Toronto – Ontario’s New Democratic Party has set some sort of world record for losing elections and the road is not getting any easier.
The NDP, which is choosing a new leader after Howard Hampton announced he will retire, has a discouraging record since it started running candidates first under its previous name, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, in 1934.
In 21 elections it has managed to win only one, an even longer losing streak than the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have had whole generations of their hockey fans come and go without seeing them win the Stanley Cup. The NDP is even going backwards. It has not regularly elected double-digit numbers of MPPs in recent elections, as it did through the 1960s to the mid-1990s.
Optimists in the party will argue its sole victory, in 1990 under Bob Rae, proves it can win, but that was achieved in extraordinary circumstances that will not easily be duplicated.
Voters had tossed the Progressive Conservatives out of government after 42 years, because they had become out-of-touch and arrogant, the last straw being their refusing to debate with opponents on TV in an election.
The Liberals under David Peterson replaced them, but called an early election hoping to get it over before an economic slump, and voters saw through their trickery and sent them packing, too.
They were unwilling to welcome the Conservatives back so soon, but accepted the NDP only reluctantly, giving it only 37.6 per cent of the vote, as unenthusiastic an endorsement as government can get.
Voters rarely have been turned off by the two major parties at the same time and anyone counting on this happening again could be in for a long wait.
The Conservatives and Liberals have continued to alternate in government and NDP to labour under its traditional burden of being seen by many as too supportive of government regulation and too ready to take money from the better off to help the poor. Socialist parties in many countries have watered these down to win changed images and votes.
The Ontario NDP also has had to bear – and this is never hinted at – an extra burden of being seen perpetually losing, which has proved heavy.
Voters are very interested in who is winning and news media in reports, commentaries and polls around elections focus daily on who is winning and it is never the NDP.
Some media concentrate much more on who is winning than the parties’ policies and records, which they should help voters compare.
There never has been an election in which the NDP was seen as the likely winner — even Rae’s victory caught media by surprise — so they have virtually excluded the NDP as a contender every time.
Many voters are influenced in choosing who to vote for by who is reported winning or having a strong chance.
Voters told the NDP has no chance of winning government also have no incentive to look at its policies, which might lead them to support it. Many would be surprised to know the NDP would give manufacturers tax credits to protect jobs, instead of cash as the Liberals have done not always with success, and cut hydro costs to keep them operating.
Commentators also weaken the NDP further by trotting out the consolation other parties adopt some of its policies, so it does not need to be elected.
This is not a plea for the NDP and it is true to say it has lost many elections, but voters have their choices limited when one party is called nothing but a loser.
Eric Dowd is a veteran member of the Queen’s Park press gallery.
