NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has, at long last, pulled the plug on the “supply and confidence” arrangement by which the NDP propped up the Justin Trudeau-led federal minority government. Did Liberal strike-breaking that targeted railway workers trigger the break? Perhaps.
But what about the previous good reasons to ditch the deal? Singh has yet to explain why the NDP voted for Liberal budgets that approved subsidies to giant oil and gas companies, supported their pipelines that despoil Indigenous lands, exempted big grocery chains and telecoms from heavy taxation, etc. The NDP backed the authorization of increases in war spending, including via NATO, downplayed the Zionist genocide in Gaza, and tolerated earlier examples of Liberal undermining of collective bargaining, as in the case of dock workers.
The list is long. Growing inequality, a cost of living emergency, an alarming housing crisis, a public health care system on the ropes, to say nothing of massive wild fires that poison the air — all offered ample causes to dump the Liberals.
But why now? It is obvious that NDP popularity has not grown due to its association with the Liberals, nor due to the gains in dental care services and public access to two kinds of medications.
Class collaboration with the big business Libs comes all too easily to the Singh leadership of the labour-based NDP. The inescapable question now is: what policies will the NDP tops advance to clearly distinguish the party from their erstwhile Liberal partners?
As the NDP Socialist Caucus has said, and continues to insist: To survive, the NDP must turn sharply to the left.
— Barry Weisleder
Chair of the NDP Socialist Caucus
