Nothing amuses me more than watching political trolls stumbling over themselves piling onto a political opponent whenever “debate” begins over a political stance that contrasts with an opposition party’s position on any matter.
For our right-leaning parties, including Conservatives, Alberta’s UCP and the Saskatchewan Party, then, it must have felt like Christmas in March when it realized that Avi Lewis, co-author of the 2016 Leap Manifesto, would be replacing Jagmeet Singh as the new leader of the federal NDP.
What is even more amusing, however, is that by the time this crew of political anti-intellectuals got finished on Wednesday with their one-liners taking shots at the NDP provincial party leaders on the social and not-so-social networking institutions, “chat” rooms and media outlets, a deeper analysis of Lewis’s victory march was already turning their mean-spiritedness into nothing more than an April Fool’s joke.
For those of us who take our study of political matters seriously, Avi was one of the co-sponsors of the Leap Manifesto at the 2016 NDP convention in Edmonton. This document was often described by its supporters as a “roadmap aimed at transitioning the country away from a fossil fuel-based economy toward a, ‘just, fair, and caring world’” – in other words, “socialist-inspired dogma” that outside the convention’s walls painted a “leftist” Utopian vision of world economic reordering that was totally antithetical to the emerging interests of a province already a Canadian economic powerhouse based upon the exploitation of the very resource that the Manifesto sought to shut down.
Given that some four days later Saskatchewan was about to hold its provincial election, the Saskatchewan Party, its own wannabe mentality ever envious of its neighbour’s liquid gold resources, took advantage of the Manifesto’s public release, and castigated then-Leader Cam Broten for the NDP “taking a stand against the working interests of thousands of Saskatchewan workers toiling in the oil fields”. The result: the election of only 10 NDP members to the Marble Palace and the defeat of Cam Broten in his home seat in what was thought at the time to be a “safe seat” for the party.
Even today parties from the right of the political movement attempt to insinuate that the Leap Manifesto’s combining of tactics to not only address the need for climate action but social justice issues as well, was in reality the direction that any future governments in Alberta and Saskatchewan would take – even though the federal NDP had only agreed to “study” the proposal. However, when one is in opposition in the province and our media networks are either owned by U.S. hedge fund operators actively supporting the Trump regime, news articles are prepared as though they were about to be front page items in the National Enquirer, and economic research and its articulation is heavily influenced Silicon Valley oligarchs who also owe their allegiance to Trump – yes, even in Canada — it’s difficult for whatever truth there is to be presented from a paper that is definitely anti-capitalist in its making.
For a political party that relies upon its policies being created and based upon social justice principles, this lack of media exposure has for the past six or more years resulted in an NDP provincial movement becoming ever more cautious, if not outright defensive as to justifying its policies through the public media. Still, even though the Party has opportunity to get its message out to the public through the utilization of social media, even that quagmire of “brand name” peddling is clogged with the dregs of “influencers” only too willing to “slightly” exaggerate the truth in promoting their “product”.
When it comes to the NDP, however, it seems that within this cesspool of disinformation is a collection of no-nothings all-too-eager to let its ridicule-laden entreaties reign supreme, if for no other reason than to understand what is necessary for our society to progress beyond its current state of powerlessness and concern, without fear of some AI-driven war machine unsupervised by human control may be soon able to access the contents of the nuclear “suitcase”, actually requires mankind still have the capacity to think, and in the process solve its own internal disorders.
Unfortunately, it’s true that the election by the federal NDP of Avi Lewis as its leader has brought out the worst in the social media swamp. At the moment we must be forced to watch Ben Mulroney, son of former PM Brian Mulroney, now splaying the disadvantaged and the “woke” alike, or listen to so-called Rebel News “journalist” David Menzies contemptuously denigrating the reality of our nation finally recognizing the reality of our merely “renting” this continent from our Indigenous brethren, all while immaculately coiffed in his Brook Brothers imitation suit and tie, and finishing “the look” with Donald Trump Jr., big time game hunter “chapeau”.
The message that they bring with their mindless drivel is this: What they understand is the superficial; and for them and their followers on the right, even that at times is too much of an intellectual burden for them.
What the critics seem to have missed is the significance of the “sample” vote that was the voice of the NDP in this convention. Almost 100,000 individuals had the opportunity to make a choice in this event, and every one of the five candidates in the leadership contest, while not necessarily “leaders” in the sense of what Canadians traditionally have come to expect from such figures, had something positive to offer to the party. What was “missed” by the naysaying blight of “Who gives a damn about who becomes the Leader of an ‘obsolete’ party?” crew was this. First, Lewis took almost 60% of the ballot votes on the FIRST go-round, but what’s even more interesting, for the four “second place” contestants, were they to have to drop off the next potential ballot, even their “second choice” was Avi Lewis.
What does this tell us? First of all, from a statistical perspective, the “size” of this sample tells us a lot about how Canadians are starting to think and take far more seriously than what the average political scion might believe. What it then says is that we Canadians are tired and distressed by the chaos of events happening over the last five years since Covid-19 first drew our attention, and that we’re no longer willing to listen to politicians who once again are attempting to practise their political posturing through a message of hate. More importantly, though, they are finally saying that “yes”, our environment, our food supply, and our living habits must change in the face of attack from the climate change catastrophe we have created for ourselves here on Earth – and as such, the Leap Manifesto might well be worth reading for its offerings, if not necessarily for “telling us” how we should go about “fixing” this problem – because then we’ll start to disagree again, when in reality what we actually require is a consensus of opinion.
As for any “conflict” between provincial NDP leaders and Lewis, the new leader has already stated that he’s willing to listen to all concerned. Manitoba premier Wab Kinew, the most popular politician in Canada today, has already told him that he’s looking forward to the pipeline that will connect Alberta’s resources with the port of Churchill, and the rail line that will finally keep our products on Canadian soil long enough so that our trading potential with nations other than the U.S.A. may continue to increase.
Once things get moving in his leadership attempt to have Canadians better understand him, I can only see Saskatchewan’s Carla Beck and Alberta’s Naheed Nenshi following the pathway of their Manitoba colleague.
As for me, all I said to him was this: IF he leads with the patience of his grandfather David and shows the wisdom of his father Stephen, he will be successful as the party’s leader. Does that mean that I support him? Yes, but only as long as he demonstrates his willingness to follow that pathway.
