NDP Poised To Launch Biggest Campaign Ever

<p>since 1988. <p>Probably run a full field of candidates, as well, based on all those spectacular poll results and great ideas. <ul> <p><b>Neo-Conned: How the NDP fell for Stephen Harper</b> <p>by James Laxer <p>...But on the day the writs for the 1988 election were issued, Broadbent failed to even mention free trade in his campaign kick-off statement. In the early days of the contest, the Conservatives topped the polls. In a televised leaders’ debate, however, Turner scored a powerful hit on Mulroney by issuing a warning about the trade deal’s consequences for Canadian sovereignty. The impact was immediate. The Liberals, having seized an issue that was at least as dear to the hearts of left-wing progressives, took the lead in the polls. It was a moment of truth for business, labour, social movements, and for the NDP. <p>Rather than joining the Liberals and other nationalists in a full frontal assault against free trade, the NDP reprised their 1984 election strategy, turned its guns on Turner (who was not even in office), and declared that there was no real difference between Grits and Tories. Those running the NDP campaign decided that what mattered most was the party’s seat total and its vote share vis-à-vis the Liberals, not the fight for economic sovereignty... <p><a href="http://www.jameslaxer.com/2006/08/neo-conned-how-ndp-fell-for-stephen.html"> Laxer's Blog</a> </ul> <p>...and this from a party that just went through two elections, which proved to be some of the most politically unstable in this country's history and was unable to EVEN capture enough leverage to push their own little 'favours'? <p>This from a minority party that has exist for nearly 50 years against a backdrop of cold war, red-baiting, counter-culture, civil rights movement, world oil embargo and deep recession, Watergate cynicism, Thatcherism, Reaganism, no-nuke movement, rise of the enivronmentalism, anti-globalism, neo-conservatism, the slow emergence of the Christian Right, the end of the Cold War, a string of spectacular capitalist failures (from S&L, Peso bail-out, dot.com, energy scams, sub-prime meltdown, insider trading, etc) and the rise of the US as a unrestricted 'hyperpower'... <p>AND YOU KNOW WHAT -- the NDP hasn't managed in 50 years to grab any 'credibility' or 'traction' on a single one of those fucking issues. <p>Absolutely amazing that any third party like that could survive those 50 years through only blowing hot smoke out their asses and chiming that their voters have more social conscience than the rest of us...unless of course they are a front who only get activiation/attention when they are needed to split the vote.