Is this surprising?
It's like the conservatives pretending to be multicultural.
Mind you, a socially democratic state would still take the side of unions rather than corporations.
Not necessarily. Just look at Germany and Sweden, which chose instead to turn to co-determination so as to encourage more unity between labour and management rather than constant confrontation.
Not all socialists are the same.
Soon the labour movement is going to recognize that the NDP does not represent them and hasn't for some time. Except for the government unions which is not in the best interests of anyone that pays income tax. Their fantasy land view of economics will simply kill jobs for their supporters. Too bad really because we need representation that can counter the far right without being polar opposite or being a bunch of crooks.
I think one reason social democrats proved more successful in Sweden is that they're more social-corporatist than they are labour-socialist, preferring labour-management unity over labour-management confrontation.
I wonder if she also does a unique version of kumbaya?
And she's a university student? Seriously, I'm sure she could have come up with someting more intelligent than that.
Anyway, I was watching a little bit of the NDP convention on CPAC last night, and I have to say what I thought would happen seems to have happened to a small degree. There is a mild rift between those who want to pull the party more towards the centre and those who want to keep the party as it is or even bring it back to before.
Surely, this is not sustainable in the long run, and the NDP will be forced to make some hard choices, having to make a decision between alienating their core voters to seek out new ones, or keep with the core voters and possibly go back to their previous position.
Well, in the end, it's up to them of course, yet I'm not totally surprised that the NDP's success lately has caused such a rift.
Honestly though, when I was watching the Conservative convention, I'd noticed a similar mild rift between the old Reformers and the old Progressive Concervatives.
I guess the lesson is, it's easy to hold fringe ideas when you're a fringe party. The moment you become a major player, suddenly you're forced to make some tough choices, shifting to the centre to maintain your advantage, or keeping with the old principles and possibly fall back to where you were before.
It will be interesting to see how these two parties deal with these currenly minor rifts.
