By now, you've all probably read the most recent Decima Research poll, which put the Tories ahead of the Liberals, and suggested their lead has been increasing over the past few months.
The poll also found that "The Green party jumped to 12 per cent, putting it in a virtual dead heat with the NDP, which polled 13 per cent." Yikes.
I recently posted this, which commented on Chantal Hebert's column, suggesting that the federal NDP will be in for a tough fight this election, and one that could wipe it off the map. I guess that what's happens when the party's ideology is so bland that it fails to distinguish itself from the eco-capitalists and the welfare Liberals. Time for a left-wing renewal? I think so.
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4 comments:
This is fantastic! I was jumping for joy when I saw this today. I can hear the death knell of the NDP sounding! This is really, really wonderful!
http://www.communist-party.ca/
http://www.mlpc.ca/
Go have your left-wing renewal there.
How can one seriously deny that the federal NDP is drifting rightwards
1. The party has stopped campaigning on increasing taxes for corporations and the rich.
2. The party has not had any serious discussion of nationalizing any industry at all - and the nationalization of certain aspects of the industry used to be included in party documents
3. Most redistributive wealth policies have been taken off the table - another signifier that the party has bought into neo-liberalism
4. The party expelled Hargrove from its ranks - thus symbolically destroying its ties to the labour movement
5. Perhaps most telling, in the last federal election Layton and the NDP completley supported manditory minimum sentances - something that social democrats have always opposed in full force.
Blind acceptance of the NDP, without any discussion of where the party is at, and where it is going, will see the slow erosion of any progressivity from the party. The NDP seriously need to discuss a clear plan that doesn't involve "seats at any cost".
I'll agree with most of tim's examples of troubling trends/events in recent NDP policy but demur at the criticism of the move to expel Hargrove. He actively undercut the party and supported the Liberals - no party can or should tolerate that. I'll also challenge any assertion that Hargrove 'symbolically represents the union movement' and that expelling him therefore destroys ties between the NDP and the labour movement.
Old style backroom backslappers like Hargrove are part of the problem. Remember he was supported by the party establishment who opposed the expulsion. The grass-roots riding level of the party that expelled Hargrove is part of any potential solution.
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