Labour and the Waffle: Unions Confront Canadian Left Nationalism in the New Democratic Party

2021 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-92
Author(s):  
David Blocker

Significance The three main parties -- the leftist New Democratic Party (NDP), the centrist Liberals, and the right-wing Conservatives -- are nearly tied in national voter intention polls. While the effects of Canada's first-past-the-post voting system appear to give the Conservatives and the NDP better chances at winning a plurality of seats in parliament, all three parties have a chance at victory, an unprecedented situation in Canadian history. Impacts The death of refugee Alan Kurdi has resulted in all three parties promising to expand Canada's acceptance of refugees from Iraq and Syria. The longer campaign could result in a doubling of the election's cost to the taxpayer. Both the NDP and the Liberals have promised that this will be the final election using the first-past-the-post system.


Subject Canada's federal political outlook. Significance Canada’s three main parties have all selected the leaders with which they will contest the 2019 federal election. New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party now have two years in which to define themselves for the electorate and make a case for their parties to assume or resume control of government. Impacts Fallout from fundraiser links to the Paradise Papers tax avoidance controversy could undercut Trudeau’s Liberals. Trudeau’s strong Quebec ties will help him hold off the NDP, but Ontario losses could leave a Liberal minority government. Ontario’s 2018 provincial election will offer an early indication of the strength of Trudeau’s federal opponents.


2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold J. Jansen ◽  
Lisa Young

Abstract.We consider the impact of changing Canadian national party finance laws that banned trade union donations on the relationship between the New Democratic party (NDP) and organized labour. Although the changed laws have required a restructuring of the relationship between the two actors, we find evidence of a continued commitment to co-operation. We conclude that accounts that stress the ideological affinity between the NDP and labour explain the preservation of the relationship better than political economy or rational exchange models.Résumé.Nous considérons les changements apportés aux lois canadiennes sur le financement des partis politiques, lois qui ont banni les donations des syndicats, dans la perspective de leur incidence sur la relation entre le Nouveau Parti démocratique (NPD) et les syndicats. Malgré le fait que les nouvelles lois ont nécessité une restructuration de la relation entre les deux acteurs, nous avons découvert la présence d'un engagement continu envers la coopération. Nous concluons que les interprétations qui mettent l'accent sur l'affinité idéologique entre le NPD et les syndicats expliquent mieux le maintien de cette relation que l'économie politique ou les modèles d'échange rationnel.


1975 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irving Abella ◽  
Terence Morley

I was disturbed, and I understand my distress was shared by many others, to see the pages of such a respected scholarly periodical as the Canadian Journal of Political Science being so badly misused by a political bureaucrat for partisan purposes. I refer to the review of my book Nationalism, Communism, and Canadian Labour by Terence Morley, a longtime functionary of the New Democratic party, and now a graduate student at Queen's University.Because I was critical of some of the activities of the CCF in the 1940s, made some kind remarks about the Communist party, and questioned some of the policies of international unions, Morley labels my book a “Waffle-inspired tract.” What utter nonsense! I am not a member nor even a supporter of the Waffle, as should be readily apparent to any intelligent reader of the book. Indeed, if Morley had done any reading over the past year since the book appeared he would have noted that in their reviews and speeches, Waffle leaders were critical of the book's implications – and rightly so given their ideology. But, quite clearly, to the Terence Morleys of Canada, to be even mildly critical of the ccf, immediately marks one as an enemy – as a member of the “Waffle” – just as critics in past years were denounced as “Communists.”Although he is clearly unaware of the fact, I am, and have been for as long as I remember, a supporter of Mr Morley's own party.


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