Comment 29416

By It's not the band I hate - it's (anonymous) | Posted March 09, 2009 at 12:03:15

You are frustrated, but you are also unrealistic. The NDP is incapable of doing what you ask. They are hamstrung by their labour ties for sure, but the alternative is far less appealing and more likely to make the party irrelevant. The Ontario NDP is forced to play repetitious overtures to organized labour because the unions are the only reliable support they have. Full stop. Unions pay their members an allowance to work on election campaigns. Unions donate to the party en masse. At the provincial level, the NDP will never trade that support away to pursue an audience of apathetic voters whose core motivation is that they believe the party is too boring and too content with third place status.

Fair-weather NDP supporters who implore the party to take a nuanced approach to "middle-class, white collar issues" (whatever those are), are unreliable and far less likely to donate time or money to the party. (How much did you give last year Trey?)

To pursue your support at the expense of the labour vote would be political suicide for the NDP. And it would be a trade-off. You can't win the support of both. Each side views the others' issues as a compromise of their own idealistic view of politics. It's sad really. The Unions threaten to abandon the NDP for losing focus, while guys like you complain that the party isn't inventive enough to win your vote.

The more I think about this predicament, the more I respect Horwath's decision to preserve her party's unique voice in the legislature by targeting only a modest 20-25% of the electorate. At least she realizes the situation. You don’t get it, and sad to say, you are the best and brightest of the NDP's potential supporters outside of the unions. The NDP frustrates you? Imagine how they feel.

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