CKNW Editorial
for June 14, 2001

The move by Svend Robinson, Herschell Hardin and others to form a new party of the left is understandable considering how low the NDP has fallen but it is manna from heaven for both the federal Liberals and the BC Liberals.

Let’s back up a bit. There is a political spectrum with a left, right and center. Defining the boundaries of the segments is often very difficult and many Canadians cross segment lines depending on the issues. One of the more common crossings is made by people like me who are center right unto right on economic matters but center left unto left on social issues. Nevertheless there are these three traditional areas and the trick to winning elections is to control all the center and enough of the center left and center right so as to push your opponents to the margins. This has been done very successfully by the Liberal Party in Canada and the Tony Blair Labour Party in Great Britain … although one cannot forget the Democratic Party in the United States. And it is here that the NDP has conspicuously failed.

The left in both Britain and Canada really sprang from the trade union movement which needed a political voice to offset that of the conservative establishment which had grown up from the aristocracy combined with the entrepreneur spawned by the Industrial Revolution. The left was joined by other groups – intellectuals, the poor, the disadvantaged – both in Britain and here - but it’s important to remember that the coalition was always an uneasy one. For example – the trade unions would have you believe that they are foursquare on the side of women and minorities. If that’s so, by no means has it always been so. Both minorities, usually immigrants, and women were seen as threats to the share of the pie unionists wanted and this led not only to friction on the left but a hell of a lot of hypocrisy as well.

The fact is that the left in both countries had a pretty dismal record for political success on both sides of the Atlantic. They have never won power nationally in Canada and only rarely have done so at the provincial level. Last week, for the first time in British history, Labour won two consecutive majorities.

All of a sudden, however, the Labour Party has become the natural governing party in Britain while its Canadian counterpart is in the tank. How can this be?

It has happened because starting with Hugh Gaitskill in the 60s the Labour Party discovered that it couldn’t win as long as the party was controlled by the Labour unions. This was for several reasons not least of which was the fact that while Labour had the hearts and wallets of the Union bosses, it by no means was supported by union workers. The bottom line was that the Labour Party was owned by labour’s management but rejected by its rank and file.

Moreover, even during the depression – indeed especially during the depression – the Labour Party lost rather than gained strength because people saw it as the party for prosperous times when new social policies could be afforded. The mathematical fact was that the poor – who generally don’t vote – the union leadership and the parlour pinks in the intelligentsia simply couldn’t win.

The Labour Party in the UK understood this at long last in the 80s and started the long and very bitter road to the center. Part of that process – a good part – was taking control of the party away from the trade unions. But a significant factor was the changing of the political catechism and rejection of old, tired out, shopworn phrases about taking control of the means of production.

As matters stand, the British Labour Party, because of its changes, has forced the Tories to the far right and because of the vacuum on the left, has moved what used to be the party of the center, the Liberal Democrats into that vacuum. Tony Blair has simply elbowed his way so as to occupy the middle 2/3rds of the political spectrum.

While all this was going on in Britain, the NDP was doing nothing. It not only maintained but increased its dependence on big labour. It continued with its tiresome cant against capital, business and the marketplace and contented itself with being # 1 in the department of complaining about everything without having any solutions. If you wanted someone to bleat about the social ills of the nation, why it was the NDP, the trouble being that it had no answers.

It’s probably too late now because the NDP has conceded the entire center to the Liberals. While their British counterparts were making huge changes, it was standing still at best. The center left, traditionally divided between the NDP and Liberals has virtually gone over, holus bolus, to the Liberals and has done so permanently.

Back to the starting theme. If the NDP were to re-invent itself it would have to move considerably to the right. Even the new and largely youthful left who are protesting free trade are not attracted to a party which, while it gives out soothing verbal support, has no solutions to offer. Along comes Svend Robinson and company claiming, essentially, that the clock must be moved back and a true party of the left be formed. At a time when other social democratic parties world wide are taking the new world economy as a fait accompli and looking for new and innovative ways to help those hurt by what’s happening while getting the best possible results, the NDP is in full speed reverse. The Svend Robinsons and Herschell Hardins of the party are not trying to advance the cause of social democracy but instead to return to the ideological purity of the past.

If any more proof were needed for what I say, look at the Green Party. There should be no Green Party because the NDP would embrace its principles … instead they’re like two scorpions in a bottle.

The situation looks very rosy indeed for the Liberals, both Ottawa and Victoria versions. The right are busy killing each other off while the left divides and dies.

A new, philosophically pure party of the left is just what Jean Chretien and Gordon Campbell want and Svend Robinson has just become their very best friend.