Can a new name revive the NDP?
Amber Hildebrandt | CBC News | Posted: August 11, 2009 9:35 PM | Last Updated: August 12, 2009
Rejected 16 times, federal party wonders if new handle might do the trick
For the first time in decades, the New Democratic Party of Canada is officially mulling a moniker makeover.
At the party's annual convention in Halifax on Aug. 14 to 16, delegates will consider whether to chop "New" from the title immediately, reject the change or ask a task force to study the idea.
The identity crisis for the decades-old party was triggered when several riding associations put forward motions to change the name.
NDP popular vote in the last 10 elections
| Date | Leader | Popular vote (in %) |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 14, 2008 | Jack Layton | 18.2 |
| Jan. 23, 2006 | Jack Layton | 17.5 |
| June 28, 2006 | Jack Layton | 15.7 |
| Nov. 27, 2000 | Alexa McDonough | 8.5 |
| June 2, 1997 | Alexa McDonough | 11 |
| Oct. 25, 1993 | Audrey MacLaughlin | 6.9 |
| Nov. 21, 1988 | Ed Broadbent | 20.38 |
| Sept. 4, 1984 | Ed Broadbent | 18.8 |
| March 24, 1980 | Ed Broadbent | 19.78 |
| May 22, 1979 | Ed Broadbent | 17.88 |
But to NDP former federal secretary Gerry Caplan, the move is only indicative of one thing: "… That the party is deeply, deeply frustrated that it can't move ahead."
The New Democrats took 37 seats in the last federal election on Oct. 14, 2008, a seven-seat gain from the previous vote.
Some people say the unpopularity of Conservative leader Stephen Harper and weakness in the Liberal camp, then under Stéphane Dion, should have translated into a larger boost in NDP fortunes. Indeed, NDP Leader Jack Layton repeatedly painted himself as prime minister material while on the hustings.
"If the NDP was ever going to make a breakthrough toward government, it was in the last election. And they didn't. They just inched ahead a little bit, in the popular vote hardly at all," Judy Rebick, longtime NDP activist and author of Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political, told CBC Radio's The Current.
Always a premier, never PM
According to Caplan, it's a recurring story. The party hasn't achieved much more than 20 per cent of the popular vote in the 16 federal elections since it was formed, he says, and that points to a larger issue around what the party's federal role should be.
"It means that Canadians don't want us to form a government. They want us to play some kind of role other than being in government," Caplan told The Current.
Though the party has failed even to occupy the Opposition benches in the House of Commons, its provincial wings have tasted victory.
The most recent win came in June when Darryl Dexter secured not only the first NDP government for Nova Scotia, but the first NDP government east of Ontario.
Manitoba Premier Gary Doer, meanwhile, is currently the longest-serving provincial leader. The New Democrat has been in power since 1999.
Caplan suggests the federal party would do well to focus its efforts on influencing the government of the day in a social democratic direction, rather than focusing on prime ministerial aspirations.
The beginning
The New Democratic Party name first came into existence into 1961 at a convention where Tommy Douglas took the helm. Douglas, who later became known as the father of Medicare, stepped down as Saskatchewan premier under the CCF banner to move to the federal stage.
Its original incarnation was known as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a party founded in 1932 in Calgary.
After the CCF suffered a disastrous blow in the 1958 election, with only eight MPs elected to office, they sought to broaden their appeal by reinventing themselves with a name change.
Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, suggests calling it "social democratic party" would be more consistent with its philosophy.
At the time of its name selection, however, the term socialist was avoided because of the Cold War climate and radical connotations, notes Wiseman.
Putting aside questions of whether the party is still "new" after almost 50 years, Wiseman says the name change proposal has done one thing: "It gives fodder for media and it gives the NDP something to talk about."
When a name change goes awry
It was an embarrassing start for Canada's newest right-wing party.
At a convention in 2000, delegates voted to call their party the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance. Add party and its acronym, CCRAP, quickly became the butt of jokes.
Then Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien observed: "I have a problem, too, when they have a name that you couldn't pronounce in front of the kids."
Days later, the name changed again — to a more sanitized Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, or CRCA.
It later became known as the Canadian Alliance.
Beyond the name
And talk is precisely what Paul Dewar says he wants for the party.
"What [the suggested name change] will do, though, is hopefully get us talking about who we are, where we are and look to the horizons to what we can do as a political party and movement," the NDP MP for Ottawa Centre told The Current from Ottawa. "I think we need to do that."
Most sides of the debate do agree any discussion should dig deeper than the name, to examine the party's policies, its position and people's perceptions.
"A name change alone is probably not the solution, but certainly it can be an opportunity to revamp — reignite, if you like — the passion of voters for a political party," says Barry McLoughlin, an Ottawa-based media consultant who has worked with politicians on all levels.
Judy Rebick, however, says she's given up on the NDP being able to change.
She was part of a group, the New Politics Initiative, formed in 2002 that pushed for the NDP to embrace a fundamental revamp — uniting left-leaning forces including parties and activist groups and working in support of participatory democracy.
In the end, she says a name change is simply that. "I'm not against a name change or for it. I think it's irrelevant."