1 Comment

I see this take on the NDP a lot, and I wish people would put some more facts behind it, so I could understand the position better.

I mean if I could go back a decade to 2012 near the start of Harper's majority, and say tell an NDP supporter that the next decade would bring full legalization of marijuana, hugely expanded child tax credit, expanded CPP program, increased federal funding for transit, significant federal funding for childcare and affordable housing, paid sick leave for federal employees, an additional paid holiday, an end of the deficit obsession, a fiscal response to a pandemic so strong that people's income actually went up, that the recent (in 2012) increase in OAS/GIS eligibility age from 65 to 67 would be reversed, an end to stagnation and a period of significant minimum wage increases across the country and finally a phase out of coal across the country and a carbon tax of $50/ton, scheduled to increase to $170/ton?

I guess the NDP supporter would want to know what the NDP had done to turn things around and achieve such miracles in just a decade. Of course, you can say the Liberals did all this, and you would be correct, but arguably the whole reason for the NDP to exist is to push the Liberals to the left (along with giving the country another option when the folks in charge give us a US style Harper vs Ignatieff false choice).

So, I'm not trying to be difficult, just spell out what it is you think the NDP could / should have achieved but haven't to help workers in Canada, or what they should be doing now on that front that they are not doing. I'll grant you national pharmacare, they've pushed on this but without success, but what else are people thinking of?

Expand full comment