Traditionally the NDP was the party of the working class. The Liberals have always been the party of big business and of the managerial and professional classes. Over the last five to ten years, the NDP has abandoned the working class. This was an opportunity for the Liberals to widen their base. Instead, they have repeatedly expressed contempt for them. They don't even bother to hide it. Back in 2015 they claimed to be for the middle class, and later they appointed a Minister for the Middle Class (adding ...and those who are working to join it... ) . Where was the Minister for the Working Class?
Members of the working class have noticed. They have turned to the only party who welcomes them, the Conservatives. Set aside whether a Conservative government would actually be good for the working class. Right now, the Conservatives are the only ones who seem to care.
A socially progressive agenda is all well and good, but it doesn't put bread on the table. It doesn't pay the rent. It doesn't improve life for the vast majority of workers and their families. Whoever you want to win on the left -- NDP, Liberal, Green -- must offer these people a vision of a better life. And no, stoking fear of the Conservatives isn't enough.
You are making that progressive mistake of thinking pro union policy equals pro working class policy. Most workers in Canada, and the vast majority of private sector workers, are not members of unions. I'd even argue unions have a much better reputation with the public sector middle classes than the private sector working classes.
If you want to see working class targeted policies, look at Ford or Poilievre and their messaging and preoccupations. Learn from them.
In Canada, governments are not voted in, they are voted out. Justin got in because the public was tired of Harper. Now the public is tired of Trudeau, so they are going to vote for the alternative. In most of the country, the NDP are seen as irrelevant, unless the LPC decides its needs the Dippers' supporters to "stop the far right", or some other phony scare tactic.
I live in Trinity St. Paul's. To me it's pretty simple why the Liberals lost the riding. 15% of voters are Jewish who didn't believe PMJT was supportive enough so they went Conservative. It is also an extremely wealthy riding and many did not like the change in capital gains. I don't think this necessarily will apply to other ridings in Toronto.
Very well written. While I am more sympathetic to the LPC and NDP than to the CPC in Canada, I see the situation of the Canadian left to be much worse than in most other Western countries currently... IMO a major reason for that is that Canadian leftists convinced themselves that Canada is closer politically to Northern Europe than to the US... but the truth is, no it's obviously not. Canada is much closer to the US than to any other country culturally as well as politically...so the Canadian left has to realise that Social Democracy is not the "default ideology " of Canada like it is in Scandinavian countries for example... Thus Canadian leftists have to come to terms with that and maybe argue differently, i.e. being less centralists and more "federalist", and even a "merger" with the US should not be completely off the table IMO...
And speaking about Northern Europe, I see the same type of reaction by German Green partisans as by the Canadian LPC ones. Namely, thinking that the major reason that they are as unpopular as they're is "conservative media bias" and "uninformed voters"... but obviously not their own policies and rhetoric. And this is in a country that is on most issues clearly more left-wing than Canada is...🤔.
Heading into the 1993 election, the NDP held 45 seats, with 20 in B.C. The new Reform Party flipped most of those B.C. 20. Few in the Ottawa bubble could fathom how voters could switch from NDP to Reform.
I worked for the NDP MP for Kootenay East, and our base was predominantly unionized coal miners in the Crowsnest Pass of the Rockies. Liberal voters were Parks Canada employees in Golden (near Banff), and PC voters were business owners in Cranbrook and Kimberley.
The riding was a microcosm of B.C. federal voting, and it has stayed conservative ever since.
And the Reform takeover of the Conservative party has only intensified with Harper's success and now Poilievre.
This rightward shift is not going away.
I agree completely that the onus is on the Liberals to explain how their policies help people, directly, materially, now and over the long term. They must show how every Liberal policy makes life easier for families.
They need to connect the dots, such as:
"The Liberal government is investing in energy-efficient new home construction that will reduce your heating costs, create good jobs, and help the environment."
