On September 18, members of the New Democratic Party(NDP)
of Canada vote for their new leader replacing outgoing leader Thomas Mulcair. Naturally, hard right news outlets paint a “boring” and uninspiring picture of the NDP race as irreverent due to the space
between their conservative-leaning ideology and the social democrat(abeit moving
to the centre) ideology of the NDP. More
liberal-leaning outlets give more adequate coverage by contrast. As a hard
democratic socialist leftie myself, this race I feel is really relevant. Namely, the question of: With the rise of
left wing populism worldwide through the campaigns of Jean-Luc Melenchon,
Jeremy Corbyn, and Bernie Sanders himself (in spite of his relative moderate
stances and the fact that he’s just a social democrat, abeit much better than
what passes for rational questions in the US), how would the NDP address the
need to move left to address the key issues of our time and challenge the
injustices of neoliberal policies and the alt-right? Or would they choose to maintain supposedly
pragmatic and centrist policies, and grow weaker as a result? My primer analyzing the NDP race will go over
the policies presented by the NDP candidates, as well as provide my own
analysis of who I am supporting in the race in ranked choice, as well as my own
take on the media coverage of the candidate of my first choice, the coverage of
which I have a lot of problems with.
A key issue at stake in this election is the question of
whether the NDP had strayed too far from it’s principles in seeking to win the
2015 election, that contributing to it’s downfall at the hands of Trudeau. The ascendency of Thomas Mulcair to the NDP
leadership has seen a sharp shift to the right.
This shift to the right is characterized by the removal of references to socialism as part of the NDP’s history dating back to the
Co-Operative Federation(CCF), the framing of key successes of the NDP such as the
policies of Tommy Douglas as done under a balanced budget by Mulcair(whom himself claimed that everything they want to do could be done under a balanced
budget), and the support of Zionist pro-Israel sentiments and the
cracking down on rhetoric supportive of the Palestinians(anti-zionist
NDP candiates were outright suppressed within the party and prevented from
running). The shift to the right has
raised much concern among left-wing and socialistic activists that the NDP was
abandoning it’s values, particularly in light of Trudeau’s capitalization of leftist rhetoric, such as willingness to go on a deficit, to defeat
Harper. The shift to the right was seen
by leftists as the cause of the NDP’s defeat in 2015. And Mulcair
himself is not the only one that has gotten the blame, leftists have pointed out a culture of centrism, dating
back before Mulcair, that was
responsible for the defeat of the NDP during the 2015 federal election. The left believes that the culture of
centrism would continue to exist barring structural changes to the policies of
the NDP that would make it more democratic that the party establishment itself opposes.
Another issue is the NDP’s failures to hold on to
Quebec. The most significant legacy of
Jack Layton’s time as NDP leader is the NDP’s capturing of seats in Quebec. However,
Mulcair has seen the loss of a large amount of these seats, and thus their standing in Parliament and the
reversion of the NDP to third party status.
The next leader would thus have to address this defeat and create an
effective strategy for the NDP to retake Quebec from the Liberals in 2019.
With that said I will now
go over the policies of each of the candidates, and conclude with my own
thoughts on who I think should be leader of the NDP. Please note that this is not in order of
“best for last” or the choice I would rank the four remaining candidates in
this race.
Guy Caron represents the
electoral district of Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques in Quebec. He was initially the NDP's critic for Finance
and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, but resigned from the NDP's
shadow cabinet in February 2017 to join the leadership race. Before the leadership election Caron has also worked as part of Jack Layton's 2003
leadership campaign, and participated in the student movement, the labour
movement and civil society organizations across the country. Caron proposes an “ambitious plan” for Canada’s future, which I will highlight in this
description.
Key Policies:
Basic Income: This is perhaps the policy that Caron advocates for
the most extensively. Caron seeks to, in order to alleviate the
hardships faced by the working poor, a taxable basic income supplement that
will serve as a top-up aimed at helping low-income Canadians to reach the
“low-income cut-off” (LICO) line. Every
Canadian from coast-to-coast is applicable if they are below the LLCO
line. The basic income will be joined
with the Canada Childcare Benefit (CCB) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement
(GIS) to extend its coverage to all Canadians who fall below the LICO line.
