I've been lurking here for a while, but haven't felt the need to weigh in until the back and forth about the Ontario NDP really struck a nerve.
I bought my first NDP membership around the time that Paul Henderson scored that goal in Moscow. I'm still a member now. I have served on riding execs in various positions (including president). I have organised edays, coordinated volunteers, managed and been a candidate.
I am disgusted with the current leadership of the Ontario party, so no, it is not just Liberals who want Andrea Horwath to resign. I do, and so do a lot of other members I know. Some of them have more experience than I do.
I have serious problems with a lot of what happened in the recent campaign. I'm not going to trot out a laundry list; it would make for a very long post. I think a few of the main points are damning enough.
The manner in which this election was precipitated was bizarre and inept. Ridings were being told that an election call was weeks away while the leader was going in front of the mikes and telling the world that she would be forcing one. Her bluff got called and it was clear that she had no cards. With few nominated candidates, none of the staff and infrastructure in place and a rag bag of policy positions unconnected by a coherent strategic vision, the campaign did a very good impression of a clown show for the first two-plus weeks. When platform planks were released, the lack of a strategy became obvious.
This was as close to a perfect opportunity to make gains as we will ever see. With all due respect to Alice Funk, the message that should be taken away from this election is that in 2014 the PCs were led by an extremist dimwit and the Liberals mired in a pile of their own political dung but the ONDP could do no better than the seat count they went in with and a third place finish. The next election, at least four years away, will involve an experienced Liberal leader thoroughly insulated from McGuinty's scandals and a new, presumably less witless PC leader. If we couldn't make headway in the circumstances that prevailed in this last election, the chances of doing better next time are slim to none.
Those who point to the success of the party in expanding the party's reach in by-elections as evidence of growth need to look more closely. These have been almost entirely related to local factors; for the most part, the new ridings were won by superb local candidates fighting tactical battles. The party was, as always, able to provide solid tactical support in these individual elections. When the full slate of ridings is in play, strategic considerations trump the ability to bring a dozen or so tacticians to the field. It's pretty damned clear that there is no strategic thinking of any sort going on in the ONDP, unless its a particular kind of strategic positioning to take down opposition within the party.
As for the leadership review, the deck has been stacked against doing anything about it. At the last provincial council meeting a resolution squeeked through that will allow the party to take back a riding's delegate accreditations if they have not filed delegate names 45 days before convention. That means that every riding will have to have their delegates named by the beginning of October. How many ridings will be able to pull that off after Labour Day? You can be sure that those credentials that aren't assigned locally will be given to solid supporters of the leader. You can be sure that's why the change was made. This is just the latest of an ongoing series of measures that have consolidated power in the leader's office and reduced the ability of members to hold the leadership to account. For all her breezy, cheerful public persona, within the party Andrea Horwath has always been contemptuous of members, manipulative of process and tolerant of those who break rules on her behalf. The Scarborough Guildwood nomination process and the abuse of process that led to the election of Neethan Shan as party president are only the most public expressions of that.
I will still be a member in four years, and I will undoubtedly work in one campaign or another in the next election. I just wish there was some reason to believe that the outcome is likely to be better, not worse. There seems to be nothing that can be done about the situation. This is not a leader who is interested in being told she's wrong. The mechanisms that should ensure that she is held to account are broken.
I kept my counsel through the years of Howard Hampton's ineffectuality. I was willing to give Andrea a chance to grow in the job, in spite of my misgivings about her past behaviour. I'm not prepared to be quiet any more. It is not in the interest of the NDP or progressive politics in Ontario to do so. Those who think that it's time to rally round the leader, yet again, are just plain wrong.
Edited to correct riding name