Canada’s Leftists to the NDP: “Turn Down the Suck, Turn Up the Good”
In the last few decades, Canada’s New Democratic Party has moved away from socialist politics and grassroots democracy. The party is now languishing. But turning back to its socialist roots could help revive the NDP.
Tom Mulcair, leader of the New Democratic Party from 2012 to 2017, at a rally in Montreal, Canada, 2015. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP via Getty Images)
As Canada and the world face growing and intersecting crises, one might wish to say of the country’s New Democratic Party (NDP) that they are at a crossroads. But when haven’t they been? Since the party emerged in 1961 from a merger between the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress, the NDP has faced struggles over ideological and strategic considerations. The party has forever been faced with competing pressures from internal and external factions. Those tensions have resulted in a skepticism from the electorate, which is often unsure what to make of the professed aims of the left-wing party. This situation makes for a frustrating electoral reality, a fascinating history, and an uncertain future.
In From Layton to Singh: The 20-Year Conflict Behind the NDP’s Deal with the Trudeau Liberals, Matt Fodor writes an accessible, gripping, and critical history of the party. Fodor focuses most of his time on the era spanning from the late Jack Layton — party leader from 2003 to 2011 — to current leader Jagmeet Singh, but he takes care to place the last two decades in a historical context that touches on the 1960s through to the end of the 1990s.
The NDP PMC
Fodor’s history is premised on a cogent critical thesis. The NDP professionalized during the Layton, Tom Mulcair, and Singh years, moving toward the political center during the tenure of the latter two leaders and moving back toward the Left under Singh. Under Singh’s stewardship, however, the party has not returned to the radical socialist roots from which it emerged.
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