Hollow victory for NDP Leader Horwath

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After months of intense campaigning, drawing on all the resources of the organization, Ontario New Democratic Party Leader Andrea Horwath managed to hang onto her position, but only after promising to atone for her crass op­ portunism, and pledging to turn left.

The mandatory leadership review occurred at the biennial convention of the labour-based party held in Toronto, Nov. 14-16. Horwath, 52, received 76.9% support from the gath­ ering of 1055 district association and union delegates, only slightly more than the 76.4% she got two years earlier. The move to dump Horwath sprang from the discontent of NDPers with the June 2014 provincial election campaign she led. It embraced conservative populist themes and dis­ carded social justice issues. Moreover, the turn to the right had no internal mandate, and it strained relations with large segments of the labour movement.

The NDP policy shift mostly helped the Liberals. They campaigned for pension improvements and a wage increase for low-paid workers, while Horwath promoted a Minis­ try of Cost Savings that seemed to target jobs in the public service. She also pledged to hold the line on wealth taxes. Once the Liberals emerged with a majority govern­ ment, and the NDP had lost three key seats in downtown Toronto (although its overall seat count remained static), Andrea Horwath purged her senior staff and apologized to the party’s Provincial Council. She told the Convention that she would “keep talking about our ultimate values and goals and not just our first steps.” While this is thin gruel for socialists, it persuaded many members to give her an­ other chance—especially as there is no heir apparent to the Leader. Still, the mood of the convention was angry, and quite critical of the party tops.

Although the establishment dominated elections to the provincial executive with an official slate, the organized party left-wing and independent candidates did remarkably well.

The Socialist Caucus ran or supported over a dozen candidates for executive posts. They garnered from 20 to 44 per cent of the votes cast. For General Members-AtLarge, Tyler Mackinnon received 44%. For Vice-President slots, Elizabeth Byce got 28%; Julius Arscott 25%; Barry Weisleder 20%.

Independent candidate for an At-Large spot, Michael Er­ ickson, broke the strangehold of the official slate. Unfor­ tunately, party staff did not reveal detailed vote results for Region and equity-seeking committee reps to the executive. Debates on convention procedures and resolutions pro­ duced a number of upsets. In the opening minutes of the convention, delegates voted to amend the agenda, forcing the vote on Leader to occur late Saturday afternoon, rather than immediately following the Leader’s rah-rah speech set for the morning.

This meant that hundreds of delegates summoned by conservative riding and union leaders to vote to sustain Horwath had to hang around an extra seven hours. As it happened, between Friday and Saturday, convention atten­ dance jumped from 527 to over 1000. By Sunday morning it had dropped below 800.

Motions of referral, with instructions to integrate tougher language into otherwise pablum-like resolutions from the official vetting committee, succeeded in a number of cases. This radicalized the policy on Social Assistance, Post-Sec­ ondary tuition, the bitumen pipeline known as Line 9, the Ontario Municipal Board, and nearly did so on Minimum Wage.

The rebellious feeling also produced a win for more time to debate Labour issues, and it led over 30% to vote against acceptance of the Provincial Secretary’s Report, a report that was clearly identified with the failed election campaign. By far the biggest upset to the establishment was the vic­ tory for Free Post-Secondary Education, Abolish Student Debt—a long-standing Socialist Caucus cause celebre, fought for relentlessly by SC activists, led by Tyler Mack­ innon.

On Sunday morning, Ontario Federation of Labour Presi­ dent Sid Ryan stirred the convention with a hard-hitting presentation. Following perfunctory congratulations to Leader Andrea Horwath, Ryan eviscerated the ONDP June election platform. He reminded delegates that environmen­ tal issues were conspicuous by their absence. Likewise, he singled out pension reform, an easier path to union recogni­ tion, a much higher minimum wage, workers’ health and safety issues, employment equity, public auto insurance, and the need for free post-secondary education. “Don’t be afraid to advance bold policies,” said the chief of the provincial labour federation to which over one mil­ lion workers are affiliated.

