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ALL SMILES, NO EXCITEMENT They look happy, but few Canadians can actually tell these NDP leadership candidates apart.

NDP leadership hopefuls not an inspiring lot

Andrew Jeffrey
Gateway Staff

Feb 01, 2012

Stop anyone on the street, ask them whether they prefer Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney and no matter how negative, you’ll likely at least get some sort of intelligible answer. Do the same for the NDP leadership candidates and you’ll often only be met with a shrug and a confused response of “Who?” behind a staggeringly huge wall of apathy.

The slow trudge to find a successor to Jack Layton has been largely portrayed by the media as a drawn-out and dull affair in front of an uncaring Canadian public. It’s gotten to the point where most people couldn’t tell you the first thing about the differences between Thomas Mulcair and Brian Topp. But what’s even worse is Canadians who have followed these candidates may still have the same problem.

The depiction of a boring leadership competition is completely justified given the candidates choosing to be largely indistinguishable from one another when it comes to their political views. In Sunday’s debate in Halifax, the moderator actually had to urge them to find some ground to disagree upon at the start, as up until this point many of the “debates” included only slight discrepancies in views that were largely in agreement. Their debates are not exactly riveting, and nor are the contenders; a recent poll by Abacus Data found that 40 per cent of Canadians are unaware of who any of the NDP candidates are.

It may seem unfair to compare the potential nominees for President of the United States to the potential leaders of an opposition party that could still easily fall back to third place in the next election, but the actions of the NDP candidates are partly inspired by the Republican primaries.

The reason the NDP candidates are so hesitant to disagree with one another is partly out of fear. They’re hesitant to poke holes in each others’ policies, incite too much disagreement or make each other look bad after how detrimental the debates of Romney and Gingrich have been to both their presidential odds. Factor in the Conservative Party’s uncanny ability to defeat opposition like Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff in past elections using unflattering sound bites from the politicians’ pasts and it’s almost understandable why the NDP candidates might prefer boring right now.

While their dedication to avoiding internecine battles is admirable, the net effect has been negative. Their hesitance to disagree has made them forgettable and caused the Canadian public to tune out from what could be an interesting race. After all, Jack Layton was one of the most popular Canadian politicians in years and many Canadians should be interested to see if his successor can continue the NDP’s surge of popularity from last year.

In all fairness, the debate on Sunday featured some actual debating and disagreement at the moderator’s request. The other candidates questioned frontrunner Thomas Mulcair on a number of subjects and seemed to have unique ideas. For the sake of this party’s future, this discontent in the party ranks must only grow. This should only be the beginning as the candidates set themselves apart and becoming unique leadership candidates that Canadians can get behind. The results will be announced on March 24, which still gives the NDP candidates plenty of time to improve their image and actually become known to Canadian voters.

The way to defeat the Conservative party isn’t through thinking of what they could turn against you in attack ads, but in finding holes in their policies, finding reasons as to why not only Conservatives are unfit for leadership but why other leadership rivals in your party aren’t as suitable. It’s about making the Canadian public aware of why you alone are the best fit as leader of a party that is the best choice for controlling Canada’s government.

Until an NDP candidate can do that, most Canadians will continue to be completely unaffected and unaware of what’s actually happening in the party.

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