Allan Levine: Thomas Mulcair seems to be channelling Gary Doer
As many commentators have noted, Mulcair has now shifted the NDP closer to the middle of the political spectrum, and most significantly, to the right of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. Everyone from Barry Weisleder, chairman of the NDP socialist caucus, to former NDP leader Ed Broadbent have criticized him for this. Yet it may well be the winning strategy to produce what arguably would be the most significant political transformation in Canadian history. It is one thing to serve as the official opposition, quite another to be the government.
You only have to look at the political history of Manitoba to see that Mulcair’s approach is the correct one. In becoming more conservative on fiscal policy while maintaining the party’s social policy agenda, Mulcair is channelling Gary Doer, the premier of Manitoba from 1999 to 2009 and currently the Canadian Ambassador in Washington, D.C. That Prime Minister Stephen Harper sought out Doer as the country’s chief U.S. representative says a lot about Doer’s moderate, middle-of-the road approach.
A glance at Manitoba’s political history will tell you why this strategy was appropriate. From 1922 until 1958, a Progressive and then Liberal-Progressive coalition ruled, but in a non-partisan fashion. In the 1958 provincial election, the Progressive Conservative leader Duff Roblin showed that he was more “progressive” than the Liberal-Progressives, winning a minority; the following year’s rematch gave Roblin the first majority government in Manitoba since the First World War.
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Allan Levine: Thomas Mulcair seems to be channelling Gary Doer