Ryan outlined his strategy to win more of the 54 unions in the OFL to the NDP banner. In part, this entailed a defense of the OFL’s Spring campaign that focussed on defeating the openly labour-hating Tim Hudak and his Conservative Party, an effort which tended to condone so-called strategic voting for Liberal Party candidates.

But the overall impact of Ryan’s speech was electrifying, brilliant and militant. It was a shot of political adrenalin much needed to rid the sour taste left by the vote on Sat­ urday to prop up Horwath, and to shake off the hours of mind-numbing tutorials on the finer points of fund raising. Another exception to dull-time was an outstanding pre­ sentation by Kelsey Mech, National Director of the Ca­ nadian Youth Climate Coalition. Her articulate, energetic remarks on the theme “Engaging Youth” came very close to challenging NDP federal and provincial policies that con­ done oil and gas pipeline construction. Her remarks high­ lighted the yawning gap between youth and the conserva­ tive powers-that-be at the summit of the party and labour. This was a point echoed at the Socialist Caucus public forum on Saturday during the dinner break. Speakers Lana Goldberg, an organizer working with Aamjiwnaang First Nation members against Line 9, along with this writer, ONDP convention, consolidating about 25 per cent support on a range of issues and initiatives, and winning policy bat­ tles. Mass media coverage (Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, CTV and CBC) frequently quoted SC spokespersons. No other tendency on the left came close to matching this stan­ dard of performance. Delegates and observers snapped up nearly 1000 copies of the full-colour, glossy SC magazine Turn Left, and donated funds on top of the thousands of dollars collected prior to the convention to cover the cost of production. Volunteers staffed an SC literature display table throughout the convention.

NDPers are looking for change, but they settled for Hor­ wath under the circumstances. As Toronto Star columnist Martin Regg Cohn observed, “New Democrats are sticking with their leader largely because they are stuck with her.” That’s cold comfort for the Leader who pledged to change her ways, and who will have to keep looking over her shoul­ der, for the next four years, as the party left and progressive union leaders continue to press for a Workers’ Agenda.

Excerpts from Barry Weisleder’s campaign speech for ONDP Vice-President: • “Good afternoon, sisters and brothers, my name is Barry Weisleder. I’m the chair of the Socialist Caucus and a can­ didate for Vice-President. I am a union organizer, writer, editor, political campaigner, and a member of Trinity-Spa­ dina NDP.

The Spring election campaign was a mistake, but it was not an accident. It was a decision to embrace right-wing populism. And it was the product of an undemocratic pro­ cess. The party needs a provincial executive that will act to ensure that such a thing never happens again. Here’s a riddle: Why does it take 100 NDP officials to run a local campaign? One is needed to rent the campaign office. One to write the platform. One to put up signs. And 97 to phone members every day at dinner time to ask for money. The truth is that members want to be involved as intelligent political activists, not treated like milk cows. I am running for V.P., alongside other Socialist Caucus candidates for Executive, to offer you a new direction. We stand for socialist policies and democratic action. Concrete­ ly, that means the NDP should be the champion of work­ ers, women, youths, seniors, immigrants, and indigenous peoples.

The NDP should fight for a $17/hour minimum wage, the elimination of student fees and debt, no funding for reli­ gious schools, no new gas or oil pipelines, free mass public transit, and a sharp increase in corporate and wealth taxes. We should call for public ownership, under workers’ con­ trol, of runaway companies.

The federal party’s plan for $15 a day national childcare shows the way forward. But most importantly, it is mem­ bers who should determine the path.

As V.P. I will make every effort to ensure that conven­ tion will set election platform priorities. No longer will the EPC be permitted to rescind the nomination of a member in good standing, or to block a New Democrat from seeking a nomination.

There should be much more time for policy discussion at convention. We should be proud of the prominent role of Labour in this party. After all, this is a working-class party. Together we can build it as a party of the social movements, a party of the streets and the ballot box. A party of the mil­ lions, not the millionaires. The party of Peter Kormos.” n