BACK FROM ANOTHR HIATUS: OVERVIEW

THE NDP: TRAPPED IN THEIR OWN IMAGE

Party images are very important in regards to Canadian politics. Different parties bring different issues or problems to your mind just by hearing their name. And these party images are very important in determining who will win a given election and what issues are at the forefront in Canada and which are on the backburners. The New Democratic Party, just like other parties, has always had a party image which has both positive and negative connotations for them. The problem with the NDP in particular is that it seems to be trapped in its particular image and will not be successful until it is able to shake it off.

In the essay, “Perceptions of Party Competence in the 1997 Election” in Party Politics in Canada Nadeau, Blais, Gidengil, and Nevitte argue that certain parties are associated as being able to best deal with certain issues. Some of these are easier to recognize than others. The Bloc Quebecois has the ability to best defend the interests of Quebec, the Green Party has the ability to best defend the environment, and the former Reform Party had the ability to best defend the West. However, when you get into the more mainstream brokerage parties in Canada the “image” of a party becomes harder to define. That is because the larger parties are more all-encompassing and have so many ideals that it is difficult to put a certain image on it. The Liberals, who have been in power for the past twelve years, have obviously had a party image that was acceptable to most Canadians for them to stay in office for so long. It seemed that they had the right image for what was most important to Canadians at the time. The Conservatives, who are currently in power, have had major changes to their party image as it has been formed from both the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative parties. But where does the NDP fit into all of this.

There is no doubt that the NDP has a distinct “party image.” When people think about the NDP there are certain values and issues that come to mind right away. By far, the biggest and most important of these is social programs. However you may think about social programs you know that they can be associated with the NDP. But what else comes to mind when you think of the NDP? It is this single-issue party image that traps the NDP into their current situation. According to the Canadian Election Study, 1997 the only issue that the NDP had people believing that it was the best party to deal with was social programs. This study was done after the 1997 election in which the Liberals under Jean Chrétien grasped onto a second majority government and the NDP only had 11% of the popular vote.

Party image plays a crucial role in Canadian politics. Every party has an image that they can always fall back on and will always be associated with them. This is despite what leader they may have, or what is going on in the country at that particular time. And because of this image, the party will always be able to rely upon a certain percentage of Canadians that think that the issue they are best suited to uphold is of the utmost importance.

The NDP, in particular, are in a trap more than other parties with distinct party images. The Bloc Quebecois, even though they only run candidates in Quebec, have a distinct party image as the defenders of Quebec interests. That is only one out of ten provinces but yet they were able to be the Official Opposition in 1993 and currently occupy upwards of fifty-one seats in the House of Commons. The Reform and the Canadian Alliance were only strong in the west during the 1993-2000 elections but they were still able to secure a large number of seats. The problem that is unique to the NDP is that they are a national party and not a regional one. The NDP do not have an image of being the best able to represent a certain part of the country that allows them to get a lot of seats from one particular area but instead their party has national appeal and must split the vote, usually on the losing end, with the Liberals and the Conservatives. In this past election the NDP were able to get twenty-nine seats which is one of their best performances ever, and certainly their best recent performance.

This 1997 study was done after the election that took place during that year when the NDP seemed to have made some serious advancements and held twenty-one seats in the House of Commons as opposed to nine in the previous election. The NDP have had a difficult time getting anywhere past the 25-35 seat range and it is because they are trapped in this “image” that is holding them back. The recognition that the NDP is best suited to deal with social programs is good for them but it is not exactly a regional issue that they would be able to base their support around. Instead, they have had to fight bitter battles to gain their seats and gain support.

It will be difficult for the NDP to overcome this trap that they seem to have found themselves in. There are only a few ways that they will be able to overcome it. Since they are recognized as being the defenders of social programs it will be when there are serious problems with the social programs in this country or we are at a time when these programs are relied heavily upon that they will be able to muster more support. The more logical conclusion for them, one in which they are currently moving towards, is to make gains into other issues important to Canadians in order to build up their support levels. The Reform and the Bloc are able to be successful while only having a single issue that they are suited as best to deal with it because these issues are regional ones and have so much support in that area of the country that they are able to base their support on it and try and move forwards from there.

Political issues important to Canadians such as national unity, the creation of jobs, taxes, crime control, and social programs all fall under the category of national issues while issues such as interests of a given area are regional issues. It is far easier to gain support on regional issues than it is with national ones. While parties like the Liberals, Conservatives, and NDP fight over social programs, crimes, and things of that nature regional parties like the Reforms and the Bloc already have a strong base and try to branch out there. However, it is important to note that parties with a “regional image” have a difficult time trying to keep expanding past there regional boundaries. If the Bloc does not run any candidates outside of Quebec than it is actually impossible for them to ever form the government.

Since the resignation of Ed Broadbent in the 1980s the NDP has had a hard time trying to regain support and fair well in federal elections. Under the leadership of Audrey McLaughlin and Alexa McDonough the NDP was barely scraping by until the 1997 election. Since then they continue to gain more support including their recent showing of twenty-nine seats. The NDP are slowly trying to escape their “image” while still maintaining it at the same time. Their image is good for them, they just need to expand it to include something a little more than social programs. The NDP are making gains in urban centers where social programs are the most important and are most relied upon by the constituents of these areas. They have major holdings in downtown urban areas such as Toronto, Vancouver, and even Halifax that they are beginning to build their support around and are trying to branch out and continue building. In major downtown areas you have more people in poverty and homeless that are exhausting our health care and welfare systems and if these people know that the NDP are the best party to help them then guess who they are going to vote for. And the more reliance there is on these systems the more the support for the NDP is going to grow because they have a distinct image that social programs are best handled by them. According to the Canadian Election Study, 1997 in Canada, not including Quebec, it says that 41% of Canadians polled believe that the NDP is best suited to handle the issue of social programs.

Issues of national unity, taxes, creating jobs, and crime are separated between the Conservatives and the Liberals as to who is best able to handle them while the NDP is only labeled as strong in one of these categories, social programs. This, along with the problem that the issue of social programs is not a regional one and is focused on across the country is why the NDP are “trapped” in their own party image. Party image, the general connotations that go along with every party as to what issues they are most suited to deal with, plays an important role in Canadian politics and directly translates into how much support a party will have during a given election. This depends on how important certain issues are to Canadians at the time and which parties fit that particular “image”. The NDP are trapped in an image and they must either expand their image or wait for social programs to be the only issue on Canadians minds for them to see any real success come election time.