rabble.ca - NDP

The NDP: The road travelled from 2006 to 2012

James Laxer — Fri, 11 May 2012 09:57:07 -0400

On election night in January 2006, Jack Layton declared that Canadians had "voted out of hope for change" and expressed the conviction that the NDP caucus, 29 MPs as compared with 19 in 2004, would help place working people and seniors "at the front of the line" where they belong.

Layton has been proved stunningly, embarrassingly wrong, however. The Harper minority government has turned out to be more insistently, stubbornly right-wing than anyone predicted. On child care, Harper did exactly what he said he would do -- he scrapped the national program. On the Kelowna Accord, the Conservatives have scuppered an historic deal that had been years in the making, and that would have provided billions of dollars in development capital for Aboriginal peoples.

Smash the State Report: Indigenous resistance and Quebec student strike

dan kellar — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:10:53 -0400

Friday April 27, 2012 - This Smash the State Report starts off with info on the re-opening of the abortion debate in Canada, then jumps into the Quebec student strike with a critique from Stefan Christoff of mainstream coverage, before an update of the April 28th Walk for Peace Respect and Friendship .

Hill Dispatches: Hungarian thugs who intimidate Roma -- can they be stopped?

karl nerenberg — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:56:28 -0400

Without meaning to, a representative of the Hungarian Government confessed to a Canadian Parliamentary Committee, on Wednesday, that his government has had a great deal of trouble controlling extreme right "militias" that persecute and intimidate the Hungarian Roma people.

The Hungarian official is Imre Helyes, head of the consular section at the Hungarian Embassy in Ottawa, and he was testifying before the Commons Immigration Committee that is considering the new refugee reform, Bill C-31.

Mr. Helyes made that remarkable admission in response to a question from a Conservative member who asked if there was "discrimination against the Roma in Hungary."

Surviving Progress – NDP Style

Tariq Jeeroburkhan — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:48:35 -0400

There is a long-standing core of the NDP's longest-serving members who have an objective for the Party - yes, they want an NDP government, that is a priority - moreover, the core and established serving members of the NDP also want to enjoy the alienation of the arrogance they faced as third-party members toiling in the shadows for so long - in particular the alienation of the Liberal Party.

Putting an end to this political class arrogance is what the experience of the longest-serving NDP members has shown to be the major and vital challenge for any party representative of the Canadian centre-left.

Canada-EU free trade: 'Cooking up a deal without much input -- let us see a draft!' say city leaders

David P Ball — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:55:07 -0400

It's “the most ambitious plan of its kind in history,” boasts Canada's international trade minister Ed Fast, as Conservative cabinet ministers hit cities across the country today to market Canada's impending free trade deal with Europe. Media declared the push as a "political war."

And yet the public knows almost nothing about the secret negotiations -- except that they are in their final stages, to be completed this year.

Andrea Horwath's bold call for higher taxes on the rich

M.Gregus — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:58:02 -0400

It's hard to fight a class war without a billionaire onside. Hence Andrea Horwath's dilemma.

The Ontario NDP leader has thrown down a gauntlet of sorts -- demanding, or at least politely requesting, that Dalton McGuinty's Liberal minority impose a new slightly higher tax rate on Ontarians making more than $500,000 a year.

The move is a small toe-in-the-water toward restoring the progressivity that's been stripped out of the Canadian tax system. But it's also a bold unlacing of the stays on the political bodice that has confined mainstream Canadian politicians for the past few decades.

Of course, U.S. President Barack Obama is paving the way.

The Krellant Report at the NDP Convention: Video outtakes!

rabble staff — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 08:56:33 -0400

The Krellant Evening News brings you the deleted scenes from our special report on the NDP Leadership Convention.

Every wondered about the NDP's position on the weaponization of space, or how they plan on stealing the nation's babies? Cat Reporter brings you the truth on these hot-button issues, and more!

And Frank just can't seem to adjust to working as a news anchor on the Internet...

Watch the original report here.

Mulcair is no pushover

gerry caplan — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:23:26 -0400

It’s been a rough month for those of us on the pessimistic left.

Faithful readers will know that I’ve spent my adult life trying to get the NDP to be realistic about its modest status in Canadian life. Until last May I repeatedly pointed out that with a single exception, the party always got less than 20 per cent of the national vote, would not in the foreseeable future form a government, and had to learn to live with moral victories as the conscience of the nation.

