Why Should You Vote for the NDP in the Upcoming Federal Election?
by Socialist Caucus
The New Democratic Party is the only political party in Canada that has roots in the social movements and labour. The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress(CLC) came together to found the NDP over 60 years ago and have worked together ever since. Today, the NDP remains the only labour based political party in North America.
The Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is the primary party of Canada’s business and political elites. Poillievre's chief of strategy, Jenni Byrne, is a lobbyist for Loblaws, which was found guilty of price-fixing bread products and recently investigated for mislabelling meat products.
Poillievre practices libertarian populism. He will cut services we rely on for everyday life; a vote for Poillievre is a vote against your interests. Despite claiming affordable housing as a cornerstone of his platform, Poillievre voted against initiatives to make housing affordable during the housing crises in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2018, and 2019. All the while he was Harper's Housing Minister, he allowed a whopping 800,000 affordable rental units to be sold off to benefit big business. Poillievre is not working for you; he's working to make life harder for 90% of Canada, from allowing affordable homes to be sold off to having lobbyists for big business in his inner circle.
The Green Party
The Green Party and the NDP appear to be similar. However, they also differ in many significant ways. The Canadian Green party does not have roots in labour. The Greens describe themselves as an “ideologically hybrid” party, combining left-leaning views on social struggles with a right-leaning embrace of market solutions. They claim to be a centre-left party, meaning they would capitulate to big business in any dispute, putting corporate interests first.
The Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is the alternate party of Canada’s business and political elites. The newly elected leader of the Liberal Party, and therefore the new Prime Minister, is Mark Carney – a former Goldman Sachs banker, central banker, and corporate board member. While Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, he worked with big businesses such as Boeing, BlackRock, and British Petroleum, to name a few. To say that Carney would represent big business interests instead of your interests would be an understatement.
Corporate DEI is not solidarity.
Corporate DEI is a performative, not substantive, way to address inequality and oppression. It creates silos of people that have to fight each other for scarce resources instead of building solidarity against the source of inequality and oppression – the people in boardrooms who call the tune.
Conservatives and their allies have railed against DEI to pit Canadians against each other. This is a distraction from the issues that affect Canadians. For example, Conservatives claim their anti-DEI policies are “protecting children.” In reality, those policies hurt LGBTQ people, including children.
The Liberal Party appears to do the opposite. Still, their policies have the same effect - weaponizing inclusive policies and sentiments to divide us further, which also hurts LGBTQ people and children.
Patriotism and the trade war
Appealing to the patriotism of Canadians, especially in the current environment of on-again, off-again tariffs, hurts the working class, at least 90% of all Canadians. The NDP is the only party that can work in the interest of the majority by strengthening unions and empowering the working class. A vote for the NDP means more jobs and re-industrialization so we can better weather this storm and come out of this with more unified and stronger communities. If calls for national unity can have a strong, immediate effect, they also contain significant contradictions that will rapidly become apparent. A trade war will be used by employers as a pretext to intensify the exploitation of workers and governments will redouble their agenda of austerity and social abandonment.
The fight for a stronger NDP party
The NDP, particularly at the provincial levels, is becoming the opposite of a grass roots based democratic organization. The ousting of Sarah Jama over her pro-Palestine stance has left severe stains on the party. As a socialist caucus, we fight for a reboot and transformation of our party’s administration. Winning the hearts and minds of working class people and allies inside and outside the NDP is critical to defeating the destructive power of capitalist rule.
The recent (now defunct) supply-and-confidence agreement Jagmeet Singh had with the Liberals extended the minority government in return for some real gains for working people but also allowed the Liberals to claim that they “have your back” unjustifiably. The NDP made some progress, which will be rolled back as soon as corporate interests feel they are unnecessary. The Supply-and-Confidence agreement also let the Canadian working class down by pushing the NDP further away from its working class roots. We must endeavour to fight for a strong working class by fighting for stronger NDP parties on both the federal and provincial levels
So why should you vote for the NDP? A vote for the NDP is a class vote against the bosses’ interest, which the Liberal, Conservative and Green parties all represent. As a party with roots in Labour and Working class struggles, they are the only party that can stand up for you. Any person who receives a paycheck rather than dividends from stock portfolios should be voting NDP as it is in their own best interests. A political party beholden to big business is inherently anti-democratic and will always cast you aside in the interest of big business. A vote for the NDP is a vote for strengthening unions, labour rights, and your interests.
The Socialist Caucus calls for Critical support for the Labour-based NDP without Illusions!
Additional Resources:
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
For Banks, Billionaires and Big Polluters