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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, NDP Squanders Opportunity - Article﻿</title>﻿
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﻿<b﻿>﻿NDP Squanders Opportunity
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by Andre Messing﻿<br﻿>﻿
﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, July - August 1997﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
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The recent federal election had some instructive lessons for the New Democratic Party. While the NDP regained official party status, surpassed the predictions of pundits by winning 21 seats and accomplished an unprecedented breakthrough in Atlantic Canada, the party failed to make inroads in the industrial heartland of Ontario or the labour stronghold in BC's lower mainland. With a popular vote of only 11 per cent, the NDP's level of support is just over half its traditional level for federal elections.
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While Alexa McDonough's Halifax roots certainly helped give the NDP heightened exposure in the Atlantic region, this alone cannot explain the party's success in winning seats in New Brunswick and Cape Breton and in receiving a record number of votes in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.
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The weeks and months leading up to the federal election saw a massive outburst of anger throughout the region marked by union militancy against the Liberals. Militant labour action in Newfoundland humiliated Jean Chretien at the Hibernia opening and forced then-Fisheries Minister Fred Mifflin into hiding during the campaign (Mifflin closed down his campaign headquarters after a series of actions including an occupation by university students). Cape Breton and New Brunswick, where the NDP won seats, also saw high levels of militancy.
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While a backdrop of labour action gave many workers in Atlantic Canada the confidence to vote against all corporate parties for the first time in their lives, in Ontario many workers stayed home or even voted Reform rather than support the NDP. Hopes of regaining seats in downtown Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor and Northern Ontario proved fruitless when June 3 dawned on a shutout of the NDP in Ontario.
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There are two explanations for the rout of the NDP in Ontario. First is the lingering odour of the Bob Rae government which betrayed its core supporters year after year, driving thousands of traditional New Democrats out of the party. But this alone does not explain the dearth of support when one considers that Ontario support for the federal NDP is only about two-thirds of the level enjoyed by Howard Hampton's provincial NDP.
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What most hurt the federal party in Ontario was the demobilization of labour in the runup to the election. The march to an Ontario-wide general strike was halted last year, despite massive successes in London, Hamilton and Toronto, when the "pink paper" unions argued that the movement would be a distraction in the lead-up to the federal election.
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These "leaders" failed to comprehend that the way to build support for the left is not through electioneering, but by building a mass movement. Ironically, it is this demobilization of the left by the "pinks" in the name of getting votes for the NDP which sabotaged any chance the party may have had of winning back support. A party of labour should not fear working class militancy, it should embrace it. 
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﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿Andre Messing is a socialist active within the Ontario NDP. ﻿</font>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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