Electoral Reform: Caron seeks to replace the first-past-the-post
system(FPTP) with a mixed-member proportional system with regional lists. After
two electoral cycles under the new system, a referendum will be held so that
Canadians can weigh in on, and ratify the new voting system. If 2019 ends with an minority government,
coalition-building must require commitment to ending FPTP.
Environmental
Policies: Caron believes
climate change to be a real and present danger, and opposes Kinder Morgan on
the basis that it has not been subject to a sufficient environmental
assessment that touches upon it's impact on climate change. In response, Caron proposes a plan titled
“Climate Justice: A Progressive Agenda for
Change” to deal with the threat of Climate change. To achieve the goals in this manifesto, Caron
seeks to spend $10 billion over 10 years in investing into electric High Speed
Rail for both passenger and freight use.
This funding prioritizes the development of electric High Speed Rail on
the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor, and the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor that would
include Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
$18 billion will also be spent on public transit costs to reduce
personal and overall transportation emissions.
Caron hopes for a reduction of greenhouse gases to 30% below 2005 levels
by 2025, along with a push for 50% of all vehicles on the road to be electric
by 2041. Caron would also introduce and
apply carbon pricing on all imports from countries that have lower carbon
prices than ours in order to cover the difference and ensure competiveness of
Canadian exports.
Labour Policies:
These policies tackle the need to shift from a fossil fuel-based economy to a
green innovation economy, the growth of automation, the threat of precarious
work, and the need for fair trade agreements with other countries. Caron pledges to invest in a job action plan
to fund infrastructure required to transition to the green and automated
economy. These investments will total
$90 billion dollars over a period of 10 years. The funds will go into public
transit expenditures, renewable energy production, and higher speed rail transport. Caron also seeks to update the Canada labour
code to reduce workdays from 8 hours to 7 hours, without wage loss. Furthermore, the workers first plan seeks to
push for a $15/hr minimum wage and the promotion of full-time permanent work,
along with fair work schedules and paid sick leave. Furthermore, the workers first plan seeks to
push for a $15/hr minimum wage and the promotion of full-time permanent work,
along with fair work schedules and paid sick leave.
Tax Policies: Caron seeks to eliminate the CEO stock option
loophole, a promise broken by the Liberals, as well as create a Tax Crimes
Division to deal with those who shirk their duties as taxpayers and exploit Canada’s
tax system for personal gain. A new
Financial Activities Tax (FAT) will be introduced on the profits of financial
institutions and on banking executives’ remuneration packages, which will then
be channelled into general government revenues to the benefit of all Canadians.
Strategy for
Quebec: Caron pledges support for the Sherbrooke
Decleration, as well as professes support for Quebec's "national
character: and supposed uniqueness, and it's rights to self-determination. Caron pledges to support the principles of
asymmetric federalism, which means support for Quebec to have its own means and
authority, particularly with regard to identity and the French language.
Asymmetry also allows Quebec to have a right of withdrawal from federal
spending in its fields of jurisdiction, with full compensation. Caron also seeks to use Bill 101
in businesses under federal jurisdiction on Quebec territory to maintain
bilingualism, and supports the authority of the National Assembly of Quebec on
issues of secularism. Caron expresses the desire to open dialogue with Quebec
on constitutional matters, so they could consent to sign the constitution.
Niki Ashton is the MP for
the federal electoral district of Churchill—Keewatinook Aski. She takes a
intersectional feminist and grassroots-oriented approach to the NDP leadership
campaign, and believes the NDP must move left in order to achieve electoral
viability, claiming that the liberals “out-left”
the NDP during the 2015 race. She draws
on inspiration from the Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn campaign, and even campaigned for Bernie himself in the 2016
elections. On May 29, 2017, Ashton announced she was
pregnant with twins, but resolved to press on in the leadership race.
