Carney’s war and austerity budget has been passed—with a helpful assist from the NDP.
The Liberals tabled their budget unsure if they could muster the necessary votes to get it through. The Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois said they would vote it down from day one. In their moment of need, the Liberals were rescued in part by the NDP caucus, which supplied two abstentions and allowed the budget to pass by the narrowest of margins.
The NDP under Don Davies have followed in Jagmeet Singh’s footsteps—making token criticisms of the Liberals whilst propping up their government at every key moment. Is it any wonder why so many see the NDP as indistinguishable from the Liberals?
The writing on the wall
Davies hinted how the NDP would vote the moment the budget first dropped in early November. When a reporter asked him if the Liberal budget was an “austerity budget,” Davies responded that it was “hard to tell at this point” and that he would need to study it further. By comparison, Bloc leader Yves Blanchet—not a left-winger in any sense of the word—described the budget as a “red Conservative budget that Harper would have signed.” Entirely right, but why wasn’t the NDP saying this?
However, it seems Davies had “studied” at least some aspects of the budget. In a separate interview, he highlighted various “positive” aspects of the bill, including a Filipino cultural centre in his home province of B.C. Whether Davies felt this represented a good tradeoff for the loss of 40,000 civil service jobs was left unclear.
This, of course, was entirely by design. The NDP’s talk of the need to study the budget and “consult with our constituents” was a cover for the obvious truth—that the party establishment’s foremost concern was keeping the Liberals in power, and that it was prepared to instruct its MPs to vote however necessary to make that so.
Why did they sell out?
Davies has since said that the NDP’s two abstentions were necessary because Canadians don’t want to go through another election. But that is not the whole truth. First and foremost, the NDP establishment doesn’t want to face another election—as it may wipe the NDP out entirely, at least in their present state.
Following a crushing defeat in the last election, the NDP’s electoral prospects remain dim. No one really knows what the NDP stands for, apart from backing up the Liberals. Why should anyone vote for a party that has abandoned workers when it matters to the likes of Trudeau and now Carney? The NDP establishment knows this on some level, though they have no interest in changing it in any meaningful way.
Moreover, the NDP is broke. NDP National Directory Lucy Watson recently revealed that the party is in debt to the tune of $23 million, a value that they don’t expect to repay until 2028. Short on funds, and even shorter on ideas, the NDP establishment has decided that its best chance of survival is to hold the fort—whatever that means for workers now forced to deal with Carney’s cuts.
But this shallow calculation only exposes the deeper problems with the leadership of the NDP. While the party used to be a grassroots organization which relied on an army of thousands of inspired volunteers, these days are long gone. The NDP brass has converted the party into a professional apparatus not all that different from the other parties – unable to inspire anyone, they rely mostly on paid organizers.
The question of the debt of the party and their ability to contest an election would easily be solved if they had an ideological backbone. If they unapologetically opposed this pro-capitalist agenda and put forward bold socialist policies, this would galvanize millions of working class people who would gladly donate their time and money to the party. As well, if the NDP opposed the budget, they would have forced the Conservatives to support it, showing that when push comes to shove, both of these parties stand for the same, pro-capitalist, anti-worker agenda.
Frustrated by the situation, Davies has accused the other opposition parties of playing “political games.” That is certainly true. However, the NDP leadership played a game of its own by putting their principles (insofar as this applies) to one side in the interests of their own political survival. That is not just a game, but a betrayal of the highest order—and for the lowest of objects.
While the NDP caucus thinks that rescuing the Carney government helped to save their party (and in the process their seats) it in fact has only further contributed to undermining the party in the eyes of the working class. And while these seven MPs get to hold their seats for a little while longer, millions of workers must now face the real world consequences of reduced services and job cuts.
The suits and ties that dominate the current NDP will never stand for workers in any serious way. We need a real workers party, one that takes a principled stance against this capitalist onslaught. We need a party that stands on a socialist program that can enthuse and mobilize millions of working class people to fight to transform society. We only have ourselves to trust.
