Canadian Elections: A socialist party replaces the Democrats as the alternative to Republicans

[Better Believe It]

The Social Democrats Rise in Canada
by Gary Engler
May 3, 2011

The New Democratic Party (NDP) won 103 seats out of a total 308 to become the official opposition, the first time Canada’s socialist party will fulfill that role.

The first thing to understand about Monday’s election is that the results are a historic shift in the Canadian political scene. While the NDP has governed provincially in B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and the Yukon, the union-affiliated party, which created Canada’s first socialized medical system, has never even come close before at the national level. Its previous best result was 43 seats in 1988. Before this election NDP averaged 15.4 per cent of the vote at the federal level. This election it doubled that, winning 31 per cent.

The other historic shift in Canadian politics is the poor showing of the Liberal Party. To grasp the significance of this imagine a socialist party with strong ties to unions replacing the Democrats as the alternative to the Republicans. That’s what has happened in Canada.

The NDP is to the left of the Liberal Party on many social, environmental, economic and foreign policy issues. It lacks the Liberals’ significant ties to corporate interests. All this offers hope to Canadians who believe in social and economic democracy.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/03-1

[Armstead]

1. The Conservative victory is bad news but the rise of the NDP may be a silver lining

I'm not a Canadian, so it's just an observation of an outsider. And may be offbase.

But it seems that the rise of the NDP and the shrinking of the centrist Liberal party may create an opening there for a revitalization of the leftern part of the spectrum. If the NDP can take the lead as opposition and push the Liberals into a coalition (or even a merger, as there was talk of on the CBC last nite) it could put actual progressives in the drivers seat as the counterweight to the Conservatives. And thus -- when the larger pendulum next shifts (as it inevitably always does), and the Conservatives get booted, Canada could once again be a model for what is possible in the US.

I realize that may seem like whistling in the dark considering the overall bad news last nite, but in some respects, it still seems that progressive politics are still in better shape in Canada than the US, even with this setback.

[Better Believe It]

3. A NDP merger with the Liberal Party could only happen at the expense of the NDP

Such a merger of the two parties would probably involve big compromises with the Liberal Party and would water down the program of the NDP and move it to the right.

But, Canadians here might have a different take on this.

[yurbud]

13. hmm...the parallel here would be if DLC and Blue Dog Democrats merged with GOP

which would be bad in the short term but at least lead to truth in advertising in the long term.

[krawhitham]

28. WOW get 37.65% of the vote and rule a country

too many damn parties in Canada

People here on DU complain about Blue Dogs VS progressives VS liberals VS plain democrats, many here would like to split they party and vote for people like Dennis Kucinich for president



Basically the "Democrats" are split into 4 parties in Canada and look how well it is working for them

New Democrats - Political position center-left
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democratic_Party

Liberals - Political position center to center-left
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_of_Canada

Bloc Québécois - Political position center-left
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloc_Qu%C3%A9b%C3%A9cois

Green - Political position Left-wing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_Canada

The 4 parties had 61.2% of the vote

[krawhitham]

23. No they only got 18.18% of the vote

The Liberal party got 26.26%

[Better Believe It]

2. Harper finally wins majority as NDP surges into Opposition

Harper finally wins majority as NDP surges into Opposition
By PATRICK BRETHOUR
Globe and Mail Update
May 3, 2011

Canadian voters have radically redrawn the country’s political landscape, handing the Conservative Party its long-sought majority in an election that decimated the Bloc Québécois and humbled the Liberals.

For the first time in history, the New Democratic Party will form the Official Opposition after an extraordinary breakthrough that propelled the party to more than 100 seats.

The extent of the transformation is startling. The Liberals now hold just four seats west of Guelph, Ont. The Conservatives, formerly shunned by Toronto voters, won nearly half of the seats in that city, twice as many as the Liberals.

The Bloc Québécois, which defined Quebec federal politics for two decades, no longer qualifies for official party status. And Green Party Leader Elizabeth May won the party’s first seat, and the right to a place in the next election’s debates.

