Horwath, ONDP, And Invisible Opposition

Where Is Horwath?

I don’t usually like going out on a limb when there’s little data, or contradictory data, about the question I want answered, but the one place I’m willing to accept this is Ontario, where the question of whether Andrea Horwath or Steven Del Duca will rise to be the anti-Ford alternative of choice lingers on and on, and there’s some, theoretical ability for Horwath to become the anti-Ford of choice. But honestly, here, I’m willing to go out on the ledge, because there is no chance in fucking hell the NDP are coming in second in this election, and the last month is all the evidence why. Where is Andrea Horwath?

To the extent that anything other than tragic events has been running the newscycle, it’s been Steven Del Duca who has been pushing the agenda, with announcements about child care and Russian vodka that, whatever you think of them, have forced the Ontario government to respond to, and the media to cover, and he’s doing so from outside the Legislature and with 7 seats. So, where is the Opposition Leader, and why on earth is she so content to let this disaster of a government get an easy ride, while letting the Liberals do the hard yards of opposing Ford?

I’ve written before that I don’t get the point of the Ontario NDP, but more simply, I don’t get this ONDP, because they are more useless than trying to get me to cheat on my partner by waving a pair of tits in front of me. (Trust me, it will do nothing.) At this point, the party could be doing two things to make it easier to win the next election – driving down Ford’s numbers by pointing out how ineffectual his government has been, or by converting PC voters to their cause with a suite of policies designed to win their support. And on either front, the NDP are getting lapped by their minor party brethren, doing fuck all to stop Doug Ford, and driving me up a fucking wall in the process.

What is the vision being proposed by the opposition, if they win office? Well, of course, they’re offering a new, public telco modelled on SaskTel designed to lower costs … wait, sorry, nope. Well, of course, they’re offering a complete, radical overhaul of the education system designed to reduce costs and improve services, right? Sorry, not that one either. But, I mean, you’ve heard about their great plans to modernize the health system, right? No to that one too, because their solution is to pay more to nurses (which, good) and just tinker around the edges. Is this good enough?

We are at a time where we are getting incrementalism from the NDP and a bold offer for multi-thousand dollar rebate checks for parents of kids in daycare from the Liberals, and somehow the NDP – which got fucked by shit incrementalism federally in 2015 when the Liberals went bold – are content to play the role of meek and timid losers again this year, despite the fact that the whole fucking point of the NDP is supposed to be their boldness. And, if I’m being honest, the NDP deserve to be smashed for how useless they are.

Why isn’t the Opposition leader doing a blitz of events across the province, a whistlestop tour to Tory seats the NDP could win this time, selling a bold vision for what an NDP government could look like? Because she doesn’t have anything to sell, and she knows nobody wants to hear it. In 2018, the NDP lost in decent part because of the way that the NDP as a whole was mistrusted, and there was a fear that even if you like Horwath, the rest of that government was going to be people you’ve literally never heard of, and now, after four years, I still can’t name who would be Health Minister in an NDP government, because that’s really smart.

The NDP might be polling close to the Liberals now, but with an election in early June, this whole year is a functional campaign period, and the early returns on the NDP campaign are, bluntly, horrible. She has been a disaster this year, completely invisible when the province is begging for a leader who can inspire the anti-Ford masses. And if this is the best she can do, it’s a wrap.

The Ontario NDP had a golden opportunity to fundamentally change the nature of Ontario politics, and she has been shitting on it for nearly four years. And that’s why she’ll return the NDP to where it belongs in just a few months – third place, and far, far away from the halls of power.