NDP makes gains with its ideas

32 posts / 0 new

Mon, 2009-03-02 23:27

NorthReport

Of course this author is correct, and there is no better time for the NDP to make political inroads.

NDP makes gains with its ideas

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/588942

Vindicated. That is how many New Democrats must feel these days. While the party's poll numbers are stagnant - hovering in the mid-to-high teens - many of the party's ideas have gained new popularity.

With the collapse of the financial sector on Wall Street, social democratic ideas emphasizing government's role in helping the poor and the middle class and curbing corporate abuse have regained popularity.

During the 1990s, when deficit slashing and tax cutting were the dominant goals among policy-makers, the New Democrats were accused of being mired in the 1970s.

In 2009, it is conservatives who seem out of touch with the times.

Tue, 2009-03-03 00:27

genstrike

Which ideas would those be?

Tue, 2009-03-03 00:31

Coyote

Snarky comments substituting for political engagement, for one. that's a sure-fire winner.

Tue, 2009-03-03 00:34

Coyote

And to answer the snarky question, because i do try to be fair, look here:

http://www.ndp.ca/platform

Tue, 2009-03-03 03:50

remind

You know it is a funny thing for years many of our friends and our daughter thought we were way off base (at best) advocating social justice and equity, workers rights, not corporate rights, and no credit card debt, amongst other things including supporting the NDP. Well, the worm has turned on that and they now see we could "see clearly" what was coming.

Tue, 2009-03-03 10:22

Sean in Ottawa

Frankly I think most Canadians see nothing and won't even see it when it is in the rear-view mirror.

I heard comments like that in the last two recessions.

But I recognize we need to say this sort of thing to keep going at this frustrating fight against snobbish people dispensing rubbish for economic and social prescriptions for the rest of us.

Tue, 2009-03-03 11:55

genstrike

It's just that I see a pretty big disconnect between what some NDPers believe, what NDP policy is, and what the NDP actually does when they get elected, so I'm not sure which ideas this is referring to.

Tue, 2009-03-03 12:27

Fidel

Do Canadians need more, how did you say it, genstrike, "classic" Liberal governments in Ottawa?

The NDP needs federal power in Ottawa in order to reverse the neoliberal tide in this country since the 1980s.

Tue, 2009-03-03 14:18

genstrike

Fidel wrote:

Do Canadians need more, how did you say it, genstrike, "classic" Liberal governments in Ottawa?

No, and I've never said they did.

All I'm saying is that there is often a pretty big disconnect between what some members believe and what the party brass does, especially when they get in power. Just look at some of the convention resolutions in the provincial wings which have been passed then forgotten about.

Are the ideas the NDP is making gains with their social demoratic ideas, their left-liberal ideas, their Third Way ideas, or their Socialist Caucus ideas?

Tue, 2009-03-03 15:07

#10

thorin_bane

I have no illusions about what may come, but lets look at Rae days, better that you miss 2 days pay than be layed off. When the tories came in they gutted the public sector and all those people who got pissed because they lost a little pay had no jobs during an ecoomic boom nonetheless. Lets at least shift the spectrum back to the left.

Tue, 2009-03-03 15:12

#11

Fidel

genstrike wrote:
Fidel wrote:

Do Canadians need more, how did you say it, genstrike, "classic" Liberal governments in Ottawa?

No, and I've never said they did.

All I'm saying is that there is often a pretty big disconnect between what some members believe and what the party brass does, especially when they get in power.

Except that the NDP has never held federal power, as in Ottawa where the federal Liberals and Tories implemented top-down neoliberal ideology since the 1980s and racking up some of the largest national debts in the history of the world and using that as an excuse to peel tens of billions of dollars from federal-provincial transfer payments.

Quote:
Are the ideas the NDP is making gains with their social demoratic ideas, their left-liberal ideas, their Third Way ideas, or their Socialist caucus ideas?