Read the full article at:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-finally-wins-majority-as-ndp-surges-into-opposition/article2006635/

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. Canadian Elections: The left splits their votes and gives the Conservatives a majority

F-ing brilliant.

[alcina]

6. Conservatives gained from Liberal losses

Your speculation isn't quite accurate: A party requires 155 seat to be the majority; the cons took 167. Even with a few seats going from Liberal to NDP, the "split" was not enough to compensate for that gain. The simple fact is that the Liberals tanked, and both the NDP and Conservatives took an enormous number of seats from the Liberals. Unfortunately, the end result was better for Harper than for Layton.

In the light of day, having slept off the shock, I realize I shouldn't be that surprised by Harper's gains in Ontario, and in Toronto in particular. They did, after all, recently elect the neanderthal Rob Ford as mayor, though *that* appeared to be more a result of vote-splitting.

My friend, who lives in the Toronto islands, joked that at least they won't have to worry now about the cons turning the islands into an offshore brothel (http://www.thestar.com/news/article/958062--mammoliti-pushes-for-toronto-island-brothels?bn=1). Harper will instead use them for a detainment camp.

Yay! Can't wait to get home....

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. The Conservates only got about 40% of the vote

There are many riding where Conservatives won despite the fact that a combination of Liberal and NDP were larger than 50%.

[alcina]

17. Necessary but not sufficient

What you say is true, but from what I've read, that gain was less than the number that put them past the post: 167 total - 155 for a majority = 12. I haven't seen an analysis that says that many conservative seats resulted from left-side vote splitting.

And there's definitely merit to the claim that fear-mongering led some traditional Liberals to vote conservative, lest Layton become PM and impose his "socialist" ways. If that's true, then a Harper minority (or outright defeat) could have resulted only if the NDP had not run. But then you just have a copy of the US two-sides-of-one-party system, which really does not represent the people. Of course, there's the possibility of the Liberals disappearing due to a left-wing party merge. (See the Reuters analysis at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/03/us-politics-left-idUSTRE74251820110503.) But again, such a convergence produces a two-party system that might result in an even stronger Conservative block.

Sadly, it just looks like a lot of Canadians are starting to adopt the fat-and-happy me-first attitude of many Americans. Bread and circuses.....

[arikara]

21. Only 2% more voted for Harper

than in the last election and that was enough to hand him a majority. Fucking stinking Ontario decided again it, the numbers came in as soon as our polls out west closed that he'd won. We didn't even get a say. Over 60% of people in this country lean left and we are saddled with a rabid right wing government with a majority so he will wreck whatever he wants. I hate our idiotic system.

My heart is hurting for my country today.

[Better Believe It]

11. The left didn't vote for the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party serves no useful function in Canada.

The left, progressives and organized labor have their own party, so why would they destroy their party and support the allegedly "liberal" and smallish pro-corporate Liberal Party?

That would be fuc*ing stupid at best.

It would make more sense for you to ask "Why has the much smaller Liberal Party tried to divide and weaken the opposition to the Conservative Party by attacking the New Democratic Party (NDP)? F-ing brilliant."

The NDP is the main and official opposition to the Conservative Party, not the Liberal Party.

Outside of trying to divide progressives and maintaining the power of big business, the Liberal Party serves no useful function in Canada.

[yurbud]

14. people in the US forget that ''liberal'' has a more precise meaning everywhere else and it's not

everyone left of Ann Coulter.

[Scuba]

5. Ominous precursor to what will probably have to happen in the U.S. if....

....the left ever regains control of the country. The Democrats at the federal level seem like Republicans to me.

I'm very comfortable predicting that if another significant party ever emerges in this country, it will come from left of the Democrats.

[yurbud]

15. why ominous?

[Scuba]

29. Ominous in the sense that it implies the Democratic Party can't be saved. Not that....

...that's a bad thing.

[Armstead]

34. It could be saved if the stranglehold of corporate "centrists" and conDems could be loosened

Whether that can happen or not is another matter...

