OTTAWA—The labour movement will play a diminished role in choosing the next leader of the federal New Democrats after the party executive decided not to recommend giving greater weight to union votes.“It is not on the table,” NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel told a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday. “It is one member, one vote.”
Dozens of New Democrats — from both the grassroots and the upper echelons — are gathering in downtown Ottawa on Friday to set the ground rules for the upcoming race to replace the late Jack Layton as party leader.
The role of the labour movement in selecting the new chief threatened to spark a heated debate at the meeting, but Turmel laid the issue to rest on Thursday following a week of speculation.
The 2003 convention that elected Layton leader was the first time the federal New Democrats used a one-member, one-vote system, but as with previous races it also gave affiliated unions 25 per cent of the vote.
At an NDP policy convention in Quebec City three years later, grassroots members agreed to rid the constitution of that provision in a move to broaden the base of support in the context of new rules that forbid unions and corporations from donating to federal political parties.
Still, it remains at the discretion of the NDP federal council. Without any clear signal from council that favouring union votes not up for discussion, likely candidates began weighing in publicly on whether the provision should remain — exposing potential rifts between them before the race had even begun.
Long-time NDP strategist and likely leadership candidate Brian Topp said Wednesday he remained open to changing the weighted-vote system so long as the labour movement, which he called “a foundational partner,” was on board.
Deputy leader Thomas Mulcair, another likely leadership candidate, has said union members should be treated like every other member of the party.
The Conservatives had already begun taking advantage of the opportunity to stress the ties between the New Democrats and labour, even asking Elections Canada on Sunday to investigate whether the NDP had violated financing laws by allegedly allowing unions to sponsor events at their policy convention in Vancouver last June.
After getting the sense that members were uninterested in reopening the debate after adopting a straight one-member, one-vote system in 2006, the party executive decided sometime this week to focus instead on recommending a timeline and entry fee for the leadership race — expected to be significantly higher than the $7,500 required in 2003.
The party executive believes it is highly unlikely that council will go against the 2006 convention decision on the issue.
Rick Pollard, who sits on the federal council as a riding representative from Saskatchewan, noted that even without weighted voting, union endorsements can still carry a lot of sway.
“In our party we place a lot of value on the right of workers to bargain free and fairly and any decision like this will never change that,” noting that union endorsements still carry a lot of sway.
Meanwhile, NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar, also seriously considering a leadership bid, addressed concerns that his French is not strong enough to compete with Topp and Mulcair, both fluently bilingual native Quebecers.
“It is about being able to go toe-to-toe with Stephen Harper,” Dewar said in an interview Thursday. “We all have something different we can bring, but (French) is something we have seen people work on through time and improve . . . I am, like many people, working on improving that every day.”
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Source: Toronto Star
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