The NDP has to be able to reach all those registered Canadian voters who didnt vote old line party last October. The NDP is a social democratic party fighting for votes in a dollar democracy bought and paid for by Bay Street and foreign interests for the last 140 years in a row. It's because of the very undemocratic nature of neoliberal agendas rammed through various parliaments in Ottawa, and especially those "classic" Liberal goverments, since the 1980s that we have such low voter turnouts and ranking 109th out of 160 countries. A lot of Canadians know very little about the NDP, or are deliberately misled by rightwing news media, mouthpieces and shills for the two old line parties.

Tue, 2009-03-03 15:25

#12

remind

There is definitley a lot of short term thinkers out there, how they came to be that way, really does not matter. What matters is that people need to start thinking longer term, and with a broader out look, and those who wish to have this happen ned to have better messaging, and/or stop being singularily focused.

Genstrike, I say to you, how do you think your province and you would have faired had there not been a NDP government, even though it is not so left and more to the centre? Seriously think about that, instead of bemoaning that they are not all that you want them to be. Thorin's comment on a situational reality is a valid one. People think about short term losses, instead of actual possible outcomes that are much worse. History repeats itself and for a reason.

Fool that I was, I abstained from politics for awhile, as did many others, and many of whom still are. And look at where it has gotten us. I found through folly of my own, that I would rather have a supposed "bad" NDP government, than a Liberal or Conservative one.

Tue, 2009-03-03 19:34

#13

Doug

genstrike wrote:
It's just that I see a pretty big disconnect between what some NDPers believe, what NDP policy is, and what the NDP actually does when they get elected, so I'm not sure which ideas this is referring to.

And there always is going to be that sort of a disconnect. Public opinion and sometimes circumstances demand there will be. Just look at the federal Conservatives annoying their own membership with large deficits.

Tue, 2009-03-03 19:56

#14

Fidel

Ya, it was only months ago that Harper was saying our banking system is sound, and that he'd be surprised if our good economy turned sour anytime soon. $75 billion given to Canada's banks and counting since the October election, and tens of billions of dollars more in corporate welfare handouts.

Tue, 2009-03-03 20:03

#15

KenS

Remind... check your PMs

Everybody: you may have PMs too. "My Inbox" in the upper right of the page... says (1) or (2) or whatever if you have one / some.

One some.

You may already be a weiner.

Wed, 2009-03-04 11:07

#16

NorthReport

At least this is clear.

Sitting down with Jack Layton

http://www.thebruns.ca/content/2009-02/sitting-down-jack-layton

B: With just one member, how can the NDP be a viable option for New Brunswick voters?

JL: We have to keep building at the grassroots level. Some of our candidates did particularly well this election. In fact, we had a good percentage, overall, but because we don’t have proportional representation in Canada, we can get – I’m not sure what we had, 20% across the province? Well, that way, we should have had two or three seats. It’s a question of continuing to build. I think Roger Duguay coming in as our provincial leader could be a real help. And our teams are building.

You know, I ran three times before I won federally. My wife [Olivia Chow, MP for Toronto’s Trinity-Spadina riding] ran three times before she won federally. You build these things. We had no seats in Ontario in 1999. Not one. Now we have 17. We weren’t even an official party in 1993, in that election. Now we’ve built up to being a major and significant force.

B: Was proportional representation something you were hoping to pursue if the coalition went forward?

JL: Yes.

Fri, 2009-03-06 22:53

#17

NorthReport

Enjoy this rare occurence:

The Layton-led NDP is being praised in the press!

It's harder to diss socialists

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Harris_Michael/2009/03/06/8646426.html

Quote:
It is said that during a lunar eclipse werewolves merely get sideburns and a goatee.

So when, I wonder, will Jack Layton cease to be the monster of Canadian politics?

In these dark days, with the economy going down faster than Carey Price on a breakaway, NDP-haters are going to have to come up with some new talking points.

The usual knock against the party of Tommy Douglas is that it doesn't know how to manage the economy. The NDP equals financial Armageddon.

