When bad news is good news for NDP

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/02/2015 (3877 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So how is the delegate system working for the NDP?

It seems not too well, but it’s better than the alternative.

Heading into the March 8 leadership vote, the party’s system for electing its leader, and Manitoba’s premier, is anything but transparent.

Those of us watching from the sidelines see a system where the big unions, particularly the mighty Canadian Union of Public Employees, are able send 691 delegates to the convention. That’s where up to a total of 2,271 delegates with either confirm Premier Greg Selinger as NDP leader or go down a different route, electing either Steve Ashton or Theresa Oswald as the party’s leader to guide it into the next election.

What remains to be seen is if the unions will be able to fill all the delegate positions allotted to them, an allotment based on the size of their membership and affiliation with the party.

We could see a repeat of what happened during the last NDP leadership contest in 2009 when the Manitoba Federation of Labour “redistributed” about 90 unfilled union delegate spots to party members who did not belong to a union.

That hurt the NDP’s credibility then and it could easily again if CUPE or the United Food and Commercial Workers can’t find the bodies to fill out their delegate entitlements.

More concerning, in the lead-up to the leadership vote, is that each side is puffing up their constituency delegate support numbers in the hope of convincing any soft or undecided delegates that their particular candidacy has the momentum.

No one bets on a lame horse in a race, so the three candidates are doing their best to show delegates, even union and other special delegates like MLAs and party officials, that they are the horse to beat.

“Back me. I have the momentum. I am not the horse headed to the glue factory.”

The problem is they each have different numbers.

Each side swears their numbers are accurate and point fingers at the other for monkeying with the counts. One explanation is that some delegates have been counted twice, meaning two camps claim the support of a single delegate.

This hurts the NDP’s credibility, too. If the camps are counting people twice or worse, pulling numbers out of thin air, what else are they making up?

None of this is lost on Selinger.

He insists the current process, while complicated, is still democratic and the best way to involve members from across the party’s spectrum in electing a leader.

But in the next breath he says it could be fixed.

“There’s no question the process can be improved,” Selinger says. “No question about it. Once we’re through the process, it will be reviewed. People will have an ability to look at it. You will see resolutions at the convention, for example, that are asking people to look at the one-member, one-vote system as well. I think you’re going to see some evolution on how these things are done based on the experiences we have.”

Considered to be more democratic, one-member, one- vote would give each party member the right to cast a ballot for leader.

The provincial NDP, like other parties such as Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives, had a one-member, one-vote system to choose its leader until June 2007. That’s when at convention it went back to a delegate system.

The move back to a delegate system was supported by many in Premier Gary Doer’s government and the Manitoba Federation of Labour. The one-member, one-vote system was put in place after Doer became leader in 1988, but it was never used.

Supporters of a delegated leadership convention said it would give hardcore party activists the ability to choose the leader instead of last-minute members signed up by a candidate to sway the vote or hijack the party’s agenda.

So which is better? 

Under the one-member, one-vote system we wouldn’t be able to watch this current leadership fight with such a ringside view, including a month of delegate selection meetings across the province. Instead many isolated party members would cast their ballots by phone or computer with little direct contact with leadership candidates.

Gone also would be that sense of urgency that we’ve seeing right now as each of the three candidates hustles for delegates. That hustling will continue right up until the last ballot is submitted.

The bonus for the NDP is that the delegate system also takes on a life of its own. It gathers together everyone in one convention hall making for a big media spectacle, something that’s been building over the past few weeks with almost daily newspaper stories, TV reports or social media commentary.

It’s not all good news, but it’s still free advertising for the NDP. That has not been lost on Opposition Leader Brian Pallister.

No one is talking about him much.