Judy Rebick: Technocrat tyranny?

rabble staff — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:58:26 -0400

The rule of the technocrats: Have democracies given too much control to bureaucrats and policy advisers? Judy Rebick joins Steve Paikin for more.

Thomas Mulcair? We can't spare that man. He fights!

djclimenhaga — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:35:56 -0400

I like Thomas Mulcair for the same reason Abraham Lincoln liked Ulysses S. Grant.

As President Lincoln famously said of Grant, the Commanding General of the Union Army in America's great Civil War: "I can't spare that man. He fights!"

Legend has it that the president was responding to a silly delegation of people who wanted Grant cashiered because he was reported to be too fond of whisky. The President, who was personally an abstemious man, but one with a sense of humour, inquired of them what it was Grant drank … so that he could send a case of the stuff to the rest of his generals!

A thank-you from Brian Topp

Brian Topp — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:41:37 -0400

Dear friends,

I have said it on Twitter and on Facebook, and now I'd like to say it in a letter to you:

Thank you so much for your friendship and support during the 2012 leadership contest, just concluded.

When it's over, it's over. And like all New Democrats all across Canada, there must be only one thing on all of our minds from now on -- unity behind our new leader, Tom Mulcair; strength; and an absolute focus on the task at hand, which is to offer Canadians a better government.

Still and all, perhaps I'll offer a few parting thoughts on what we've all just been through.

Convention-al affects: Lois Lane goes to the NDP Leadership Convention!

Marusya Bociurkiw — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:53:34 -0400

I went to my first political convention last weekend. The NDP Leadership Convention, to be exact. I felt a bit like an imposter: I didn't wear a partisan t-shirt or wave a sign. Instead, I scribbled in my little notebook, took loads of photos and eavesdropped incessantly. I could have been Lois Lane.

Leadership race leaves NDP stronger and wiser

M.Gregus — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:11:32 -0400

Harper foes, take heart. The NDP rank-and-file made good on the party's Opposition promise at last weekend's leadership convention. Both the process and the outcome have left Canada's progressive majority stronger and wiser in many obvious and also subtle ways.

The voting results are a hope elixir. How fantastically different this convention was from the surreal electoral choices we keep seeing south of the border and, sadly, in our own city. Isn't it nice to know that real democracy, in the hands of the country's biggest concentration of social equality advocates, adds up to collective brilliance? That kind of faith renewed packs the energy that might just get new people interested in voting.

The NDP leadership race by the numbers

M.Gregus — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:24:25 -0400

As the dust settles on the NDP leadership race, this may be an instructive "teachable moment" to examine some dimensions of the campaign and what messages it sends to the NDP. In the months leading up to the 2012 leadership convention, a number of measures were proposed to track how the campaigns of the respective candidates were being received. With seven (initially nine) leadership candidates crisscrossing the country, a series of six national debates to expose Canadians to the ideas and policies of the candidates, and a preferential voting system that allowed members to rank the candidates, getting a read on their standing in the race was far from clear or easy.

Ontario NDP must vote against McGuinty austerity budget

johnbon — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:15:31 -0400

Andrea Horwath can’t support the provincial budget as is. Even if it means toppling the Liberals and sending voters back to the polls for an election they surely don’t want.

It’s a cruel budget. A business friendly, conservative budget. And one that certainly doesn’t meet any social democratic standards.

A budget that will freeze public sector wages through negotiation or legislation. Translation: Voluntarily agree to wage freezes or the government will impose them on you. Not even the Drummond report recommended public sector wage freezes.

A budget that freezes welfare and disability rates. Without a cost of living adjustment, recipients fall deeper into poverty.

The NDP leadership convention in images

rabble staff — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:25:29 -0400

Thousands of new democrats descended upon the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on the week-end to elect a new leader. Here are a few moments - in photos. With great thanks to photographer John Maclennan for sharing his wonderful images. Other photos are are courtesy of rabble staff and volunteers, and columnist Elizabeth Littlejohn.

A non-party animal crashes the NDP bash

M.Gregus — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:52:00 -0400

Politically, I'm postmodern. In our democracy, where the medium for electoral engagement is the party system, I'm decidedly non-partisan. Values, principles, people, and opportunities to make a progressive difference are more attractive for this activist. Flexibility and openness are key.

