Das Rennen um die Führung der NDP könnte schlafwandelnd in die Bedeutungslosigkeit münden – die Partei wird in den Umfragen angeschlagen und ist bestenfalls weit davon entfernt, in absehbarer Zeit wieder den offiziellen Parteistatus zu erlangen. Es braucht Kontroversen, keine kontrollierte Kommunikation.
The NDP leadership race might be sleepwalking to irrelevance
16 Kommentare
Can’t disagree. I think there is some relative variation. Lewis attracts more controversy than any other candidate permissible to the NDP’s gatekeepers, he’s the only one being singled out for critique by the Postmedia’s and other Overton defenders, so that’s where my vote remains parked. I liked a lot of Ashton’s early rhetoric, but he’s seems to be smoothing that out and concentrating on making friends in a Party that badly needs a shake-up.
They’ve recovered a bit from the absolute low during the election, but not to the point where they were in mid/late 2024. IF there was an election today / soon, they might regain a few seats, but not what they had from 2021 onwards.
I personally think excluding Engler from the race was one of their better decisions recently. Sure, having him in there would’ve brought attention, but not necessarily the good kind. The guy is, to put it mildly, a stark raving nutjob. He’s anti-NATO, pro-russian, has openly attacked the NDP in the past.
One of the issues with the leadership race is that there isn’t a huge amount of distinction between the candidates, and they’re all so very eager to demonstrate how they’re all just the bestest of pals. Language issues aside, the french debate was less a debate and more all of them falling over themselves to agree with each other, which is boring AF. Tbf, the liberal debates earlier in the year had similar, if less extreme, issues, but there was at least a bit of debate in there.
Another issue I have is the candidates are all going „When I’m PM, my government will…“ and I’m like…buddy, you are not forming government anytime soon. At best you might play junior partner to a Liberal minority. Be realistic here. So it feels like they’re all proming Utopia and a pink unicorn for every little girl because they know they’ll never actually have to deliver anything.
Completely disagree that the NDP „remains, at best, a long shot to regain official party status anytime soon.“ 12 seats is not an insurmountable hurdle, even for the current NDP, and they can easily regain party status in the next election if they elect a leader who is halfway competent.
The NDP remains a long shot to gain power anytime soon, but that’s a different problem.
The only time in the past year that the NDP regularly made the news was when Charlie Angus was speaking plainly to the American threat. It’s a proven hit and they’re completely ignoring it.
I think the party needs some controversy or stirring the pot. There is always room for red teaming the bigger parties. Where the issue lies is how to manage that transition from leadership race to afterwards. The parties base is nominally as large as it’s every been, but converting that nominal base into actual support and votes is the challenge. The NDP tent has gotten so wide, they are having to manage not pissibg any one part of, because the support is also relatively shallow. (Lots of different interests, and their support is contingent, and liable to walk or fracture).
Controversy only makes sense in my mind once they have a leader in place, is able to craft some kind of unifying message to hold the base/tent together, and then once that is solidified, go red team the other parties and stir the pot more. If they stir the pot before consolidating, they are liable to splinter the support they currently have. They need a leader who can pivot and shift gears.
I would also think controlled controversy is best. That is consistent controversies. Controversy that is disjointed and contradictory or controversy for its own sake is unlikely to help
Whenever I talk to anyone casually about the NDP the sentiment I hear is always “the NDP need to get back to their working class roots to regain relevance”. In my opinion the views of the average working class blue collar worker has shifted so far away from the NDP platform that it’s really tough to reconcile both the people who currently vote NDP and the people who they want to bring in.
The NDP needs a leader who will make hard choices to attract new voters, not one that just carries on and hopes voters fall into their laps
The Federal NDP won’t fade to irrelevance, but they may stay in the doldrums for a few cycles yet (think of the Ontario Liberals). It would be wise to take some time to reflect and recalibrate and reposition. I have high hopes we can retain a large alternative third party and not evolve further into a two-party system (formally, anyway).
