As Carney Redraws the Political Map, Where Do New Democrats Go?

The PM’s spurning of the NDP could generate energy for angered progressive movements.

The following analysis is my own. It does not reflect the opinions of anyone I work for, my friends nor family - many of whom remind of that frequently.

Read the FULL piece published FREE in the Tyee.

Seven seats. No party status. No research bureau. No guaranteed questions in the House. No vote on committees.

For the second time in its history, the federal NDP has lost official recognition in Parliament.

The NDP is never defeated just because it loses.

Its raison d’être has always been to pull governments leftward in minority moments — when influence matters more than power.

The NDP is in serious trouble now, though, because it’s been spurned by its traditional frenemies, the Liberals. Frozen out.

It’s often said the Liberals campaign to the left, then govern to the right. But Mark Carney’s Liberals haven’t only cast aside the NDP and Greens — they partnered with the Conservatives. A union not seen since 1917.

This week the NDP’s federal council meets to decide how and when to launch a leadership race. The path they choose will send a critical signal.

Because the NDP’s recovery depends on whether the progressive left still wants a party of its own — or is willing to survive on the scraps of an almost unprecedented Liberal-Conservative alliance.

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