this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
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Canada seems to be headed toward a two party system. I think it's extremely important that we as Canadians push for electoral reform as quickly as possible.

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 5 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

The NDP's problem is not the candidate, it's the lack of policy alternative. We just spent 10 years on very incremental small potatoes. Sure non-universal dental and pharmacare is absolutely not nothing but these are not normal times. We need some Mamdani style policy proposals, a morally ambitious program to reform Canada.

Things like:

  • am aggressive tax policy to curb income and wealth inequality, which is a ticking bomb for our democracy
  • massive increases in non-market housing to address the housing crisis
  • free university to expand and train our next generation of doctors and nurses
  • a decisive energy transition and an actual war on the fossil economy, from the wells to the pumps
  • a new urban strategy framed around transit and active transport
  • a restorative economy and actual reconciliation and land back to indigenous people
  • a program for opening our borders aiming to grow and renew our smaller towns and cities
  • a renewal of our glorious Peacekeeping tradition and a positive role in the world based on an uncompromising commitment to international law

We are facing a slew of crises from the climate, to fascism, to billionaire dragons siphoning capital and throwing us into economic stagnation.

If we don't argue for our ideals, who will?

The NDP needs to do its job and present a brave democratic socialist vision for Canada and start shifting the Overton window to a future where the Liberals would be the right and the Tories the minor party.

[–] spector@lemmy.ca 2 points 16 hours ago

You can fantasize about the kitchen sink of left policy all day long. None of this matters if the population is centrist neo-liberal minded. Carney is proof of this. Doug Ford is proof of this. Ford in particular is smart enough to know not to mess with social politics. That angers the broad spectrum center voters.

Your dream NDP candidate and platform will not suddenly enamor the population. People don't personally want to do hard things that are required to address critical issues on the economy and environment. The status quo is the path of least resistance even though the long term consequences are significant.

The problem is not so much platform. Leftist platform is well known. By now it's a big scary boogeyman thanks to conservative propaganda machine. The task is making such platform palatable. In other words selling it ways that people won't be fearful that it will put them personally under hardship.

People are short term myopic operators. The idea of a greater good for better personal outcomes does not compute. This is the fact of the matter. Why should anyone individual place big lofty but nebulous national/global issues ahead of food on the table for their family. My kids need to eat, is what anyone is thinking really.

I know you love leftist platform. You can give the list of policy all day long. That doesn't matter. What matters is making population not recoil at the thought of even one item on the list.

This is why the NDP became indistinguishable from Liberals. They could not figure out how to sell leftist platform. They got gradually nudged and scared from their convictions.

Every party is like this. They're timid inspite of some of them being blustering strongmen. They're all basically signalling to the the population not to worry because they won't be the one that makes your life harder than it already is. Unfortunately for left parties the world is right minded (though not necessarily at heart). It's the hardest to sell platform by simple metric of absolute distance. It's not about policy itself. The challenge is making that distance to left platform less scary.