Former Mayor Larry Di Ianni and Mr. Ecklund's daughter Erika

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LARRY'S CORNER- Hamilton's Former Mayor Speaks

former Mayor of Hamilton, Larry Di IanniWhat's New About the NDP?

By Larry Di Ianni
(posted August 19, 2009)

In one of the biggest non-events of the year, the Federal New Democratic Party just ended its annual convention.  What captured the media’s interest was a move to drop the ‘New’ from the party’s moniker.    That so much ink was spent on an item which wasn’t even deemed important enough to be debated goes to show you the scarcity of content discussed by the membership of the party.

And yet, the NDP used to be so much more.  Because of my vintage, I actually remember Tommy Douglas’ fiery rhetoric as party leader.  I admired David Lewis’ precise use of language and his interesting turn of phrase such as when he labelled support for corporations as nothing but ‘Corporate Welfare Bums!’   I admired Ed Broadbent, who was awkward, especially compared to the smooth Pierre Trudeau, but was principled and bright.  It was he who really moved the party to national respectability as a potential contender.  Even Pierre Trudeau, who did not suffer fools easily, had lots of time for Ed.  Polls consistently pointed out that Canadians would have trusted Ed with the responsibility of the PM’s office, IF he only led another party.

The party also very courageously elected two female leaders in Audrey McLaughlin and Alexa McDonough.  Audrey seemed lost to me and I can’t honestly recall anything of note she stood for other than losing all the momentum built up by Ed Broadbent.  As for Alexa, she was impressive.  She was born in a somewhat privileged situation but followed her progressive father into social activism.  She did have electoral success earning 21 seats in an election from the previous 9.  She also tried to move the party to the center, mirroring Britain’s Labour Party under Tony Blair.  But she didn’t succeed.  The internal struggles were too much for her and she succumbed to pressures from the unions and voted against her own proposals to reform the party.   

And now the party is headed by Jack Layton, son of a former Progressive Conservative politician and cabinet minister.  Jack cut his teeth in municipal politics in Toronto where he was a leading left leaning member of Council and even ran for mayor, but lost to June Rowlands.  He has steadily increased his party’s number of seats in the Commons.  However, he is seen as glib and despite his solid academic background, a bit of a lightweight.  Fair or unfair, this reputation sticks to him.  The fact that he squashed Universal Child Care when Martin was Prime Minister is a low point to his party’s standing in the country.  The fact that he helped torpedo M. Dion’s climate change initiatives in the last election cost him the support of the Green Party with whom the NDP think they have lots in common.  So now, wither the NDP?  They are planning for a fall election without the spark in popular support that a convention usually gives a party.  The reviews in the papers have been very bad.  However, don’t forget that Jack and the NDP are a fighting party and should not be underrated in terms of creating problems for the Liberals or the Conservatives.

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