The NDP's Mid-Life Crisis

As it turns 50, the NDP must decide who it wants to be: Liberals-in-waiting or truly social democrats?

The New Democrats are set to take over Vancouver, bringing a sense of celebration to a city sorely needing it after Wednesday's Stanley Cup meltdown. Robin Sears, a former national director for the party, lists on iPolitics three priorities that the NDP needs to accomplish at the convention: namely to continue the political edification of the fleet of rookie MPs, have fun (so as to “fight their stereotype as dour, insanely politically correct, and joyless”), and, most importantly, “to convey that the party has captured ownership of the Liberal party’s secret sauce: that is, management of 'le question national.'” Jack Layton hasn't exactly done much since the election to shore up confidence in him being capable of suppressing his party's sovereigntist leanings. A resolution supported by a clear majority of the party (none of this 50-per-cent-plus-one business) affirming their commitment to the Clarity Act would go a long way toward that end.

The Vancouver Sun's Barbara Yaffe notes that the convention could make official a shift toward the political centre with a resolution seeking to ditch the word “socialist” for “social democratic” in their constitution. “While subtle, the switch is important. New Democrats in the past have never had to act like a government, and didn't,” writes Yaffe. “The buzzword now is moderation.” In that same vein is the party's focus on fostering small- and medium-sized business growth, budget balancing, and pension reform – areas in which it can hardly be painted as divisive or “socialist” any longer.

But that doesn't mean the NDP should run willy-nilly to replace the Liberals in the creamy middle, suggests David Goutor in the Toronto Star. “Now that the NDP has more seats than ever, it should consider whether a dramatic shift is what all those new constituents actually want,” says Goutor, pointing out that “the protest votes for Layton in Quebec were hardly driven by a desire to support another federalist party that just ends up embracing the status quo.” With the UN Security Council now clearly trying to reach out to the Taliban – something “Taliban Jack” has advocated for years – and nations the world over still recovering from the ill effects of overly liberalized banking systems, some of the NDP's supposedly loonier leftist ideals have borne out to be more prescient than its political rivals would ever like to admit.