April is not going to be remembered as a good month for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Canada.
It started with the Saskatchewan election on April 4, when the NDP won 10 of 61 seats in a province where they were once heralded as the natural governing party. A week later, Cam Broten stepped down as the party’s leader, which was a predictable move after he lost his own seat.
It likely won’t be the only election loss for the NDP this month. Over in Manitoba, the NDP is expected to be soundly defeated by the Progressive Conservatives in that province’s election on April 19, ending 16 years of NDP governance.
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger has proven to be a bungler since he replaced the great Gary Doer.
Sandwiched between the defeat last week, and the projected defeat next week, was the NDP’s national leadership convention. They turfed Thomas Mulcair and his moderate approach to guiding the party, and seemingly embraced the road to political insanity.
We haven’t been fans of Mulcair, not after his infamous “Dutch disease” comments from a few years ago that seemed to indicate favouritism towards the east over the west. And while he deserves criticism for the NDP’s third-place finish in last fall’s provincial election, after they held a lead in the polls early in the campaign, reality is that the NDP was going to finish third, regardless of who the leader is.
And he led the party to its second-best finish in its history.
But when the NDP decided to take a deeper look at the Leap Manifesto, it demonstrated that many in the party are still high on fantasy and short on pragmatism.
Did you know that we could have all our electricity generated entirely from renewable resources in 20 years? Or that we could be free from fossil fuels by 2050? The Leap Manifesto proponents will tell you it’s true. They’re probably wrong.
They believe in “energy democracy,” in which energy sources are collectively controlled by communities instead of private companies. That sounds more like energy insanity.
They call for an end to infrastructure projects that increase extraction of non-renewable resources, including pipelines.
There’s also a call for universal basic guaranteed income, an end to austerity, and, as you would expect, a bevy of tax increases.
It truly is an exercise in hopeless idealism, but some NDP voters seem to think it’s their ticket to finally being elected.
The path to election supremacy in this country is through a moderate, centrist approach. It’s why the Liberal Party remains the natural governing party in this country. And it’s why the non-Liberal parties that have enjoyed longevity know they have to govern from the centre.
There is nothing moderate about the Leap Manifesto. And it will only diminish the NDP’s already slim chances of election success.
