Leslie Campbell, a former chief of staff to federal NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin and assistant to Manitoba NDP leader Gary Doer, is now a Senior Associate at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Washington. He believes that "the federal NDP, in its current incarnation, has run its course."
Brian Topp, a former deputy chief of staff to Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow, was national campaign director for the NDP during the 2006 and 2008 federal elections and is co-chair of the NDP's Election Planning Committee. He believes that the NDP, having undergone a "basic cultural change," has a chance to compete for government.
In an e-mail exchange this week, the two shared their views on the state of their party.
From: Les Campbell
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 12:58 PM
To: Brian Topp
Subject: The NDP
Dear Brian,
First, congratulations on a great campaign. Jack did pretty much everything a party leader could be expected to do and the national NDP campaign, uninspired in past contests, looked great. Jack is smart, energetic, articulate and committed and has placed the federal NDP — a marginal group of true believers only a few years ago — emphatically back on the map. For the first time since Broadbent, the NDP looked and sounded the part of a contender and the media bought into the possibilities. While Jack's "application" for Prime Minister was a little silly, he seemed to believe it and his enthusiasm was contagious.
Unfortunately, for all his skills, Jack was stuck leading one of the last unreconstructed '60s-style socialist parties in the Western world and all he managed to do was bang his head on the NDP's electoral glass ceiling - about 18 per cent, it seems.
I'm sorry I wasn't there for the post-election celebrations but I hope no one is genuinely satisfied with this result. If the NDP's best is only 18 per cent against the weakest Liberal leader this century, a Green Party leader who gave an early signal of her proclivity for self-destruction by running in the unwinnable Central Nova and a Conservative leader regarded as akin to Attila the Hun by a sizable group of Canadians, then we've got to face the cold truth.
Being a veteran of many NDP meetings, I'm afraid the post-election dialogue sounds something like this: "We had the right policies and a good message but it just wasn't getting through to enough people so we have to communicate better." Wrong — people got the message and the 18 per cent of voters that agree with the NDP responded positively. The rest don't like the message.
Unfortunately, losing is never enough to cause any real soul searching within the NDP. For one, we're used to losing, and, as an NDP colleague recently wrote, "when you think your party already embodies virtue, you don't have to do any work to improve yourself." Being satisfied with virtue alone will always lead to Phyrric victories in the current Canadian political context — satisfying to the faithful but devastating to those hoping for a centre-left government. The virtuous New Democratic and Green parties guarantee a Tory victory by splitting the centre-left vote with the Liberals.
The federal NDP, in its current incarnation, has run its course. Unless you are content to continue the honourable tradition of being the marginal, ineffective conscience of the nation - and I don't think you are - there are two interconnected alternatives:
1) Enter a period of intense policy renewal to modernize the party and aggressively stake out centre-left political ground to capture disaffected Liberals in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces and potential Conservative/NDP switchers in the Western provinces
2) Spearhead a "unite-the-centre-left" movement, thereby capturing the momentum and setting the terms for a coalition of the Liberals, NDP and Green Party.
The policy renewal should have started long ago, but here are my two cents on where NDP policy should be heading:
- Careful stewardship of public resources to support a thoughtful array of social programs without higher taxes;
- Strong on environmental protection, but not so radically that key resource industries are threatened without alternative jobs being available;
- No undue regard to special interests, including organized labour;