"The Liberal government's climate change policies will ensure that Canada leads in the global energy transition, remains competitive, and creates good jobs for you and your kids."
Instead, we rarely hear Cabinet speak at all, despite their considerable talent. We should be flooded with Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson's substantial expertise in climate policy. We should be hearing Housing Minister Fraser articulate how he is helping millennials. Seamus O'Regan is such a gifted orator that he should be talking all the time. Why do we not get to hear from Anita Anand?
All we get is Freeland, a consistent comms disaster. And did her battle with Putin, brave and laudable as it is, lead to Canada taking in some 300,000 Ukrainian refugees in 2023, a third of our annual intake of temporary foreign workers and students? What were the downstream effects on housing, foreign students and post-secondary funding, attitudes about immigration?
Justin needs to either go back to doing town halls, or walk away and let another "progressive" listen and read the room.
Poilievre is cynical, craven, intellectually limited yet smug, and shockingly ideological (arrested development as a campus Young Conservative).
I guess a few years of that could be entertaining.
But we can still dream ... better is always possible, right?
There are many reasons why the strategic voting scheme of the reasonable people in France would not work in Canada. One of this is the second round of voting that made it clear in France that if you don’t want a racist parliament, you better get your act together as non-racist voters in the second round. We don’t have that opportunity in Canada and despite his occasional drunken pit stop at a Diagolon roadside camping spot, Poilievre has managed to avoid the complete racist label.
For me the lesson of the French election is that people are willing to come out and vote, if the election matters. The prospect of having the Front National with a majority in parliament was giving people something to vote for or against. And in France there is equally a massive desire for change, probably even more than in Canada.
So, what should the Liberals do? Make it clear that the next election matters. And for me, that means moving firmly into to provincial responsibilities of housing, education and health. The federal government gets blamed for all these issues anyway, so they might as well take it on and pick a fight with the provinces. Set some clear goals for the provinces to meet and be relentless is calling out the failures of the provinces.
Traditionally the NDP was the party of the working class. The Liberals have always been the party of big business and of the managerial and professional classes. Over the last five to ten years, the NDP has abandoned the working class. This was an opportunity for the Liberals to widen their base. Instead, they have repeatedly expressed contempt for them. They don't even bother to hide it. Back in 2015 they claimed to be for the middle class, and later they appointed a Minister for the Middle Class (adding ...and those who are working to join it... ) . Where was the Minister for the Working Class?
Members of the working class have noticed. They have turned to the only party who welcomes them, the Conservatives. Set aside whether a Conservative government would actually be good for the working class. Right now, the Conservatives are the only ones who seem to care.
A socially progressive agenda is all well and good, but it doesn't put bread on the table. It doesn't pay the rent. It doesn't improve life for the vast majority of workers and their families. Whoever you want to win on the left -- NDP, Liberal, Green -- must offer these people a vision of a better life. And no, stoking fear of the Conservatives isn't enough.
Seamus O'Regan has supported workers through his excellent work as fed Minister of Labour; e.g., anti-scab legislation.
You are making that progressive mistake of thinking pro union policy equals pro working class policy. Most workers in Canada, and the vast majority of private sector workers, are not members of unions. I'd even argue unions have a much better reputation with the public sector middle classes than the private sector working classes.
If you want to see working class targeted policies, look at Ford or Poilievre and their messaging and preoccupations. Learn from them.
In Canada, governments are not voted in, they are voted out. Justin got in because the public was tired of Harper. Now the public is tired of Trudeau, so they are going to vote for the alternative. In most of the country, the NDP are seen as irrelevant, unless the LPC decides its needs the Dippers' supporters to "stop the far right", or some other phony scare tactic.
I live in Trinity St. Paul's. To me it's pretty simple why the Liberals lost the riding. 15% of voters are Jewish who didn't believe PMJT was supportive enough so they went Conservative. It is also an extremely wealthy riding and many did not like the change in capital gains. I don't think this necessarily will apply to other ridings in Toronto.