Key Policies:
Note: Ashton’s
website is VERY comprehensive, so I will focus on some of her key
policies
Tax Policies: Ashton
proposes to stop corporations from taking taxpayer bailouts and funnelling them
into executive bonuses, using these bonuses to instead create jobs and
delivering services for people; Corporations would also get higher tax rates of up to
21% a year, and taxes would be
raised 1% on assets of those with a net worth of $1 million, progressively
rising to 1.5% for those with a net worth of $10 million or more. A financial transactions tax of 0.5% on the
purchases of stocks will be increased to speculation, increase stability in
financial markets and incentivize productive investment, as well as generate
federal revenue. She also seeks to
oppose neoliberal trade deals targeting Canadian jobs and tougher restrictions
against foreign takeovers. Competition
laws would be strengthened to protect Canadian consumers against price-gouging
and shoddy service.
Labour Policies: Ashton
also proposes nationalizing
key industries such as the Port of Churchill as a means to protect jobs and
alleviate employment, as well as creating a national post office bank to
improve banking services in rural communities, reduce the number of unbanked
Canadians, reduce the costs of banking for Canadians, and improve postal
services. With regards to precarious
work, Ashton perceives precarious work for millennials as a important threat
rendering the quality of life for millennials as worse than their parents, and
caused by neoliberal trade deals and deregulation. In
response, Niki Ashton seeks to
target how growing tuition fees and lack of social services contribute to
precarious work, and seeks to push for better jobs and public ownership as a
means to alleviate precarious work for millennials.
Basic Income: Niki Ashton is skeptical of basic income on the basis
that stronger social programs would be more beneficial to Canadian society. She also
claims that within the context of precarious work, universal basic income doesn’t
actually put an end to the rise of precarious work and automation.
Electoral Reform: Ashton pledges to introduce legislation to change our
First Past the Post electoral system to a Mixed Member Proportional system with
open regional lists within the first mandate of an NDP government.
Perception
on Quebec Secularism Laws: While
Ashton opposes the secularism laws in Quebec herself, she believes that the
decision over Bill 62 should be fought in the courts, and federal intervention to
push for a reversal of Bill 62 would go against the Charter, Ashton also
believes that the “vilification” of Quebec leaders and activists would hinder
progressive discussions on racism and islamophobia.
Eliminating
Tuition Fees: Ashton seeks to push for free postsecondary education
and helping Canadian struggling with high student debt by eliminating interest
on federal student loans and by doubling the income repayment threshold so that
students who have taken out Canada Student Loans will not be required to make
any repayment until they are earning at least $50,000 a year. She will also increase funding for graduate
research programs, as well as for indigenous students in accordance with treaty
rights by lifting the 2% cap on annual funding to the postsecondary Student
Support Program, and fulfill the TRC recommendation to fund existing backlogs
to counteract the underfunding Indigenous students have faced for the past 20
years.
Environmental
Policies: Ashton opposes Kinder Morgan. She wants to
create two new separate public institutions: a crown corporation called Green
Canada and a public investment bank that will work together to implement the
transition away from fossil fuels and towards a diversified green economy. She also proposes creating Green Canada
Advisory Boards to foster cooperation between workers, Indigenous leaders,
industry and climate change experts, and create opportunities for workers in
existing carbon-intensive industries are critical to the cleaning up and
reclamation of industrial sites. She
also supports the policies of the Leap
manifesto as a means to combat climate change.
Foreign Policy: Ashton
opposes Trudeau’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and also expressed solidarity
with Palestinian activists. She believes
that Canada must return to the role of “peacemaker” in the Middle East.
Healthcare: Ashton proposes to create a Canada Pharmacare Act to
ensure life saving medication is administered and delivered under the
provisions of the Canada HealthAct.
Ashton also seeks to establish an Essential Drug Fund in order to
provide access to essential medications as recommended by an independent body
using evidence-based analysis. Reasonable
prices would be set on patented brand-name drugs that would not be covered by
the Essential Drug Fund by modernizing regulations in the Patented Medicine
Prices Review Board (PMPRB) to stop drug companies from taking advantage of ill
people. With regards to mental health, Ashton
proposes tackling poverty, income inequality and discrimination at the root of
many mental health problems, along with better transition of mental health
services from youth to adult.
