If the NDP wanted to shed the perception that it is a radical player in Canadian politics, one wouldn't expect it to announce this intention. Voters whose support it wants to gain might smell opportunism. Those it can't afford to lose would be even more critical.
But with no ballyhoo, it's hard not to conclude that this plan is in play.
This summer's filibuster wasn't exactly a blockbuster, in part because the NDP seemed determined to avoid going over the top with their arguments. Two of Canada's most prominent unions saw their pensions reduced and their right to strike encroached upon. The NDP drew out the debate, but didn't exactly draw lines in the sand.
The Harper government announces a deal to privatize Canada's nuclear Crown company. The NDP's asserts the importance of getting the right price for taxpayers.
Hundreds of federal public servants are receiving pink slips. The NDP muses that laying off auditors might be risky, citing the lessons of the sponsorship scandal.
The fiscal situation in Ottawa is stressed, while many Canadian corporations are making decent profits at the moment. In the past this was a recipe for NDP demands to hike corporate taxes, as an alternative to spending cuts. This year's NDP instead focuses on the need for tax cuts for small business.
It's as though Jack Layton and top advisers have concluded two things:
1. The best chance of holding on to second place in the polls and in the House is to morph into a humble and lovable version of the Liberal Party: stable and centrist, just a little more down to earth.
2. The only path to winning an election, doesn't involve convincing Canadians that socialism is good or conservatism evil, but waiting for the Conservatives to defeat themselves, as most governments eventually do.
This would call for a strategy to rebrand the NDP as cooler and constructive, hysteria-free and pragmatic. Tastes better, perhaps a bit less filling. You'd want to let voters know that if there's a rumble in Ottawa, it wasn't the NDP that started it. That if they need to reduce drama and restore order, why not give the NDP a shot.
Maybe this is idle summer speculation. Perhaps the first mini session of this new House isn't a reasonable benchmark. But based on what we've seen so far, either the NDP has lost its edge somewhere, or more likely, made a calculated decision to soften it.
Bruce Anderson