christiesplits
Senior Member
This will never occur while Horwath and the Hamiltonians are in charge. The party needs a reboot, which will hopefully happen when they botch another election (or not, the ONDP seems to like to stick to their guns regardless of what is going on around them).
I think the Ontario NDP, and to a certain extent its federal counterparts, is at the fork in the road when it comes to its Left wing bonfides. Is it a bread and butter labour party, focused on issues like income inequality and labour rights, or does it attempt to reach out to the more urbane, cosmopolitan brand of leftism that seems to fall under the Wynne Liberal Party wing? This can sort of be seen south of the border with the divide between the Bernie Sanders 'class trumps all' rhetoric versus the identity politics emphasized by Clinton et al. Similar divisions can be seen in the 'Old Labour' vs. 'New Labour,' Corbynites vs. Blairites skirmishes in the UK.
The modern Liberal Party of Trudeau and Wynne speak the language of the upper-middle class, creative, and bourgeois-lefty types - condo dwellers who support issues like public transit and Gay Straight Alliances in schools, but whose eyes glaze over when the NDP talk about P3s or union rights. Can the folksy Horwath appeal to the Annex and Beaches crowd? Or is the Ontario NDP's energy better spent courting voters in the inner suburbs and Southern Ontario rust belt who feel overworked, have little job security and feel like the shift to the 'knowledge based' economy is leaving them behind? Jack Layton in 2011 was successful in reaching both constituencies. I'm not sure if Horwath can.
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