In my present incarnation, I'm Green MP Elizabeth May's press secretary. After returning to Canada from the U.K. and examining the contemporary political landscape, I felt it would be a privilege to support this brilliant, outspoken woman in her efforts to challenge Harper, the Northern Gateway pipeline, and more. Now, I'm on Parliament Hill confronting the daily insults the Conservatives inflict on our society.

Hill Dispatches: Mulcair turns it on when he has questions to answer

karl nerenberg — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:29:48 -0400

It was Thomas Mulcair's day in Parliament, but it was also a day to showcase NDP unity.

The Party took full advantage of the occasion, even using the generally ignored period for statements by members that precedes question period (QP) to showcase the other leadership candidates.

The Conservatives made use of that pre-QP space, too.

They have their take-no-prisoners, attack-all-the-time reputation to maintain.

Most of the media have focused on Conservative MP Jeff Watson's attack statement, which was more or less a repetition of the "Mulcair the opportunist who gets along with nobody" talking points in Fred DeLorey's memo and James Moore's statements to media at the convention.

Not Rex: NDP Leadership 2012

M.Gregus — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:29:18 -0400

The new leader of the NDP is Thomas Mulcair. So where is he going to take the progressive party?

Mulcair it is

murray dobbin — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:25:18 -0400

There will be lots of soul searching and head scratching going on this week about what happened with the NDP leadership race. The mechanics of the convention, the interesting lack of deal-making, how the balloting progressed are all fodder for those who enjoy going through the entrails of leadership conventions. Others will be analyzing the various campaigns of the front-runners looking for weaknesses to explain how they could, collectively, have let Thomas Mulcair, the right-wing Liberal, pro-Israel, political bully become head of their party.

A comment on the NDP leadership process

Jim Quail — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:36:32 -0400

At a dinner-party a while ago, I drew some sharp disagreement by commenting that one-member-one-vote is a crappy way to select a party leader. While it has the outward form of more intense democracy, it sterilizes the democratic process.

Selecting an internal party leader is a fundamentally different kind of process from fighting an external election for government. One-member-one-vote leadership selection eliminates most of the real politics (in the sense of space for strategy to be played out) and turns it into a kind of mass wager. It reduces the membership to a vast scatter of individuals, and makes it difficult or impossible for the various perspectives and lines of thought to work themselves through in the decision-making process.

A Quebecer wins the NDP leadership

M.Gregus — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:04:51 -0400

Quebec. The NDP membership's primary concern is that the party hold its 58 Quebec seats in the next election: this determined the outcome of the leadership campaign that began officially September 15, 2011, and ended March 24. Party members sensed that Thomas Mulcair understands Quebec, could appeal to Quebecers, and believed he was the best choice to lead the party into the next election.

After the convention -- the babble aftermath

rabble staff — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:09:58 -0400

The feisty and often contentious NDP leadership race is over and Canada has a new leader of the Official Opposition. Thomas Mulcair, elected on the fourth ballot, is the man the NDP membership voted to lead the party into the future and, hopefully, into forming the next federal government.

Babble, rabble.ca's energetic discussion forum, accumulated some 147 leadership threads, containing passionate discussions, rants, cheers and screams for each contributor's favoured candidate. It got messy, heated, and was highly informative and not a little amusing.

The end of the NDP convention has now spawned a whole spate of post-convention threads, where lively discussion continues. Here are some rabble.ca readers may find interesting:

Congratulations to Tom Mulcair

Gary Shaul — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:52:08 -0400

The New Democratic Party's leadership race is over. The membership have spoken and elected Thomas Mulcair as the next leader. Mulcair's main challenge is to defeat Stephen Harper in the next election and position the NDP to form a new government. He must build on the NDP's 2011 electoral success by holding on to Quebec and expanding support in the rest of Canada.

Mulcair brings a number of strengths to Stornaway and Parliament Hill including:

- previous cabinet experience

- former NDP House co-leader

- well-known "native son" of Quebec and fully bilingual

- excellent public speaker in both official languages

- detailed understanding of the environment file

- widespread support from the labour movement

Mulcair and the new NDP: A time of change

fwilson — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:55:38 -0400

At times of significant political change, it always helps to wait a while before reaching ultimate conclusions. So it is with the election of Thomas Mulcair as the new leader of the New Democratic Party.

After four ballots and more than 24 hours of voting, there was a sense that something had changed when Tom Mulcair emerged the winner. At 57 per cent his victory was hardly decisive, but it was nonetheless a clear win which allowed the convention to close ranks and for all camps to pledge unity and support for the new leader.