Mo Members, Mo Problems

In which the NDP struggles to come to terms with having more friends than ever before.

The NDP convention held this past weekend in Vancouver foretold the internal conflicts that will be one of the Official Opposition's biggest challenges for the next four years. Chantal Hébert of the Toronto Star terms the summit as “the last hurrah of the old federal NDP,” as Quebec was woefully underrepresented on the convention floor despite now making up half the party's caucus. When sovereignty issues bubble up, the NDP will have to quickly learn the art of compromise, hardly easy for a party used to decades of acting on principle. “Should the NDP turn out to not have the stomach to go the extra miles to recast itself as a competitive contender for federal power, it will quickly lose the allegiance of its more recent fellow travellers,” says Hébert. Treading water, as the party did over the weekend, rarely moves a party forward.

The National Post's Tasha Kheiriddin hones in on the resolution that would have replaced “socialist” with “social democratic” in the party's constitution, drawing parallels to the British Labour Party's successful rebranding efforts. Tony Blair ushered in a new era for the party in 1995 when Labour ditched a clause in its constitution that called for land and wealth redistribution. Two years later, Labour won a majority government. “The NDP missed their chance to turn the page on socialism this weekend, with the result that the government will still hold that arrow in its quiver,” says Kheiriddin. “And in terms of party growth, it is also critical, as it may dampen the NDP’s allure to disgruntled Liberals looking for a new home.”

The flipside of adopting new language, observes the Vancouver Sun's Barbara Yaffe, would be alienating the party's core supporters, who showed signs of discontent at the convention. “While the party moved to thwart an inflammatory resolution on Israel from being debated and voted on, several delegates groused bitterly about the party's caution,” says Yaffe. Voting unanimously to extend the Libya mission and to speed up passage of the Tories' mega-trial bill didn't likely win the party many hearts on the left. Notably, the only MP to have voted against those two measures was the Green party's Elizabeth May. If her voting habits hold true, and the Canadian electorate takes notice, members of the NDP's socialist caucus might come to believe they look better in green than in orange.