In contrast, the Conservatives and the Liberals just somehow innately understand the mysteries of fiscal management. What they don't understand is best left to their buddies -- the guys in the pin-striped suits, the captains of industry.

No wino on welfare ever sucked more public cash than the banks, the stockbrokers, and the car companies now are on a daily basis. Worse, they want more. And those sober custodians of the national bank book (or should I say credit card) are giving it to them.

So if Jack and the NDP are would-be wastrels, what can be said about the truly big spenders, Dalton McGuinty, Stephen Harper and even Barack Obama? Do the people who decry giving millions to ordinary Joes really support dishing out billions and even trillions to the guys with the $16,000 shower curtains?

Even stranger, these millions, billions and trillions are going to people who close plants, cut jobs, refuse to make loans to the great unwashed and then complain the handout was too small.

To those who believe the NDP would beggar the rich to pay for EI louts, social programs, and every tree hugger with his hand out, dissing the socialists is harder than it used to be.

The alternative has now become political parties who would tax and torment average citizens to shower a king's ransom on those who have already plundered the vault and stashed their boodle.

But there are reasons aplenty to portray Jack as the Bald Godzilla of Canadian politics. After all, he doesn't know a thing about international politics, does he? That's why they called him Taliban Jack, because he thought the war in Afghanistan was both a poor cause and a lost cause. He even had the socialist chutzpah to say it would be best to negotiate an end to this futile war. What a quitter!

But even that argument is suddenly dubious. Now that the prime minister has put on his flip-flops and declared that the insurgency can't be defeated and there is no military solution in Afghanistan, we can conclude at the very least that both Taliban Jack and Taliban Steve have it right. It's just that Taliban Jack had it right from the get-go.

Sat, 2009-03-07 00:31

#18

Fidel

"Taliban Steve" has put on his flip-flops. That's a good one.

Sat, 2009-03-07 00:34

#19

Doug

Sadly, being right doesn't always win votes.

Sat, 2009-03-07 01:26

#20

Fidel

It's all those Asian born engineers and physicians moonlighting as cab drivers and donating their tips to Bay Street party number one of two.

Sat, 2009-03-07 12:23

#21

DrConway

Hope you were being sarcastic there, Fidel.

With Barack Obama's obvious backtracking and reversals on what promised to be bold new policies, it falls to Canada, and thus the NDP, to keep articulating why treating people decently instead of giving out billions to the fat cats is a good idea.

The main thing that proves the precedent may be harder to set than we think is that the NDP has been bashing the corporate tax cuts handed out by the Libs and the Cons since the 1990s and the attacks never get much traction.

Sat, 2009-03-07 13:52

#22

Fidel

Yes, various conservatives I've talked to claim their party receives more in individual donations from average Canadians than any other party. Our setup is actually less transparent than the US system is, which is riddled with corruption and influence by Wall Street and a handful of multinational corporations

Summary of the 90 Undemocratic and Accountability Loopholes in Canada's Federal Government

Sun, 2009-03-15 12:04

#23

NorthReport

Obviously neither Harper nor Ignatieff care about the plight of the working people in this country. What a shame! Layton calls for green economic stimulus

http://www.vancouversun.com/Business/Layton+calls+green+economic+stimulus/1390934/story.html

On Friday, Statistics Canada figures showed nearly 24,000 jobs were lost in Alberta, more than a quarter of the 82,000 jobs lost across the country, in February alone.

“I looked at those statistics of lost jobs in February, including here in Alberta. Shocking numbers,” Layton said.

“A lot of these folks are in construction. If we had a program to renovate homes, buildings, schools, churches, offices and factories to reduce energy use, we could put a lot of construction workers to work right now.”

The first thing Alberta needs is more dollars going to municipalities, Layton said, suggesting the cash should come in the form of a gas tax.

“What’s happening here is having an effect across the country, and I think that maybe this can give us the basis for some national unity, the sense that maybe we’re all in the same boat together and maybe we need to work out a strategy where we can get out of it together.”

