsetting the financial powers that be that actually run the country.

The New Democratic Party has often been criticized for being too ideological but in truth that was it’s strength, being a party of social democratic principles. But it seems that it is now embracing a populism of sorts. Instead of pursuing a comprehensive social democratic platform it seems to be taking a series easy unfocused pot shots at the both the Liberals and Conservatives. At the same time it tries to convince the Liberals to adopt what it sees as popular polices and take credit for them, leaving them open to the description “Liberals in a hurry”, long decried by those of us on the left.

What is the solution. It has been over 60 years since the NDP was founded in 1961 by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and over 90 years since The CCF was founded in 1932 by a number of socialist, agrarian, co-operative, and labour groups and the League for Social Reconstruction. Is it time for a rebirth.

Social democracy may be at the heart of the NDP but Canada’s social movements have been it’s soul. Is it time for Canada’s social movements (labour, environmental, indigenous rights, anti-poverty, fair taxation, public health care, women’s liberation, pro choice, LBGTQ+, anti war, etc.) to come together to birth a new Social Democratic Party for Canada, that will fight a principled fight for a better Canada for all.

What will this party stand for. That will of course be up to the party but I do have some ideas for some founding priorities.

The first priority must be electoral reform because if democracy is not working neither is anything else. We need an electoral system that provides for local representation as well as a House of Commons membership that reflects the philosophical positions of the voters as expressed in the total votes for each party. There are several variations of Proportional Representation that do this. My personal preference is Mixed Member Proportional (MMP).

The next priority must be tax reform, with a progressive income tax system where the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. Without fair and adequate taxation government cannot fulfill its responsibilities to the people including public health care, the social safety net, and addressing income and wealth inequality.

The new party must also commit to completing the public health care system to include pharmacare, mental health care, dental and vision care, and long term care. This must include returning to 50% federal funding as the only way to ensure the provinces live up the the Canada Health Act is the federal spending power. Tax points that can be used to subsidize the oil and gas industry, provide benefits to land developers or bribes to voters will not save our health care system.

The last on my last, but far from the last of the policies the Social Democratic Party must adopt, is an industrial strategy designed to provide for sustainable development and fight climate change by creating good paying long term unionized jobs.

Indeed it is time for a rebirth.