Dean Allison, CPC MP, called out a Tim Horton’s franchisee in his riding that was set to fire long time workers and replace them with TFW. Tim Horton’s head office then responded, tail between their legs, that this was a misunderstanding and those employees would not be fired.
When has an NDP MP ever done that? Something as simple as that can get support. No no, NDP is going to hand every last pro-worker vote to the CPC. Because what Dean Allison did might be a little bit too close to rAcIsM for their comfort. Imagine if the franchisee he called out wasn’t white!?!?! Disaster!
I think there’s a good chance that as the liberals gain conservative votes, progressive voters will be looking for alternatives.
I’m in that boat. I don’t want conservative/liberals as they don’t represent my values. I want a proper left wing party that stands up for workers, and wants to invest in social safety nets and taxing the rich
Depends on the controversy, if for example they aggressively fought large corps using TFW and organized sit in and boycotts that would probably work. They have limited messaging opportunities and they can’t waste it on cultural wars ect.
The NDP’s problem for the past decade has largely been that the party’s been too focused on campaigning to it’s established voters and hasn’t done enough to expand it’s base outside of that. While Layton & Mulcair both had success at making the party more attractive to non-NDP voters, Singh’s mistake was that he was largely preaching to the converted while campaigning and only had political success in regards to leveraging Trudeau’s minorities etc.
If the NDP either wants to win or significantly expand its votes beyond the 14-17% threshold, then they need to attract a broader base similar to the West Coast NDP parties or successful social democratic parties in Europe, Australia & New Zealand etc.
Bro they already are Irrelevant nationally- we are effectively a two party state.
For NDP to come back there would need to be a decade of CPC rule. Right now with way PP is looking and sounding, we effectively have progressive Conservative Carney for next decade.
So in theory NDP to become relevant again its going to be good 20 years, if they manage to exist that far as a national party !
In last election party leader could not even keep his own ticket – in Burnaby of all places, if that does not cry irrelevant I dont know what does !
I see the popularity of some of mine and others’ so-called “far left” ideas on forums here or when I talk to normies and conservatives in my day to day and for work, and what I see is that none of the candidates are willing to stake out ground on real policy that would violate a lot of the status quo. Mamdani just did an interview and said we have ‘monetized dysfunction’ and that’s just a perfect summation. We are over prioritizing the needs of the property owners and corporations, while subsidizing them to uphold a system that harms far more than it heals.
I like Lewis. I met him at a protest, nice guy, but his rhetoric is the starting point. What’s more, I’m on social media daily, reading news here and around the world, and this kind of milquetoast democratic socialism is to the right of what is necessary.
NDP needs to go back to the drawing board. Many of its progressive ideas Canadians do not want or believe in.
They proved it in the election. Focusing on social issues that Canadians really want might gain them some support.
Affordability and a strong economy with better union representation in the private sector. Small steps.
You need a strong economy to fund social programs.
Sort of like the provincial Liberals. For the federal NDP now is the perfect time for them to rebuild as we have a liberal party that has become closer to right of centre and a Conservative Party that is stalled. Perfect time for a strong and progressive labour party to step in and offer working Canadians some hope.
I think the NDPs biggest issue they need to be tackling is understanding why people don’t like them. Like theoretically they should be hitting it off with talking about affordability, but they aren’t great at communicating and oftentimes are electing leaders that have all the right messaging but none of the personality.
I think Avi Lewis is a good example of this – he recently said „the NDP doesn’t really have family dynasties“ while his father was a founding member of the party in the 60s… Like talk all you want about affordability, people will never buy it because they know you don’t truly understand what it is to be a late paycheck away from being on the street, or to live in squalor in unsuitable accommodations.
Best critique I’ve heard of the party recently is that they sound like „a bunch of condescending nerds“, and that if they had like a woke guy with an Alberta accent they could clear out the conservatives in a week. Lose the concern over careful messaging and unabashedly attack stingy business owners while also pushing for generous and universal programs out of the gate.