Book Review of “The Left in Power: Bob Rae’s NDP and the Working Class”

by Tom Baker

This book is much more than a post-mortem of Ontario’s only NDP government. Professor Steven High has used his exceptional abilities as an expert in oral historical research to interview many of the key protagonists and analyze recently released archives from the 1990-1995 Bob Rae government in Ontario. In contrast to the numerous self- serving memoirs and critiques of the Rae government, this book objectively assesses the economic context, the party’s unexpected victory and its five years of confusion, compromise, arrogance and working class betrayal.

The author meticulously examines the “heartbreaking years of Bob Rae’s Ontario NDP government” —from their historic and unexpected 1990 victory, to their rightward policy shifts that left working-class voters and party members feeling betrayed, to their landslide defeat in 1995—to uncover what we can learn from one social democratic party’s mistakes about how to govern from the Left. As a participant in the internal ONDP party struggles of that time, in particular supporting MPP Peter Kormos’ fight for the leadership, I found High’s account rang true to my recollections of that period.

Canadian workers have benefitted from having a mass labour based party. Founded in 1961, the New Democratic Party is modelled on the British Labour Party, with a formal link with organized labour, whereby trade unionists were represented at all levels of the party. Union locals could vote to formally affiliate, paying dues to the party, and in return send delegates to party conventions. The alliance with organized labour was always strongest in Ontario, where 200,000 of the 275,000 trade unionists affiliated with the federal party in 1992.

Thus, when the Ontario NDP under Bob Rae unexpectedly won the provincial election in September, 1990, 40 per cent of the governing NDP caucus and a number of cabinet ministers were trade unionists. Today there are few trade unionists in NDP provincial and federal caucuses. Some say that the party has gentrified. Its organic connection to the labour movement is far more tenuous.

Despite some progressive measures, High maintains that the Rae government was the beginning of the end of the NDP as a working-class party. On the one hand, it saved a few northern Ontario manufacturing operations like Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, which continue to operate today. It also passed anti-scab legislation and attempted to soften the blow of the radical restructuring of Ontario’s economy in the face of trade liberalization and free trade. On the other hand, the Rae government’s rapid slide into austerity politics led it to abandon the promise of public auto insurance, which had considerable symbolic value, and forcibly reopened public-sector collective agreements in its so-called “Social Contract”.

At the end of the twentieth century, as social democratic parties around the world struggled to produce a coherent response to the deindustrialization crisis, many pivoted towards progressive neoliberalism and Third Way social democracy. Almost everywhere, they turned their backs on the weakened trade union movement and embraced neoliberal assumptions about labour force flexibility and global competition. Shamefully, Third Way social democrats emphasized the moral dimension of poverty rather than its structural causes as they abandoned the old redistributive class politics of the Left.

Through extensive interviews Rae described a way forward for social democracy that involved greater acceptance of the centrality of markets, and a kind of “progressive competitiveness” neo-corporatist ethic through which the state supports a high value-added, export-driven industrial strategy, notably by supporting training programs for an adjusting workforce. His government promoted small business development, participatory economic planning and “empowering marginalized communities”. High argues tangible accomplishments were rare.

The book highlights the extreme and sudden policy shift in 1992 to a pro-austerity framework effectively shattered the government’s relationship with much of the labour movement and almost did the same with the party itself, prompting mass resignations and union disaffiliations. In fact, the party’s Ontario provincial membership collapsed from 31,791 members in 1992 to 14,674 in early 1994. It was a disillusioning experience for many. It was a period of considerable policy experimentation, particularly at the community level, but ultimately failed to create any durable alternative to neo-liberalism.

“When they backed down on social democratic initiatives, they alienated the popular movements that powered their electoral machine in the first place and lost the loyalty of Ontario voters. The labour movement would spend the next twenty years waffling around a strategic voting strategy that benefited the Liberal Party at all levels, because of the disappointing losses in Ontario.”

The new populism espoused by many of the provincial NDP parties today is a far cry from a labour-centred outlook, despite their pro-working people rhetoric. They have gone all-in on tax cuts and tax freezes and oppose climate action, all of which beggar public services and increase death and suffering and loss from climate pollution and heating.

In summary, The Left in Power is well worth the read as it provides valuable background for today’s generation of party activists and trade unionists who are fighting for internal democracy and accountability in their organizations. Now more than ever, the NDP needs to reconnect with working-class and marginalized voters and repair its relationship to the trade-union movement. This means providing credible economic policy alternatives to neoliberalism espoused by other parties. The fight for socialist policies in unions and the NDP is critical to the development of a socialist alternative to capitalist rule in this country.