NDP Leader Tom Mulcair.Charla Jones/The Globe and Mail
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POLITICS BRIEFING
By Chris Hannay (@channay)
If NDP Leader Tom Mulcair does not survive a vote on his leadership this weekend, it will be unprecedented: no other leader has been shown the door in a vote by the party's members.
For the most part, every NDP leader in the party's 50-year history has left at a moment of her or his choosing. (The major exception, of course, is Jack Layton, who took the New Democrats from 19 seats in 2004 to 103 in 2011, but died months later.)
Tommy Douglas led the party for its first 10 years, and though the politician made large contributions to Canadian policy in the minority parliaments of the 1960s, he decided it was time to pass the torch in 1971. He remained an MP until 1979.
His successor, David Lewis, led the party to gains in the 1972 election (which produced one of the narrowest minority governments in history), but the NDP lost half its seats in 1974, including Mr. Lewis' own. He resigned the leadership shortly after.
Next came Ed Broadbent, who was one of the most popular leaders of any party in the 1980s. Mr. Broadbent led the New Democrats to a then-high watermark of 43 seats in the 1988 election, but even that was short of what the party thought was a historic opportunity to supplant the Liberals. Mr. Broadbent, though still popular within his party, decided it was time to move on the following year.
Audrey McLaughlin, the first female leader of a major party in Canada, replaced him. Unfortunately, the NDP fell to a resurgent Jean-Chretien-led Liberal party in the 1993 vote and lost most of their seats (though they performed better than the Progressive Conservatives). Ms. McLaughlin left on her own terms a year later.
Alexa McDonough led the NDP back to official party status in 1997, but stumbled again in 2000. Still, Ms. McDonough survived a challenge to her leadership the following year by securing 85 per cent of delegates' support at a convention. She announced her intention to step down a year after that.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS MORNING
> Canadians are fine with the federal Liberals running big deficits, as long as long-term debt is kept under control, a new Nanos-Globe and Mail poll suggests. "There's support for what I would call a controlled deficit," Nik Nanos said.
> The U.S. government is expressing its disapproval of federal aid for manufacturer Bombardier, saying that any money would be a barrier to trade because it gives the company an unfair advantage in the U.S. market.
> The federal government will boost staffing at Canadian visa offices in Jordan and Lebanon to expedite processing times for Syrian refugees. The move comes after criticism that the months-long processing time was too long.
> Cases of missing and murdered indigenous women are not investigated fairly, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett told a New York audience.
> Sources tell The Canadian Press that new assisted-dying legislation will come at the end of next week.
> Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai says he is very concerned about the direction his party is taking in its leadership contest. "These actions, in my view, have disenfranchised a vast majority of Canadians. Newcomers, immigrants, low-income Canadians, and those economically challenged will be turned off and walk away because they can't afford these high fees...What is concerning me is that, unfortunately, [the Conservatives] will be seen as an elitist and white-only party," he told the Huffington Post.
> The Green Party focused all of its resources on 15 ridings in the last election (out of 338), but an iPolitics analysis suggests even then they may have been spreading themselves too thin.
> And a prominent magazine in Brazil has some not-so-nice things to say about Mr. Trudeau, who is "the embodiment of vaguely leftist and confusingly well-intentioned liberalist dreams, a handsome guy who shamelessly shows off his physique and preens for photos in yoga poses."
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WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
"The problem of homelessness is one with which governments across the country are struggling. The situation is exacerbated in B.C. because of its climate. The brutal Alberta economy has meant there are even more bereft, unemployed individuals arriving in places such as Victoria or Vancouver absent the means to support themselves. What to do about the poor, huddled masses that call the street home is an almost existential dilemma, even for a society as wealthy as ours." – Gary Mason.
Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail): "More than a decade and billions of dollars later, how are we doing [on health care]? What did all that money and effort produce? In a nutshell: middling results." (for subscribers)
Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock (Globe and Mail): "The time has come again for Canada to fashion a coherent platform that will seize the imagination and gain the support of UN member states. For a country wanting to re-engage after almost a decade of disdain for multilateralism, the council election presents Canada with an opportunity to reclaim our place in the world with a campaign of substance – grounded in humility and respect, aimed at collective solutions."
Robyn Urback (National Post): "Of all the ministries of the federal government, the Department of Justice should be most acutely aware of the necessity to maintain a clear line of impartiality. [Justice Minister Jody] Wilson-Raybould's job is, expressly, to ensure that Canada's justice system is fair and accessible to all, without prejudice – a mandate that is plainly undermined when certain members of the legal community are offered intimate access for a fee that will go directly to the Liberal Party of Canada."
Don Martin (CTV): "[The NDP] have to wildly endorse Tom Mulcair, and by that I mean with 75 per cent support or more, or dump him hard enough to eliminate his will to fight on. The mushy middle is political quicksand."
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Chris Hannay