[Better Believe It]

37. How's that going? Not very well so far according to all reports.

[Armstead]

38. It's going shitty

But hope springs eternal

[Quezacoatl]

8. Vote splitting

Harper's majority is due to vote splitting on the left. In many of the ridings the split between NDP and Liberal votes is what allowed the Conservative to win.

Conservatives received about 40% of the national vote. NDP and Liberal about 50% and the other progressive parties, the Green Party and the Bloc combine for about 10%

60% of the vote was left and centre/left
40% was on the right

yet it's a Conservative majority.

[Better Believe It]

16. The left doesn't support the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party tries to split progressives.

The Liberal Party suffered major setbacks and hopefully they will face a further decline and no longer serve as an effective obstacle to building the NDP into the majority party in the next election.

The best thing the shrinking Liberal Party can do is support NDP bills in Parliament and better yet dissolve their centrist "blue dog" type organization before the next federal election.

They still have money but little or no political base in the labor and other progressive Canadian movements.

Canadians are growing tired of wishy washy politicians who are "liberal" in name only. Canadians voted for a choice, not an weak echo of the Conservative Party. They want real changes, not just empty political rhetoric that sounds almost liberal.

[SidDithers]

20. It's funny hearing you speak about what Canadians want...

:rofl:

Sid

[Amonester]

30. From my point of view, which is inside Canada....

The analysis he presents has a lot of merits.

[laundry_queen]

31. This Canadian agrees. nt

[Renew Deal]

24. From what I read, the Conservatives in Canada are happy with what you'd like to happen.

The conservatives get to do whatever they want while the internal fighters enjoy their righteous righteousness.

[Better Believe It]

25. You need to read more written by Canadian progressives. I take it you don't like the NDP

So you think the NDP surge was a huge setback for Canadian progessives and would have preferred Liberal Party gains in the election?

If not, what's your point?

[Renew Deal]

33. You don't really win by losing.

It's like Dems in our House. Maybe someone proved a point. Not sure how that's working out as intended for some people.

[sabrina 1]

41. Sometimes you do win by losing. Eg, we lost several

governorships in the last election. That SEEMED like a bad thing at the time. But when the smoke settled and in Wisconsin, eg, the public got to see what they had done, look what happened! The first real labor movement began to take shape in, how many years?

If a Democrat had won, all that would have happened would have business as usual. The Dem bending over backwards not to look 'too liberal' or to be 'giving too much to those evil unions'.

I am now very glad that Scott Walker won in Wisconsin. He gets the prize for waking the people up and is solely responsible for the start of a real labor movement which hopefully will grow. He accomplished what no democrat could have accomplished.

He united the people, right, left, independent. The working class, cops, firemen, nurses, teachers, construction workers, all came together in reaction to his radical far right policies and the Republican agenda was exposed for all to see. The war on the working class is now no longer something nebulous that people tried to warn about. Losing that election provided a graphic picture of what Republicans would do to this country, if we let them.

So sometimes maybe it is not so bad to lose an election. Here in the US we have been continuing the status quo out of fear that if Democrats go too far to the left, they cannot win and so we have gone further and further to the right.

Canada seems to have done what we have been afraid to do, finally told their Liberal party 'guess what, we DO have somewhere else to go'. And it may not be a bad thing that the New Dems did not win, this time. Canadians may need, as Americans apparently did, to see just how bad Harper and his Con Party will be before finally electing a government that actually represents the people.

[Better Believe It]

26. So Canadian conservatives agree with me and would like to see the NDP win control of the government?

mmmmmmmm I hadn't read that.

Credible links please.

Thank you.

[Renew Deal]

32. I'd put it a different way

"CBC analysis: Harper's 'friendly dictatorship' is determined to decimate Liberals"

You clearly agree with that.

[Better Believe It]

36. Harper certainly is closer to the Liberal Party than the NDP. I would agree with that.

[Love Bug]

9. "It lacks the Liberals’ significant ties to corporate interests."

