I have been thinking about how the NDP are faring in #Elxn2019 and why. The platform this time is the best in a generation. But no one seems to see it.
I have seen people put it down to Jagmeet is incompetent, or party staff in Ottawa are too tame and MOR. That the party, or Jagmeet are not well organized, that fundraising is failing etc. I have seen it put that Jagmeet just cannot catch fire and then. . . there is the racism question.
I believe that racism is a large factor -- if one more critical NDP supporter, who is putting him down, tells me - "Its not his Turban, its his suits". Jeepers he learned to wear the suits to try and offset stereotyping from the turban! Not to be mistaken for a Bay St Banker!
So there are a few things no one is talking about much.
Vote subsidies, union organizing and Liberal unions. At one time NDP got assistance from unions. The CLC and the CCF were the founding partners of the NDP. Then some years ago the Liberals in office, did away with the right of both corporations and unions to donate to political parties. This seems to me wrong because corporations are bodies meant to extract profit from average people, and many are foreign owned. Whereas unions are groups of Canadians coming together for mutual benefit. BUt, fair enough. . . its done. We lived with that and the removal of the donation options was replaced by a per vote subsidy. This was designed to level the playing field. We weren't getting PR but we were getting a subsidy that would help every party that got votes. If, as was the case for the NDP (and the Greens), your vote was often scattered across the country with support in every province but was only concentrated enough to win seats in a few places you still benefited from those votes and voters through the per vote subsidy.
Harper did away with the per vote subsidy and acted in a way that made many Canadians feel like there is just no point in voting.
Now the unions cannot donate and they seem to have got very shy about being partisan. The NDP is, or rather was, the party of labour - the Canadian Labour Congress was a founding member of the party but can no longer help financially -- fine -- but now labour has abandoned the party altogether. Except for UNIFOR and Hassan Yussuff, Head of the CLC (who are clearly Liberals and support the Liberal Party) abandoned to emptiness - to no endorsement of any political party. I believe that CUPE, IAMAW, and Steel are partisan - still supporting the NDP - but will be watching to see what they do to help (if anything) after writ drop. So, now we have Labour - basically kind of saying don't bother voting or vote Liberal? So most of labour - in terms of unions - Labour has abandoned the NDP ( dear God I hope THAT defection is not turban related!!!)
The Turban
The NDP is also not getting support, because, for some reason, although I do not believe that most Canadians would reject a leader or PM because of their religion, people are terrified of a turban, and a Sikh. Some people confuse Sikh's with Muslims, and when called a Muslim - Singh refuses to say he is not - as that would suggest that being racist against Muslims is OK! Too many people think that they are racist only if they are hate filled. But just seeing someone in a turban as not PM material is racist. Everyone does not have to look like you.
I think Singh is actually less religious than Sheer or Trudeau but their's is "acceptable" religion, in what turns out to be a pretty racist/discriminatory country. I mean both Scheer and Trudeau are practicing Catholics (remember when people used to worry that they would get their marching orders from ROME?? Guess most are too young to remember JFK having to explain being a Catholic to Americans.) and no one is worrying about their religion (well some people worry abut Scheer as he seems to be a bit of a Catholic extremist and is filled with hate) except for Scheer on abortion and LGBTQ++ Legitimate concerns to be sure!!! But not a concern re: Jagmeet Singh. I have heard only trolls worry about his "religion" which is, by the way, similar in history to Hinduism, as Protestantism is to Catholicism. Sikhs also give a call out to the Qu'ran.
On Sept. 3rd 2019 - Some members of the NDP in NB switched to the Greens. Partly, they said, because NB was not going to provide a path to victory for a party with a leader in a turban. So guess we can put some of it down to racism - certainly in the east. They basically said something like -- "I would stick with the NDP if NB voters were not so racist".
Then today it appears that 7 or 8 of the 14 who supposedly "defected" did not. . . oops. . . Green party seems to have screwed that up.
So all this talk about turbans esp in Quebec where they keep repeating that Bill 21 (Secular Bill) indicates how racist and xenophobic people in Quebec are. . . (are they really?) and Jagmeet put out a video directed at them! Identity matters in Quebecois(e) and to Jagmeet.
You can see it with english subtitles here.
The media
Almost all the articles about the NDP and or Jagmeet in this election, are negative. Even where they open with a paragraph that is not an attack -- it soon gets down to it. Very soon it is discussing why the NDP are losers, or losing. The coverage is all horse races (Hey NDP did you know you are low in the polls? LOL although the polls have a nine point spread much greater than the margin of error in any of them!) and turbans/race - does it matter? NO discussion of the platform (that I expect Canadians could warm to quickly if presented to them in digestible bites) or the vision, or the commitments -- any of the things that Canadians support in large numbers and yet do not know that they NDP is taking that position/offering/committed to . . .
Some policy. . .
We know Canadians are supportive of a wealth tax . . . and yet how many know that the NDP has committed to a wealth tax of 1% on wealth of 20million or more.
"So we know It found a staggering 67 per cent of all Canadians support or somewhat support the proposal. Only 14 per cent were opposed or somewhat opposed, while 17 per cent were unsure or felt they didn’t have enough information to respond."
"60 per cent of those who indicated they planned to vote for the federal Conservative party in this fall’s election supported the proposal
Fully 82 per cent of those who identified themselves as being on the left of the political spectrum supported the proposal, as did 64 per cent of self-described centrists, and 58 per cent of those who say they’re on the right."But we know that Canadians have little idea that this is part of the how the NDP plans to pay for expansions of healthcare and housing.
Canadians also support pharmacare in large numbers and the NDP is the only party committed to a universal pharmacare program. Pretty sure the Liberals "thinking about it" will result in a patchwork. . . they will not want to hurt their friends at insurance, and pharma, and large pharmacies.
- 88% agree it is better to have a simple cost-effective prescription drug coverage program that covers everyone in the country than to have a patchwork program.
- 85% agree it is worth investing public money for prescription drug coverage.
- 84% think prescription drugs should be covered as part of our public health care system.
