169: The Death of the NDP
How a Thousand Self-Inflicted Wounds Took Down Canada's Left
The New Democratic Party is dead.
Not because of a single misstep or election loss. But because of a sustained campaign of self-sabotage, detachment, and political cowardice. A once-vital voice for the working class and social justice has withered into a husk—out of touch, out of time, and out of relevance.
It didn’t have to be this way.
But the party failed to adapt to a rapidly changing political terrain. Rather than renew its ties with the social movements that birthed it—labour, peace, feminism, anti-racism—it opted to chase legitimacy in the very institutions that neutered it. Instead of building power on the streets, it begged for approval in the halls of Parliament.
The contemporary labour movement is no longer the reliable ally the NDP once assumed it to be. Many unions have shifted to the political centre—or even the right—embracing pragmatism, nationalism, and corporate compromise over radical solidarity.
Meanwhile, movements for climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, migrant rights, trans liberation, and Palestinian freedom have surged. And while the NDP tried to keep up, they did so without conviction or coherence.
The Case Against Zionism
In particular the issue wasn’t silence on Palestine. The NDP did speak—vaguely, cautiously, and only when pressed. But they never made the argument.
They failed to lead a principled, public case against Zionism—to distinguish it from Judaism, to oppose it as a settler-colonial ideology, and to frame that opposition in terms Canadians could understand and embrace. In a country built on colonization, where the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty is both real and resonant, the opportunity to connect Palestine to Canada’s own history of land theft and cultural genocide was not just strategic—it was obvious.
Yet the NDP flinched. They feared backlash. They opted for platitudes instead of courage. And so the Liberals got away with performative empathy while backing Israeli war crimes, and the Conservatives embraced the full MAGA-Zionist alliance, cheering genocide under the guise of anti-terrorism.
A real left party would have built a mainstream popular anti-Zionist position rooted in solidarity, decolonization, and Jewish voices of conscience. The NDP, trapped in triangulation, let that window close.
In a bid for mainstream credibility, the NDP softened every edge. They blurred the lines between themselves and the Liberals, offering modest reforms instead of bold vision. And when push came to shove—on climate, pharmacare, and foreign policy—they blinked.
Voters noticed. Movements noticed. And the 2025 election delivered the final blow: only seven seats, not enough for official party status. Leaderless, rudderless, irrelevant.
Roleplay: The PMO’s Grand Strategy
Let’s shift perspective for a moment. Imagine you're in the Prime Minister's Office. You’re Mark Carney. You’ve just won 168 seats—four short of a majority. Trump is threatening the border. The Conservative Party is MAGA in all but name. You need a wartime Cabinet. A coalition of the sane.
Here’s the plan.
Operation: Absorb the NDP
The seven NDP MPs offer an opportunity. They are experienced, principled, and ideologically closer to the Liberals than they admit. Here's what you offer:
Heather McPherson becomes Minister for International Development, reorienting Canada's role abroad as a human rights bulwark against Trumpism.
Don Davies finally gets to implement national pharmacare as Minister of Health.
Jenny Kwan is empowered to tackle housing and immigration as Minister for Urban Affairs.
Gord Johns gets Fisheries and Oceans, with a mandate for climate resilience.
Lori Idlout leads Crown-Indigenous Relations, reshaping Arctic sovereignty policy.
Leah Gazan is appointed Special Envoy on Truth and Reconciliation, backed by a new federal fund for Indigenous-led development.
Alexandre Boulerice is offered Official Languages and Labour, shaping a pro-worker, pro-francophone national strategy.
The pitch? This isn’t about betrayal. It’s about building a government that can withstand Trump, MAGA, and the far right—at home and abroad.
And of course, you only need four of them.
Zombie Party, Undead Politics
What’s left of the NDP is a zombie: stumbling, half-conscious, no longer animated by purpose. It shuffles along, chasing relevance, refusing to accept that it has already died.
And that's dangerous. Because it gets in the way.
Movements need a real political vehicle. Not a half-hearted echo of Liberalism. Not a faded memory of past glory. If a new left is to rise, it needs clarity, courage, and a willingness to fight—not just for seats, but for a future.
Let the NDP rest. Or better yet, let it be buried.
In its place, we must build something new. Let the Liberals take on Trump while a new political movement, whether party, or network, can emerge to deal with what comes next.
Liberalism is what killed the NDP. And liberalism will also be the downfall of the Liberal party. Time to focus our efforts on the future of authority so that authoritarianism can be defeated before it defeats us.
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NDP was a fish trying to ride a bicycle, it's a miracle it lasted as long as it did. Electoral politics is about giving a voice to the landed, wealthy male elite, and anything else is a sham. I'd like to see a party emerge that focuses on direct democracy at the municipal level & confederates to operate at provincial or national levels, rather than wasting time trying to play the other guys' game
On the "Build something new".
I think the NDP had the same problem as the Reform/Conservative party does, which is that it tried to bring together into one tent a set of ideologies that might not be compatible -- as much as some might wish they are.
This article is focused on the NDP, so I want to point to a different article that suggested a different replacement: "What can work, and what they need to do, is radically deemphasize the social progressivism and the foreign policy issues."
https://scrimshawunscripted.substack.com/p/how-to-save-the-ndp
I know there are people who get angry whenever I say this, but I do not believe that the labour movement within North America (and maybe elsewhere, but this isn't universal) is compatible with social progressivism or the types of foreign policy issues that you just wrote about (and that I support -- I really loathe the abuse of the term "antisemitism" to justify genocidal policies).
As an individual, I am attracted to social progressive (domestic and foreign) policy, and it has been the hierarchical corporate culture and the labour/union ties that have pushed me away from the NDP.
I truly believe that the NDP should be at least two different parties at the national level. They would be parties that could work together in many areas of policy, but would not have attracted the same candidates/voters for other areas of policy.
I also believe there is something critical to learn from the fact that the NDP has formed executive branches in several provinces, but not federally. As much as they try to claim it is the same brand in some pan-National way, I haven’t seen that. Different areas of policy have been emphasized in different regions, where a provincial message is much more coherent and attractive than the pan-National message could ever be.
I think we clearly saw this election that the Progressive Conservative party of Ontario is not the same party as the federal Conservative party. I wish these common-ish sounding names across provinces and the federal parliament were dropped, as they aren't the same.
Like the Reform and Progressive Conservative parties found, Canada's current corporate culture within Democratic Institutions really only works for big parties. That is what I believe needs to change, not to continue along the same path. Ranked ballots to eradicate vote splitting is only one part of the puzzle, even if an important one. The whole narrow focus on the executive branch, the "official opposition" (regularly opposing for its own sake, and not acting as an executive in waiting), and forcing everyone else into a "back bench" also needs to be reformed. The House of Commons needs to be turned away from being a warzone of competing special interest groups and into a healthy workplace of representatives of citizens.
I know there are people who are enamoured with electoral systems such as MMP which might transition Canada from a 3-5 party system to a 5-8 party system, but it is still fundamentally a party-centric system -- and that is where I think the core problems with Canada’s Democratic Systems are.