Rights of Disabled
People: Ashton seeks to United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and optional
protocol. She seeks to amend the
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act so that provisions in it can no longer
be used to disqualify immigration by persons with disabilities. Ashton also seeks to ensure that disabled
persons are not unfairly taxed, and make American Sign language availible at
all federal offices. Ashton seeks to
collaborate with provinces, municipalities, and the disability community to
develop a National Disability Strategy which would actively seek to remove
barriers related to issues such as access to adaptive technologies, healthcare,
employment, housing, transportation, education, and income, along with a Canada
wide Disability Income Program available to persons living with
disabilities. If she is leader, Ashton
would also push for ensuring that the federal NDP is open and accessible to
persons with disabilities, so that they can fully participate in party activitiesm
and improving the employment equity act to encourage and reward the successful
hiring, retention, and advancement of persons with disabilities in federally
regulated sectors.
LGBTQ Rights: Ashton seeks
to develop a National Strategy for LGBTQ2+ Health with an emphasis on trans
health, provide non-binary options on federal ID, push for greater viability
for the trans community for supporting federal data collection to increase
viability, and ending blood bans on donations from men who have had any sexual
contact with another man, and on transgender persons because of their gender
identity.
Indigenous Rights: Ashton seeks
to implement the policies proposed by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation
commission, and push for a comprehensive investigation for missing and murdered
indigenous women and girls(in particular, she would strengthen the power of the
MMIW committee to investigate police misconduct), as well as lifting the barrier for off-reserve
shelter funding, and invest in subsidized, affordable housing and
infrastructure. She also seeks to provide
adequate funding for clean drinking water as well as access to food, addressing
the high rates of incarceration for indigenous peoples. She also seeks to implement the UN
declarations of the rights of indigenous peoples.
Racial and Gender Justice: Ashton seeks to repeal bill C-51 on the basis that it
infringes on charter rights, and the ability of racialized activists to
mobilize. She calls for an end to
carding on the basis that it attacks racialized and vulnerable persons without
just cause or suspicion of a crime. She also wants to create an independent
special investigative office mandated to review reports of racial and other
discriminatory behaviour, and inform disciplinary action, including criminal
prosecution to strengthen transparency and accountability practices for the
RCMP. If elected as leader of the NDP,
Ashton would also push for prison reform to protect indigenous and transgender
people from abuse in prison. This reform would also push for labour laws to
protect prison labourers, as well as in-prisoner education and training and
financial support for young people just getting out of prison.
With regards to gender
rights, Ashton seeks to reform the justice system to protect victims of sexual
violence by ensuring judges, lawyers, police and other people involved in the
investigation and prosecution of sex crimes are not perpetuating or influenced
by harmful stereotypes about women, trans folk and other gender minorities,
offer full and comprehensive access to reproductive health care, and ensure no
one loses housing or employment because of domestic violence. Ashton would also work support comunity based
organizing to push for greater gender rights, and work with provincial
governments and postsecondary education institutions to implement standards for
campus sexual violence.
Charlie Angus has been
the federal Member of Parliament for the riding of Timmins—James Bay since
winning the 2004 election. He was previously the NDP critic for Indigenous and
Northern Affairs as well as a member of the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern
Development committee. He resigned from
both positions to stand in the NDP race.
Key Policies:
Labour and Income Security: Angus pledges to reform labour laws to deal with an
recent inspection blitz of workplaces in Ontario found that three quarters were
in violation of labour law, make employment insurance more accessible by
lowering the hours requirement for eligibility to 360. Angus also supports a raising the federal
minimum wage to $15 an hour indexed to inflation.
-Angus also proposes to create a Community Economic Development Tax Credit
and invest in the Canadian Co-operative Investment Fund to provide
co-operatives and community enterprises access to finance. Angus would
implement social purchasing for government entities to ensure that government
purchasing is used to promote local economies, and introduce a law giving the
workers of a closing business the right of first refusal to purchase the
business and restructure it as a worker co-operative. Angus believes that co-operatives and
community enterprises are an important part of the NDP's heritage, and can
provide services and generate jobs while remaining incredibly stable. Angus pledges to make it easier for Canadians
to create, operate and grow co-operative and community enterprises. A new Co-operative Development Initiative
will be launched to provide technical assistance, small capital loans, and
business support to co-operatives seeking to start or expand.
