CKNW Editorial
for May 16, 2001

After tonight, the NDP will be facing a huge rebuilding program. Even if they elect 8-10 members - which is unlikely, the NDP as we have come to know it will be broken and it will be very difficult to fix.

There are a couple of reasons for that. First off, if Mr Dosanjh holds his seat - again doubtful - he will be seen as the man who not only did not restore the fortunes of the party post Glen Clark but arguably made them worse. He will face a great deal of dissension in the ranks and I don't see how he could stay on as leader with much credibility with the party faithful. The logical successor - if she holds her seat - would be Joy McPhail. By reason of a cleverly designed resignation from cabinet and a neatly timed sojourn in Spain she has perhaps the best chance to look like a person unsoiled by the past and thus a good bet to unite the party in the future. She is not untainted, of course but she will look that way by comparison. It's hard to see anyone else as potential leader unless one looks for a completely fresh face.

The problems faced by whoever the leader is will be huge if not insurmountable. And this is because of the party's long special relationship with the trade union movement which is about all that's left of the party. Much of the party's traditional support has left only partly because of the appalling record of the NDP government. Many were on the move anyway. The NDP - and one need only look to the federal party for proof of this – is badly out of step with the times. Since the union movement shows little inclination to get with the times the new leader is likely to be left with little more than a Labour Party in form if not name. It's very hard indeed to see how a new party encompassing the center left - which must be captured if the party is to be revived - can rise from a strictly trade union base.

One of the problems will be that the party will not want to face this issue squarely as the British Labour Party did. No one is going to want to risk losing union support by saying that the problem with the party is its Siamese twin relationship with the unions. It can be done, of course. But it takes a lot of will and no little time and a lot of courageous commitment. Labour will not yield willingly – that would be contrary to human nature. It took the British Labour Party ten years and three leaders and they were always working from a pretty good base of support in the country at large. People like Jim Sinclair and Ken Georgetti always get angry with me when I raise these points which they take to be anti union. Well, I'm not anti union and could not have been elected twice to the Legislature without good worker support and some official union support. What I am doing is recording observations. It's not my affair if the NDP chooses to remain as the private preserve of the union leadership in this province - it is my job to point out that this is just what's going to happen unless they can find a way to also appeal to small business people and non union labour that does not see it in their best interests to belong to a union.

It would help, of course, if the national NDP re-invented itself but that seems unlikely in the short term. In fact, the power within the party as the influence of Svend Robinson indicates seems to be more of the same and then some. The battle will not be taken against the excesses and shortcomings of globalization but against globalization itself, something that most Canadians know is akin to King Canute forbidding the tide to come in.

The most interesting story of the next couple of years will be whether or not Gordon Campbell can, with a massive majority to control, can restore BC's economic well being. An interesting side show, important for future years, is whether or not the opposition can be rallied to the NDP banner or not ... and if not, to whom.