US Democrats: take note, please

[socialist_n_TN]

10. A few outside observations from a small "s" socialist

I AM glad that a socialistic type party has gained official status as the main opposition party to the conservatives in Canada. That's actually progress because when the Tories overreach (and they WILL overreach, it's their nature) then socialists will be poised to, PERHAPS, gain a majority. That said, I HATE it for our Canadian brothers and sisters that they have to endure a neocon government.

It's also positive that left and center left parties were a 60/40 MAJORITY with the people of Canada. That gives hope that EVENTUALLY the people MIGHT gain electorally.

However, I'm thinking that any place where THIS big of a majority is being ignored by their government, trouble is QUITE possible. I EXPECT Harper to overreach (as I said above, it's their nature) and try to roll back progress that 60% of the population supports, that can't help but be trouble. That's the way it is here on POSITIONS and I've said a lot that I expect trouble here too.

Finally, I guess my newspaper was wrong this AM. It said that a "left surge" had denied Harper a majority.

[Very_Boring_Name]

12. FYI the Liberals made it illegal for corporations to donate to political parties

Their entire campaign was based around raising taxes on corporations. People who call the LPC "corporate" are blithering idiots.

[Better Believe It]

18. The Canadian Liberal Party has been in a steady state of decline for a decade.

Here's the number of candidates the Liberal Party elected to the Canadian Parliament.

Year Representatives

2000 172

2004 135

2006 103

2008 77

2011 33

I think I detect a trend here.

[SidDithers]

19. Unified Right vs Divided Left...

That's your trend.

Sid

[Better Believe It]

22. "right-wing Liberals abandoned Liberal Party candidate and voted Conservative to stop the NDP surge"

May 3, 2011

"The Worse Things Get the Worse They Are"
A Conservative Majority in Canada. Now What?
By MURRAY DOBBIN

The performance of the NDP – over 100 seats - should be seen for what it is – a huge victory for progressive values even though the surge did not deliver everywhere they hoped. It is true that party politics can seem perverse – the NDP was giddy with celebration last night as if no one had told them that Harper won a majority. But with over 100 MPs the NDP has changed the face of Canadian politics. And there are a lot of very good, dedicated progressives in that contingent.

Yes, their surge defeated a lot of Liberals and helped give Harper a majority. But before we mourn the Liberal Party remember who they have been and what they have done: the Chretien and Martin governments savaged the Canadian state and the role of government, part of a continuum of Conservative and Liberal governments committed to dismantling what two generations built. The true nature of the Liberal Party was ironically revealed by Ignatieff’s decision to run a left-wing campaign (which I thought was actually pretty good). Many simply didn’t believe him – and in effect he helped convince people to vote NDP, the real repository of progressive policies, led by someone they trusted. On voting day, right-wing Liberals abandoned Ignatieff and voted Conservative to stop the NDP surge.

The Liberals may well destroy themselves in the next two years. Decimated and leaderless (its leader lost his seat) Incapable of unity and indulging in a left-right internal battle their members and supporters may simply drift away to the Conservatives or the NDP, moving the country back to a polarized, two party system. The Bloc Quebecois, the powerhouse of Quebec politics since 1993, is virtually dead – reduced by the NDP tide to three seats from 47.

While it may be little comfort in the short term, 60 per cent of Canadians still voted against the Harper government. We can hope that many of those who voted Conservative have not clearly anticipated what that will mean – for the Medicare they cherish, for the democracy they participate in, for the security they hope for in old age, for the notion that government can actually work for them.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/dobbin05032011.html

[AlabamaLibrul]

27. Sounds familiar nt

[Very_Boring_Name]

40. Except it's false

See post #39.

[leftstreet]

35. Thanks for all these links

Good stuff. Thanks for posting them

K&R

[Very_Boring_Name]

39. There's no evidence to support that.

Conservative vote share did NOT increase this election. Liberal vote share decreased, NDP vote share increased. Liberal votes went NDP, which split the vote in Liberal-held ridings, which allowed conservatives to take them.