Very well written. While I am more sympathetic to the LPC and NDP than to the CPC in Canada, I see the situation of the Canadian left to be much worse than in most other Western countries currently... IMO a major reason for that is that Canadian leftists convinced themselves that Canada is closer politically to Northern Europe than to the US... but the truth is, no it's obviously not. Canada is much closer to the US than to any other country culturally as well as politically...so the Canadian left has to realise that Social Democracy is not the "default ideology " of Canada like it is in Scandinavian countries for example... Thus Canadian leftists have to come to terms with that and maybe argue differently, i.e. being less centralists and more "federalist", and even a "merger" with the US should not be completely off the table IMO...
And speaking about Northern Europe, I see the same type of reaction by German Green partisans as by the Canadian LPC ones. Namely, thinking that the major reason that they are as unpopular as they're is "conservative media bias" and "uninformed voters"... but obviously not their own policies and rhetoric. And this is in a country that is on most issues clearly more left-wing than Canada is...🤔.
Heading into the 1993 election, the NDP held 45 seats, with 20 in B.C. The new Reform Party flipped most of those B.C. 20. Few in the Ottawa bubble could fathom how voters could switch from NDP to Reform.
I worked for the NDP MP for Kootenay East, and our base was predominantly unionized coal miners in the Crowsnest Pass of the Rockies. Liberal voters were Parks Canada employees in Golden (near Banff), and PC voters were business owners in Cranbrook and Kimberley.
The riding was a microcosm of B.C. federal voting, and it has stayed conservative ever since.
And the Reform takeover of the Conservative party has only intensified with Harper's success and now Poilievre.
This rightward shift is not going away.
I agree completely that the onus is on the Liberals to explain how their policies help people, directly, materially, now and over the long term. They must show how every Liberal policy makes life easier for families.
They need to connect the dots, such as:
"The Liberal government is investing in energy-efficient new home construction that will reduce your heating costs, create good jobs, and help the environment."
"The Liberal government's climate change policies will ensure that Canada leads in the global energy transition, remains competitive, and creates good jobs for you and your kids."
Instead, we rarely hear Cabinet speak at all, despite their considerable talent. We should be flooded with Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson's substantial expertise in climate policy. We should be hearing Housing Minister Fraser articulate how he is helping millennials. Seamus O'Regan is such a gifted orator that he should be talking all the time. Why do we not get to hear from Anita Anand?
All we get is Freeland, a consistent comms disaster. And did her battle with Putin, brave and laudable as it is, lead to Canada taking in some 300,000 Ukrainian refugees in 2023, a third of our annual intake of temporary foreign workers and students? What were the downstream effects on housing, foreign students and post-secondary funding, attitudes about immigration?
Justin needs to either go back to doing town halls, or walk away and let another "progressive" listen and read the room.
Poilievre is cynical, craven, intellectually limited yet smug, and shockingly ideological (arrested development as a campus Young Conservative).
I guess a few years of that could be entertaining.
But we can still dream ... better is always possible, right?
Methinks thou doth protest too much.
There are many reasons why the strategic voting scheme of the reasonable people in France would not work in Canada. One of this is the second round of voting that made it clear in France that if you don’t want a racist parliament, you better get your act together as non-racist voters in the second round. We don’t have that opportunity in Canada and despite his occasional drunken pit stop at a Diagolon roadside camping spot, Poilievre has managed to avoid the complete racist label.
For me the lesson of the French election is that people are willing to come out and vote, if the election matters. The prospect of having the Front National with a majority in parliament was giving people something to vote for or against. And in France there is equally a massive desire for change, probably even more than in Canada.
So, what should the Liberals do? Make it clear that the next election matters. And for me, that means moving firmly into to provincial responsibilities of housing, education and health. The federal government gets blamed for all these issues anyway, so they might as well take it on and pick a fight with the provinces. Set some clear goals for the provinces to meet and be relentless is calling out the failures of the provinces.