Electoral Reform: Angus seeks to reform Canada's FPTP system to
propotional system, and ensuring that the new electoral system respects the
right of disabiled people and first nations, he also seeks to tighten rules
around lobbying to curb lobbyist influence.
Angus also proposes to make election day a federal holiday to increase
turnout.
Climate Policies: Angus seeks to create a carbon budget to place a
legislated cap on national emissions over a rolling five-year period. In order to meet legal limits, Angus proposes
the creation of a National Carbon Budget Council that would be responsible for
advising governments on setting carbon budgets and developing implementation
plans to meet their commitments made up of climate scientists, environmental
economists and various stakeholders, including Indigenous leaders. A new crown corporation would be created that
would help fund public projects such as energy infrastructure, public transit,
or municipal redesigns proven to reduce emissions.
Indigenous Rights: Angus believes
that Canada has had a dismal record of systematically denying Indigenous
children the most basic opportunities that other young Canadians take for
granted citing the residential school program, substandard medical care and the
lack of opportunities in their home communities as examples of this dismal
record. In response, Angus pledges to
create a new, independent Officer of Parliament with responsibility for
ensuring the compliance of all federal government departments with established
policies aimed at promoting Indigenous child welfare. Angus also seeks to dismantle INAC to return
decision-making powers for education, health, and community development back to
Indigenous communities, and require the Justice Department to act in compliance
with UNDRIP, TRC and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to end the longstanding
practice of fighting and denying Indigenous rights in court.
Housing Policies: Angus plans to tackle the issue of affordable housing
by creating a new benefit covering 75% of the gap between actual cost and a
reasonable rate of rent-geared-to-income for people and families with low
incomes in order to ensure that everyone has access to affordable housing
outside of formal social housing. He
seeks to have a new Affordable Housing Initiative credit of $150 million
prioritizing commuities with high core housing need as identified by CMHC. Angus pledges to commit an extra $1 billion a
year, working with the provinces and territories as partner to build 10-15,000
new homes a year and funding them for 25 years, along with pushing for the
expansion of co-operative housing models promoting integrated communities and
democratic control of local resources. Lastly,
Angus seeks to end homelessness in Canada by empowering local leadership and
emphasizing proven solutions like Housing First and preventive measures.
Urban Reform
Policies: Angus plans to
increase services for the indigenous population living in cities, work with
cities and provinces to develop locally-driven food security strategies to curb
reliance on food banks, and push for improved access to transit and the
reduction of emissions in cities.
Jagmeet Singh is a MPP
representing the riding of Bramalea—Gore—Malton in the Legislative Assembly of
Ontario since 2011 and served as deputy leader of the Ontario New Democratic
Party from 2015 to 2017. He is the first
turban-wearing Sikh to assume office as a provincial legislator. As part of the parliament of Ontario. Singh introduced laws passed in the
legislature such as a motion calling on the Liberal government to reduce auto
insurance premiums by 15%, legislation to recognize April as Sikh
Heritage Month, and a motion calling on the government to instruct police
services to end
carding in Ontario.
Key Policies:
Racial Justice: Singh seeks to ban street checks and carding, as well
as racial profiling by the RCMP. Bans
against racial profiling would also be extended to all federal enforcement
agencies such as border control, airport screening, and immigration
screening. Data collected from carding
would be reviewed, and any databases used to negative impact opportunities for
Canadians subjected to racial profiling would be dismantled. He promises to put pressure on the government
to ensure that the RCMP notifies those being street checked or carded of their
right to walk away and not be questioned if Trudeau would not act on
carding.
