Vancouver Province
for November 8, 2001

Last weekend’s NDP convention was one of those things where little was expected and even less happened. Unless you read between the lines a bit. And you don’t have to be much of an analyst to read that there is a struggle going on and, for want of any better candidates for swordsman, let’s personify the struggle in the persons of Joy MacPhail representing the future as she sees it and Dave Barrett representing the past as, through his rose-coloured glasses, he remembers it.

  The first round went to Ms McPhail who saw her handpicked candidate, Maura Parte, selected as president. While the struggle seems to be is between youth and antiquity it’s a matter of philosophies more than calendar years. And Ms Parte represents anticipated radical change as does Joy MacPhail – Mr Barrett is the aging Sir Hiss of socialist royal regimes of other years.

  The left’s constituency by no means votes NDP. Indeed, the strongest – and for any future the NDP may have the most troublesome – constituency is Organized Labour whose support at the grass roots level over the years has been tepid at best. As I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, the anti free trade, down with the WTO mob, in the anarchist tradition doesn’t bother voting and, worse, they become stockbrokers by the time they have matured enough to be any good to any political party.

  Joy MacPhail knows that the NDP has three alternatives – it can simply die and go away like the Socreds did, it can rally around it the far left and the even farther left and be little other than a sort of debating society for academics and union leaders, or it can re-invent itself as a party of the Centre-Left. If you’re a betting person, put your ranch on option two for this catch-22 reason – to make changes in direction you need new blood which won’t come in until the changes are made. And the old guard, led by the backroom leadership of Dave Barrett, will resist every suggested blandishment to new people with new ideas. They remain convinced that the party was never stronger than between 1972-1983, which, (and it’s here you act surprised) coincides with Barrett’s leadership of the party. In fact during that period the NDP lost three out of four elections and the one they won was with 39% of the popular vote.

  There’s only one way the NDP can become relevant in British Columbia and since I’m well known for my generosity with free advice, here is some for those that would like something in place to face the Liberals in May 2005.

  First, the name must be changed. Gordon Campbell doesn’t have to do anything right to be popular – his approval rating will reflect, for some time to come, the high odour in which the NDP is held. There are moves afoot in this area with the word “progressive” being bruited about though that name may have unhelpful connotations.

  Second, the new party must be divorced and I mean divorced from the federal NDP or whatever that becomes. It’s not just that British Columbians don’t like any influence from Ottawa in local affairs - if there is no change, the local bunch will be Siamese-twinned to the federal corpse.

Third, the new party must be “Blaired” – which is to say modeled on the success of New Labour in the UK. That means no special deal – NONE – for labour unions.

  Can these things be done? I frankly doubt it if only because it’s a package deal – you can’t just do one or two. It’s all or nothing at all.

  As to the first reform, name changes are always difficult which explains the Radical-Socialist Party of France which is neither radical nor socialist and hasn’t been either for eons.

  The second reform will likely prove difficult because of the strong influence the federal wing has always wielded locally.

  The last reform should prove impossible because the majority remaining in the party is of the old guard that wants to sit around the mining camp bonfire singing songs of struggles past and reliving any moments of glory their vivid imaginations can summon up.

  If there is going to be meaningful change there’s no time to waste, for Joy MacPhail isn’t the sort to spend her most productive years farting against thunder.

  Still, for the political junkie it should be fun to watch.