Traditional Dippers are bewildered and disillusioned by Andrea Horwath. Yesterday, in the Globe and Mail, Gerry Caplan published an open letter to the leader of Ontario's New Democrats:
Since your decision to defeat the Liberal budget, many of the party’s most loyal supporters have been bewildered, frustrated, and exasperated. Your decision to oppose what just about everyone agrees was the most progressive budget in two decades shocked many. Here was a win-win for the party: Many of those in need – the NDP’s people – would have directly benefited, and the NDP could have taken the credit. It would’ve been an entirely plausible claim, since it was true. The Liberals crafted it expecting your support. I expected it too, as did many others. Our disappointment was compounded when you could offer no sensible rationale for doing the opposite.
Caplan suspects that Horwath has gone corporate:
You offer mere tokens to those whose need is greatest while your real target seems to be business people large and small. Yes, they have their needs too, some of them legitimate. But they also have their parties who cater to those needs. If business want a sympathetic party to support – and they do – you can be sure they don’t need and won’t buy the NDP.
The NDP used to be about policy, not power. They never won a majority government, but they won medicare, pensions and the forty hour work week. Now they are helping Tim Hudak do away with all those things:
While wooing business, you’re busy slamming the Liberal government. In today’s circumstances, that’s just irresponsible. When all progressives are legitimately terrified by what a Hudak government would mean, your campaign attacks the Liberals. I hope your advisers – whoever they might be – haven’t persuaded you that this strategy will tempt progressive voters to support the NDP. Fire those advisers, Andrea.
That won't happen, of course. And, therein lies the tragedy.
14 comments:
Tragic indeed Owen and a truly stupid campaign by the Ontario NDP, not unlike the BCNDP last year. Although in BC they needed to attack the "liberals" who are really a toxic mixture of reform types, and chose not to, thereby ensuring another 4 years in opposition. At least in Ontario the liberals are actually liberal and really are the only option. Ignoring Hudak's absurd platform is just, well as you say, tragic.
J. S Woodsworth, Tommy Douglas and David Lewis would be livid, waterboy.
Probably one of the biggest aspects of Horwath's betrayal of progressive principles, Owen, is the fact that she promises $600 million per annum in savings from cutting the gravy. She is mum over whether that gravy includes programs and employees in health and education.
Tommy Douglas believed in balanced budgets.
True, Anon. But he also knew that you didn't arrive at balance by cutting taxes -- particularly corporate taxes.
It's a junior version of Hudak's plan, Lorne. Both assume that you can cut your way to prosperity.
My mother, who is in Toronto, had always voted NDP, provincially. She even used to be a fan of Andrea Horwath. Not anymore. She is pissed off with Horwath for bringing down the most progressive budget that is about as good as it can get. She will be voting Liberal for the first time in a provincial election.
And I suspect she won't be alone, CK. Howath is getting bad advice. Or perhaps she is out of her depth.
And when you get right down to it the difference between the federal NDP and the ONDP is what again? What really baffles me though is you would think the ONDP would have seen what happens when they don't treat the most dangerous political foe to their agenda as that, you get what happened federally with the near decade of Harper government. Granted, from what I've seen Horvath appears to have been a bit more blatant in her repositioning, but when you get right down to it her act against the budget versus Layton's against Martin which caused among other things the total destruction of the Kelowna Accords, the destruction of any national child care policy worth anything, and other progressive values and programs destroyed by the Harper regime do not appear much different at all. I mean really, the loss of the child care and Kelowna (this is the real true sin in my books, this was a major step forward for Aboriginals in this nation and they were totally sold out by the party that supposedly was the one that cared most about what happens to the poor, those that the powerful treat as inconsequential or worse trash, and in general everything the federal NDP claimed to care about protecting) .
I find it more than a little bothersome to see the ONDP getting the point and speaking up while the federal counterparts did not, now perhaps that is because they learned their lessons from watching what happened on the federal stage, or perhaps there was more freedom left within the Provincial NDP context to speak than there appeared to be on the federal NDP scene by the time Layton brought the Martin government down for supposedly not giving them enough on medicare (which btw has gotten what instead since then thanks to the NDP decision). At least the ONDP supporters seem to recognize the reality of what happens when you play this game, too bad the federal NDP never did, nor have been willing to admit to their share of the responsibility for the horrors the Harper government has brought to Canada (and I mean as much for the dangerous precedents both Parliamentary and regulatory they have set as well as all the rest, Harper went where NO-ONE EVER went before and the long term consequences for that have yet to be seriously considered, let alone seen) before it is too late, and hopefully the Ontario Provincial level can avoid what we have been suffering federally, although the Harris example probably helps too.
I don't think I would be quite so irked about all of this were the choices made having such serious and obvious negative consequences by the party that was supposed to protect and save us from them. The NDP in this country have apparently decided to sell out for the most part, but yet they want to still dine on their historical reputation for being the different party of principle and caring about the "little guy/girl". I suspect Horvath saw how well it appeared to work for the federal NDP and figured what worked for them would work for her, but the only reason IMHO the federal NDP could pull it off to the extent they did was because of Layton's personality and charisma combined with people believing that if he gained power he would use it for the principles of the party even if he used means that normally would not be acceptable, Horvath does not appear to have that same credibility on that score nor the personal qualities either.
It is going o be interesting to see how this plays out in Ontario.
It will be interesting to see what happens, Scotian. My hunch is that Horwath assumes she has a certain captive vote. The reaction to what she has done suggests that her assumption is wrong.
Perhaps Horwath realizes that she is nearing the end of her run as leader of the NDP and has been promised a plum private sector job. Why else would she essentially be committing political suicide?
That might be, Percival. But it also might be giving her too much credit.
Given the number of NDP candidates who were chosen after the election was called -- and the fact that she released her platform at the end of last week -- it appears that she really hasn't thought things through very well.
Although no longer in Ontario, I was completely shocked by Horwath's rejection of what had to be the most progressive budget we have seen from any OECD country in the past 5-10 years. With every other provincial NDP government and other European/AUS/NZ socialist or centrist governments all lining up to carry the austerity banner/lower taxes chant, this budget was a bright shiny object for sure! All Horwath had to do as a responsible politician was hold Wynne's feet to the fire.
Horwath's decision confirmed what people have been saying for over a decade, Bejiing -- the NDP has sold out to corporate interests.
It's nice to hear from you again.
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