Singh also proposes the
formation of a national task force to address the overrepresentation of
Indigenous and Black people in the federal prison population. This task force would bring together racial
justice reform groups, and have the ability to recommend policy changes
strengthening the existing Indigenous Justice Strategy and develop an African
Canadian Justice Strategy to deal with black incarnation. Singh would require parliament to produce
detailed annual reports noting the recommendations of the national task
force.
Environmental
Policies: Proposes a zero emissions
vehicle agenda through working with provinces and industry, as well as a new
green building compact between the federal and provincial governments including
a packaged suite of federal energy efficiency policies, a revamp of building
codes and standards, and a national building retrofit program and renewable
heating program. Provinces would also be
consulted in the creation of a renewable electricity supergrid that links the
country’s vast renewable resources to where they are needed. Taxes will be used to support energy efficient
technologies. On June 17, 2017, Singh
has come
out recently against Kinder Morgan and Energy East, citing the need to commit
to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
Tax Reform: Jagmeet will introduce new tax brackets for high
income earners. This will include two
new tax brackets for Canadians earning $350,000 and $500,000 respectively that
are 2% and 4% higher than the existing marginal rate respectively. He will also increase capital gains inclusion
rate to 75% and implement a corporate income tax of 19.5%.
Wage
Security: Jagmeet supports a $15
per hour minimum wage, as well as extending the proposed ban on unpaid
internships to require that interns working for federally-regulated employers
as part of an academic program be paid. Jagmeet
also proposes to reinstate the the Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act, and
extend the act to all federal government procurement. Singh also proposes a Working Canadian
Guarantee building off the support for low income workers within the Working
Income Tax Benefit (WITB) by incorporating funding from the WITB and the Canada
Employment Credit.
Pension Plan: Singh proposes a Canada Seniors Guarantee will combine
a number of existing seniors’ benefits into a single, income-tested benefit.
This includes Old Age Security (OAS), the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS),
the Age Credit, and the Pension Income Credit.
This would also add an additional $4 billion will be added to the core
benefits provided by OAS-GIS.
My Personal Thoughts on the NDP race:
Personally, I believe
Niki Ashton should be the next leader of the NDP. I know this is not a popular statement, but I
will defend it and address the media backlash towards her. I support Niki because she believes that the
NDP needs to re-align with social movements and its activist base in order to
regain viability, even through that may take years. Ashton immerses herself in the growing wave
of left populism and resurgent socialism personified by the rise of the Jeremy
Corbyn and Jean-Luc Melenchon support base in Britain and France, as well as Bernie
Sanders himself in the US(despite Sanders of course being a social
democrat). Ashton has championed greater
ties with social movements such as Black Lives Matter, pro-Palestinian
activists, and Quebec Solidare as a means to achieve social change. She has not shied away from targeting
neoliberalism and privatization as the root of economic distress, putting up
nationalization and public ownership as alternatives to the neoliberal based
model starting with calls to nationalize the port of Churchill and calling for
the implementation of postal banking, publicly owned pharmaceuticals, and a
nationalized green crown corporation.
And as a millennial myself, with my own issues with mental illness and
knowing the struggle of students having to deal with tuition fees and
precarious work.
Ashton herself never
shies away from linking her campaign with the socialist history of the NDP
and the CCF. She supported the founding documents of the CCF, the Regina
manifesto, and opposed efforts to remove the links to socialism within the NDP’s
constitution. She has also criticized
the NDP establishment’s treatment
of grassroots activists and pro-Palestinian activists, citing her own
experience running against a member of the NDP in securing her riding because
of that member’s position of LGBT issues.
The media has a low
opinion of Niki Ashton, the implication being she focuses not on tangible “issues”
but rather on “identity politics”. In an
attack
piece on her candidacy on the Huffington Post, columnist James Di Fiore
accused Ashton of “manufacturing” scandals such as elbowgate to supposedly
single out Justin Trudeau as a sexist, or giving space to the voices of
radicals such as Black Lives Matter by apologizing for using Beyonce lyrics "cultural
appropriation"(as
a side note, Fiore had once before tried to equate moral equivalence between
BLM and police brutality). This
columnist claims that if she is elected leader, we would get what is
essentially social justice warrior tough girl rhetoric rather than political savviness
that Fiore believes to be present with the other candidates, this in turn would
lead to a fatal downfall for the NDP.
