In 2019, when asked, federal New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters — and the nation — that a Jagmeet Singh-led NDP would never support the Tories in a Conservative Party minority, or majority government. A chasm existed, he said, between the values that New Democratic Party members hold dear, and the far right values of intolerance Conservative party members have long held close to their mean bosoms.
Last week, in a radical departure from NDP party policy, and what he’d said in the past, Jagmeet Singh told reporters that the federal NDP would have no problem in supporting an Erin O’Toole-led Conservative government, that now may be the time for change, that he felt he could hold sway over Mr. O’Toole that would allow the NDP to inform Tory government policy.
The cynical electoral politics of the federal NDP always come to the fore.
At this juncture, a bit of history respecting the federal New Democratic Party’s policy of accommodation with right-wing parties is in order.
In late 2005, Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin met with relatively newly-anointed NDP leader Jack Layton to discuss with him legislation that he would introduce in the House of Commons within the coming 30 days …
-
Child Care. Arising from a report submitted by Social Development Minister Ken Dryden calling for the implementation of a universal child care programme in Canada, his government would soon be introducing legislation that would create the first national universal social programme in 40 years, a fully-funded national child care programme, and …
- The Kelowna Accord. Arising from a First Ministers’ Meeting in Kelowna, British Columbia in the autumn of 2005, and the passage of an initiative entitled “First Ministers and National Aboriginal Leaders Strengthening Relationships and Closing the Gap” — more commonly known as The Kelowna Accord — legislation that Mr. Martin had fought for his entire political life that would fundamentally change the relationship of Canada to its Indigenous peoples, wherein the federal government would commit to $5.085 billion in spending over 5 years on bettering health care services for Canada’s Indigenous peoples, create a new Indigenous education system that would be run by native bands across Canada, and would train new Aboriginal teachers while constructing new schools on remote Indigenous reserves, while also addressing the issue of clean water in remote Indigenous communities.
Prime Minister Martin asked Mr. Layton for his support for both of these progressive and groundbreaking pieces of social legislation, how important it was for him personally, for families with young children — and for women held out of the workforce due to the inadequate provision of affordable quality child care and, finally, for Canada’s Indigenous peoples, that their concerns might finally be addressed in a caring and fulsome manner.
Sadly, it was not to be.
With the enthusiastic support of the New Democratic Party, and that of its leader, Mr. Jack Layton, Mr. Layton colluded with then Official Leader of the Opposition, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper to vote against the child care and the Indigenous relations legislation brought before the House by the Liberal minority government of Paul Martin, with Mr. Layton voting to thwart both pieces of groundbreaking legislation, in the process defeating the government, and leading to the calling of a federal election, and subsequent minority Harper-led Conservative government in Ottawa.
As he repeatedly told Canadians throughout the 2005-2006 election period, Conservative leader Stephen Harper was admantly opposed to both pieces of “social legislation,” neither of which pieces of “social engineering legislation” would move forward in a Stephen Harper-led government.
And so, such socially regressive government policy — opposing any sort of universal national child care programme, nor any re-definition of the relationship between the government of Canada to its Indigenous peoples — came to pass, with the full and cynical support of NDP leader, Jack Latyon, who would go on to become best friends with Stephen Harper, the two party leaders meeting regularly for friendly, but utterly non-productive, chats at 24 Sussex, for five long years, Mr. Layton cynically propping up a corrupt Tory government led by his good pal, Prime Minister Harper.
A bit of background on Mr. Layton’s cynical approach to politics. From the time Jack Layton became leader of the federal New Democratic Party in 2003 thru until 2011, Mr. Layton had one dual-pronged goal on his mind …
-
Gain seats for the NDP in the House of Commons, and
- Replace the Liberal Party as the official Opposition, with the eventual goal of forming an NDP government in Ottawa.
Under Jack Layton’s leadership, support for the NDP increased in each election. The party’s popular vote doubled in the 2004 election, which gave the NDP the balance of power in Paul Martin’s minority government. In May 2005, the NDP had supported the Liberal budget in exchange for major amendments, in what was promoted as Canada’s “First NDP budget”. In November 2005, Layton voted with other opposition parties to defeat the Liberal government. The NDP gained more seats in the House in the 2006 and 2008 elections, in which the party elected 29 and 37 MPs, respectively.
In the 2011 election, Mr. Layton’s NDP won 103 seats, the most successful party result ever — enough to allow him to form the Official Opposition. Federal support for the NDP in 2011 was unprecedented, especially in the province of Québec, where the party won 59 out of 75 seats. Unfortunately, Jack Layton was never afforded the opportunity to lead the Opposition in the House of Commons, succumbing to cancer on August 22, 2011.
