Canada’s Conservative Party has a new leader. The Liberal Party governs in a minority parliament. Crises abound at home and abroad. Political observers hang on each and every poll, interpreting them — as such observers are wont to do — through lenses of hopes and dreams, anxieties and nightmares. Same as it ever was. And all the while, the New Democratic Party (NDP) sits off in the distance, imagining their future just over the horizon, with their vision for the country caught between ambition and an ever-narrowing conception of what is possible.

A recent poll from Abacus Data saw the Conservative Party nudge ahead of the Liberals, rising to 35 percent in vote intention, with the Liberals at 30 percent and the NDP at 17 percent. A Leger poll from around the same time had the NDP much higher, at 23 percent compared to 28 percent for the Liberals and 34 percent for the Conservatives. The Liberals remain a favorite to form a government because of where they get those likely votes from. What this tells us is that the pieces on the political chessboard are moving as they always do, but few New Democrats are talking about the rules of game itself — or even changes to how they play the game. But they should be. They should be considering how members of parliament are elected, how the political agenda is set, and what concepts, lenses, and frames are acceptable in the political mainstream.

Writing in the Globe and Mail, columnist Robyn Urback asked the perennial question: “What is the point of the NDP?” She framed the query in a familiar way, wondering what the party would look like decoupled from the Liberal Party. While the question is fresh enough, linked in the context of the two parties’ supply and confidence agreement, it’s also an old question — one that should be asked of the NDP irrespective of their current ties to the ruling Liberals.