I found an interesting article here from another site and thought it brought up some valid points:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Putting+back/1860916/story.html
Canada's NDP is very much tied to unionized labour and rigid ideological dogmatism, and hasn't formed a federal government yet since its inception.
It's European counterparts, however, are relatively less tied to the unionized labour base and are far less doctrinaire. They have two-tiered health care,and even Sweden uses a voucher system. In fact, last I'd read, the Swedish government owned a smaller percentage of the national GDP than the US government did of its!
It woudl seem that the European social-democratic model is more willing to try a third way, to mix and match between socialism and capitalism, to see what works and what doesn't.
So, should the NDP stick to its labour socialist roots, or more closer to the European social democratic model?