How to Fix Canada's Political Parties: The NDP

The NDP has one obvious thing in common with the Liberals: an enemy in the Tories.

Whatever one’s political views, the lessons of the past should be heeded. The clear signal from Canada’s recent political past is that in a fragmented Parliament, the chance of one political party achieving a majority of seats in the House of Commons is slim without a major political realignment. It seems odd that parties with similar ideologies and/or whose main political enemy benefits from this lack of focus would have their eyes so obviously “off the prize.”

The Conservatives and the Reformers/Canadian Alliance did it. They set aside their differences that had relegated them to opposition status in the House of Commons. Their common political enemy was the Liberals (who benefitted from this vote splitting), and the worst-case scenario for them was a Canadian government espousing and implementing a centre-left political agenda. Coming together enabled both parties to be part of a whole that formed a government. Doubtless neither party, nor their supporters, found this painless. Both had to compromise on policy and/or principle. But the alternative – a Liberal government – was a worse prospect. So both put “water in their wine” (assuming they were not abstainers).

The Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc Québécois toyed with the coalition idea. What is now stopping the NDP and the Liberals from pursuing the path set out by the Conservatives – or at least a similar path with the same destination? What stops these parties from acting on what they espouse – that a Conservative government is their, and Canada’s, worst nightmare? Unless they come together, they will live with this scenario for a good while yet.

If their stated commitment to a different society and government than that provided by the Conservatives is anything other than window dressing, these parties should act. At a minimum, they could leave in place the current batch of NDP and Liberal MPs and agree not to run against each other in these constituencies. In ridings held by the Conservatives where the total NDP/Liberal vote was greater than that of the Tories, they could decide which of the two parties would most likely be successful at garnering more votes than the Conservatives and only run that candidate. An accommodation would have to be made for the Greens where, of the three parties, they would be most likely to win.

There would have to be some give-and-take – some compromises. But if the NDP and the Liberals believe in what they say, they have no choice. At the very least, it would make Canadian politics interesting – no matter what your political preference. Nothing radical here – just obvious!