Sun, 2009-03-15 17:19

#24

Red T-shirt

When the election fianlly comes all those Canadians that lost their jobs should be really good targets for the NDP. Just ask them, "why vote for the guys that got you into this mess?".

Sun, 2009-03-15 17:25

#25

madmax

The CPC are doing a good job of saying that people are losing their jobs because of the global economy and not because of their policies.

Sun, 2009-03-15 17:32

#26

NorthReport

They, the CBC, CTV, Global, CanWest, the business community, the CPC, and the LPC, are all in it together. It is the well used, and unfortunately very effective strategy, when you have total control of the press, of we had better blame someone else, before they start blaming us.

Sun, 2009-03-15 17:41

#27

madmax

Sure, but people believe it. It may be a lie, but people are giving the CPC the benefit of the doubt. If you want to find honest reporters, the best ones are the ones just let go, because of the economic meltdown. I swear, they become socialists overnight.

Tue, 2009-03-17 09:16

#28

Red T-shirt

NDP need to hammer the government (and supporting Liberals) over the missed opportunities in the budget. The decision was made to spend and to spend big in order to fight the downturn and try to stimulate the economy. Problem is most of that money went into the wrong places. This was a golden opportunity to create a ton of work quickly & do some social good and good for the environment too which was previously seen as unaffordable because everyone was determined not to go into deficits.

There should have been a very generous program to retrofit homes and apartments to reduce their energy consumption (creating work, saving fossil fuel resources, reducing demands for electricity). There should have been the start of a national childcare program (creating jobs, allowing single parents or second parents to look for work). There should have been money put into preventative healthcare (creating jobs, reducing strain on the traditional healthcare system, saving tons of money in the long run). There should have been money put into poverty reduction both because its the right thing to do and because its one of the root causes of crime (creates jobs, promotes social equality, reduces dispare, and saves money in the long run wasted on policing, courts and prisons).

These are just a few things the budget failed to address that would have put many Canadainas back to work and/or alleviated their suffering while saving us a ton of money down the road. Jack and the NDP need to be all over these dopes for their shortsighted and misguided spending!

Tue, 2009-03-17 09:23

#29

Red T-shirt

Oh, and probably one of the biggest mistakes I forgot to point out above, the budget should have made it much easier for those who lose their jobs to qualify for employment insurance. It's criminal that only about 40% of those paying into EI can actually collect anything from theat system when they need it. Any money paid out to these folks would immediately be spent and provide a strong stimulation to the overall economy. It would have helped counteract the devestating shrinkage of our economy as so many former wage earners become both unemployed and destitute.

This is a major fuckup that the NDP needs to highlight.

Tue, 2009-03-17 22:08

#30

gordiecanuk

Keep your powder dry Jack, the Libs and Cons are going to be tearing at each other viciously when the next election comes...they've already started.

Polls mean squat right now...

You're welcome to visit my blog Canadian Soapbox at http://gordiecanuk.blogspot.com

Tue, 2009-03-17 23:50

#31

Fidel

madmax wrote:
The CPC are doing a good job of saying that people are losing their jobs because of the global economy and not because of their policies.

Ontario is an old line party stronghold for a long time. And Ontario is expected to bleed another several hundred thousand good paying jobs over the next two years. And those living wage jobs drive service sector and spinoff jobs in surrounding and same sectors.

Let us not forget that Harper is that other 22 percenter in Ontario. We'll see how well the "blame it on them over there while we sit on our hands" rhetoric works with voters in the near future.

Sat, 2009-03-21 16:30

#32

NorthReport

Is this a major shake-up at the top of the NDP? If so, thank goodness, as it's long overdue. I've been impressed with Lavigne when he was an NDP commentator in the media during election campaigns. Hopefully he can change things for the better. How many seats will the NDP have to win in the next election for Layton to keep his hold on the leadership. I would guess 50 seats should be the threshhold mark.

Brad Lavigne becomes NDP's national director

http://www.straight.com/article-207368/former-student-activist-brad-lavigne-becomes-ndps-national-director?