In 2015, under the soon-to-be deposed leadership of NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, the New Democratic Party of Canada did not realize its dreams of government, instead devolving its meagre riding count to only 44 seats.
Here we are in 2021. By the end of the 2019 election, the seat count for the NDP in the House of Commons had been reduced to 24 seats.
NDP attack ad, not against Erin O’Toole, but against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Current federal New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh has clearly taken a page out of the cynical electoral playbook created by Jack Layton: child care, who needs it?; improved relations with Canada’s Indigenous peoples … yeah, tell it to someone who cares; the Liberals’ Child Care Benefit that has reduced child poverty 40% since 2015 … children want money, they can work in factories or go begging on the streets, the NDP just don’t care; seniors living in care or assisted living facilities, yeah well, you’ve had your time enjoying the good life on this planet … if Erin O’Toole wants to place former Ontario Conservative Party leader Mike Harris in charge of privatizing corrupt seniors care centres across Canada, such that Mr. Harris can rake in even more millions of dollars than he has running Ontario’s corrupt Sienna Senior Living, Revera, Extendicare and Chartwell seniors facilities, where thousands have died … again, we just don’t care.
Another cynical NDP ad targeting Justin Trudeau, not Tory leader Erin O’Toole
Federal New Democratic Party Members of Parliament want more seats in the House of Commons, so that more Dippers can earn $168,000 annual salaries (plus all those great benefits, like free dental care, unlimited massages, and more) as sitting members in the House of Commons — not to mention, those gold-plated pensions that will keep them living the life of riley when they retire, or are defeated — with Mr. Singh earning even more, given the top up he receives as leader of the fourth Opposition party.
Rabid and violent non-mask wearing anti-vaxxer, anti-democratic supporters of the Conservative party, fools all, create mayhem at a Justin Trudeau rally, where he committed to a one billion infusion of monies to the provinces to fund vaccine passports, to keep all Canadians safe. Tory leader Erin O’Toole’s response, “People have the right to voice their concerns about the Liberal government’s overreaching pandemic policy. Conservatives are opposed to federally-funded vaccine passports.” O’Toole later moderated his position on rally violence, given that some protesters were Conservative Party supporters. And what did we hear, initially, from NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, when asked about the violence at the rally … crickets; only later did he condemn the attack.
For the second time in 16 years, the federal New Democratic Party is not only willing, but actively working towards the goal of ensuring Canada will not have a national child care programme, nor do the federal NDP seem interested in preserving or improving the Child Care Benefit that has made life so much easier for young families, and neither does the federal NDP seem to care, in supporting the Tories, about Indigenous reconciliation.
Nor does Jagmeet Singh and the federal NDP seem to care about the health of Canadians during this once in a century pandemic, for while the Liberals offer up one billion dollars to provinces to ensure the implementation of vaccine passports to support the 90% of Canadians who are demanding that we be kept safe, allowing the pandemic to end sooner than later, Erin O’Toole’s cynical and fanatical Conservatives seem deeply indebted to the support offered by the violent fools in the the anti-vaxx movement. Jagmeet Singh seems not to care one iota about our safety and our health. Of course, as always, New Democrats talk a good game — but when it comes right down to it, the federal NDP cannot be counted on.
The New Democratic Party of Canada is running some great candidates, and as a lifelong member of the NDP (dating back to 1963) VanRamblings would like to see more New Democratic Party members of Parliament elected — becauses there are good and great persons of conscience and integrity in the NDP, like longtime federal MP Don Davies, or newcomers like the recently nominated Vancouver-Granville NDP candidate, Anjali Appadurai.
EKOS Research founder Frank Graves says Erin O’Toole NDP support tone deaf.
But if achieving the goal of more Dippers in Parliament means the federal NDP have made the cynical calculation that the only way for them to gain more seats in Parliament is to target Justin Trudeau, while keeping absolutely mum on what a far-right-of-centre Erin O’Toole-led Conservative government in Ottawa would portend, for VanRamblings that is simply a bridge too far, as well as cynical and repugnant electoral politics in the extreme that, we believe, most thinking, progressive members of the NDP — who truly do not want an Erin O’Toole government in Ottawa — will find utterly insupportable, leading to an inevitable decline in support for the NDP, with many New Democrats strategically casting a vote for the Liberal party which, although far from perfect, do not represent the abomination a Tory government in Ottawa would mean for most caring Canadians.
