Thursday’s NDP leadership debate in Montreal was most notable for what it didn’t include.
Missing was any mention of Carney’s plan to boost military spending by over $82 billion, either by the debate’s moderator or the candidates. No one thought it necessary to discuss the NDP’s role in propping up the Liberals under Jagmeet Singh, despite its undeniable role in sinking the party’s fortunes.
Gaza was not mentioned once—in fact, nothing to do with foreign policy or the world outside of Canada was deemed fit to include in the 90-minute broadcast. Even Trump was somehow ignored, something which would no doubt displease him if he knew or cared about the NDP.
Instead, viewers were treated to an hour and a half of candidates sharing what people “would find most surprising about them” (Heather Macpherson likes baking cookies), a contest of who could say the words “working class” the most in one sentence (Rob Ashton won), and the sage advice one candidate learned from tending to horses. Even these points were only partly intelligible as the debate was conducted partly in French—a language which only one of the candidates seemed able to speak, and even then not particularly well.
To be fair, there were some redeemable moments. Avi Lewis spoke about the need for establishing a publicly owned grocer and telco company (though not taking existing companies into public ownership). Ashton called for the repeal of Section 107 of the Labour Code, a clause used to break a number of recent strikes. However, these few carefully choreographed talking points were lost somewhere between the endless supply of cringe moments and poor French. Moreover, the fact that these fairly mild points stood out only illustrated how barren the NDP has become of any real socialist ideas.
Most intelligent viewers of Thursday’s debate (insofar as there were any viewers) probably left with the distinct impression that its participants must have been living under a rock for the past five years—otherwise, how else could they have so little to say about so many of the burning problems facing Canada and the NDP? Either that, or they turned it off out of second hand embarrassment.
Where’s Yves Engler?
The other notable absence was Yves Engler. The long time author and socialist activist had announced his candidacy for NDP leader months before, submitting his application a week before the debate. Despite this, Engler was excluded from the event on the grounds that the “vetting” of his candidacy had not yet been completed.
This was all just part of the “process,” as fellow candidate Avi Lewis explained in response to a question from one of Engler’s supporters. Nothing to see here. Yes, this is all part of a “process” in which an unelected three person committee decides who is allowed to participate. This is something you would expect to see in a theocratic dictatorship like Iran and not a party which claims to be a “democratic” party of the workers.
But even Lewis’ claim that this was just part of the “process” falls apart when met with the first bit of scrutiny. Afterall, Engler was not just excluded from the debate, but also from the candidate’s “meet and greet” event open to all NDP members—which Engler is. In violation of his rights as a member, Engler has also been excluded from party conventions all over the country while other candidates have been met with open arms.
This is all part of what seems to be an organized campaign to exclude Engler from the leadership contest. Engler had been subjected to malicious claims from organizers involved with other candidates’ campaigns about his being a “grifter.” Insinuations were made, without evidence, of possible bad dealings in his campaign finances.
This gossip was then amplified by the NDP’s own chief electoral officer, which publicly accused Engler in October of “misleading” his supporters as to the status of his campaign—despite Engler’s quite clear stance that he would submit his papers to the NDP at a later date for strategic reasons.
In truth, the NDP brass had likely decided as soon as Engler announced his candidacy that he should be prevented from running on one pretext or another.
Engler has long been known for confronting politicians on the street, phone in hand, over their support for Israel and other despicable regimes. Engler’s books have documented the crimes of Canadian imperialism through the years, including one dedicated wholly to the NDP’s history of supporting imperialist meddling. His campaign policies include many radical talking points, including the expropriation of large industries, the abolition of billionaires and the overthrow of capitalism.
These are not things which the NDP leadership wishes to be associated with. The party brass worries that Engler’s candidacy would disrupt an otherwise gentlemanly succession process for its next leader. They also fear that Engler’s participation would lead to the NDP being seen as unserious, or worse—not respectable.
However, as Thursday’s debate shows, the NDP is very much capable of embarrassing itself without Engler’s help.
In truth, if Engler had participated, it might have meant that many serious issues—whether it be militarism, the trade war or Gaza—were actually discussed. It might have also meant an actual debate taking place on the NDP’s past decisions, such as propping up Trudeau’s Liberals, instead of the “love in” that viewers got. The NDP tops seemingly had no interest in such a debate taking place.
The NDP leadership’s treatment of Yves Engler reveals a much deeper problem with the party. In its quest for respectability in Ottawa, as well as total control over its ranks, the party brass have lost touch with workers, young people and, increasingly, from reality. The NDP is not threatened by Engler so much as it is by itself and its own milquetoast approach.
But even the NDP brass cannot stop the inevitable process taking place in society. While they want a leader who does not threaten capitalism, most of the candidates cannot avoid criticizing capitalism and talk about the working class. In particular, Avi Lewis has criticized capitalism, says the NDP needs to be socialist and has said the labour movement needs a general strike.
But even if Lewis wins, without a thoroughgoing internal revolution to clear the house of this cabal of conservative bureaucrats, these people will maintain control of the party, stifling any genuine working class movement against capitalism. And we have already witnessed Lewis’ tendency to want to compromise with the party establishment when he refused to call on them to vote Carney’s war and austerity budget down.
What this lackluster NDP leadership race demonstrates is that a reckoning is desperately needed. The old reformist parliamentary careerism has miserably failed. We need a genuine working class party that unapologetically fights for a thoroughgoing socialist program as the only way to solve all of the pressing problems we face today.