Fiore’s observations of
course, are incredibly ignorant from my perspective. Regardless of whether you believe identity
politics has run amok, or if elbowgate was overblown, it is clear that Ashton
is introducing policies rather than solely relying on social justice rhetoric
with little to show for policy. Fiore
claims that Ashton should “stick to outlining her plan for Indigenous
reconciliation, or sharpen her stance on the Site C Dam, or continue to assert
herself firmly for the rights of workers, or maybe promote a viable daycare
policy”. However, on her website, that
is what she is laying out. Ashton frames
her campaign not in the sense of breaking the glass ceiling, but on pushing
forward issues such as indigenous reconciliation (she seeks to implement the
calls to action of the TRC), as well as actual policies regarding gender and
LGBTQ justice. Fiore has obviously not
been looking at these policies, but opted to create a caricature of Ashton on
the basis of her personality over actually looking at her policies.
Nowhere in her campaign
has she used elbowgate to attack Justin Trudeau’s supposed commitment
to diversity and feminism. Rather,
she focuses on the failings of Trudeau’s policies to benefit LGBTQ people and
minorities, as well as indigenous people and what sort of alternative she
offers, as well as critiques of Trudeau’s arms trade with Saudi Arabia as
signifying how “politics as usual” transcends his claims to equity. It is really telling how overall Ashton’s
opponents on the centre and on the right, rather than engage with her policies,
engage in character attacks on the basis of character and personality, rather
than attack her policies.
Now, just because I
support Ashton, doesn’t mean I support all her policies. I don’t share her skepticism about basic
income in favor of social services for one. I feel that the candidate most
aggressive about basic income, Guy Caron, has pledged to maintain existing
social programs. So I feel in a sense
she is over-skeptical. Of course she could remedy this issue with a more
progressive wage policy of her own, but as of now, I feel her fears on basic
income are somewhat overblown.
If Ashton dosen’t end up
as NDP leader, Caron would be my second choice.
I feel that basic income is a important issue to be discussed and
hopefully implemented to deal with wage deficiencies, and moreover, I feel
Caron’s tax policies are very progressive in cracking down on the 1% and on tax
havens. Moreover, he is committed to implementing a sharp shift to fufill our obligations at the Paris Climate conference
I am skeptical of the
campaigns of Charlie Angus and Jagmeet Singh.
While Singh does appear in some cases quite progressive, particularly his
tax policies and his push for racial justice, he himself is supported by more
centrist members of the NDP. Moreover,
he has proven to be very dodgy on issues such as pipelines, and only moved to
the left due to pressure from Ashton and former candidate Peter Julian. Singh is also being advised by establishment
figures such as Brad Lavigne, whom was accused of responsibility for the
failures of Thomas Mulcair’s campaign, and himself has claimed Mulcair failed
because of an uninspiring personality in contrast to being a third way
politician. This is enough to fuel
skepticism on the supposed progressive credentials of Jagmeet Singh. Furthermore, the media tends to hold up
everything Singh does as if it prepares him for leadership. An example of this was when he stood
up to the right wing xenophobe at a campaign event accusing him of being in
the pay of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sure,
it’s great to stand up to xenophobia and islamophobia, but what about his
actual policies?
Yet regardless of who
wins, simply changing the leadership is not
enough. Efforts have to be taken to challenge the culture of centrism
propped up by the NDP establishment, which has worked to centralize
it’s powerbase and stifle
radical worldviews in the name of “victory” in 2019. Even if a leader commits to “restoring” the
left wing values of the NDP, at the end of the day they are humans themselves,
and could be cornered by power structures arrayed against radical voices and
rendered impotent. It thus falls up to
the grassroots, and to political activism directed in the service of
progressive causes to push back against centrism within the NDP. Otherwise, there would be no resistance to
the establishment “reforms” of the party to suit their values instead of
popular interests. While the outcome of
this race may give an indication to the direction of the NDP, the onus is in
our hands to resist centrism even with the most progressive candidate at the
helm.
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