There’s been a lot of talk over the last five years among political geeks about voter suppression. Convincing voters that politics is so nasty that, come election day, people just stay home. Now, up until now, to give them credit, nobody has ever accused the NDP of practising this dark art.
Well, that has certainly changed, because I don’t think I have ever seen a greater example of voter suppression than the current NDP leadership race. It’s like they designed it to disengage the public. Leadership races are tough on parties, but they’re fun. They expose rifts. They lead to debate. Things are said in the heat of the moment that cause excitement, which makes people care. Not with this crowd.
As of last count, there were eight different candidates. And I use the term “different” very loosely. Because I don’t know where you could find eight different Canadians who agree on as many things as these people. It’s like the worst dinner party ever.
I watched the last leadership debate on streaming video. The most exciting moment happened at the forty-minute mark, when I got a pop-up ad for a Liberty coin from the Franklin Mint. And the nastiest exchange so far came when front-runner Brian Topp, whom nobody knows, accused Thomas Mulcair of being—wait for it—a moderate. Whoa—those are fighting words. Can anyone on the left in this country make a fist?
I would like to say that there’s a fine line between an exciting race and a race that is so dull it is actually detrimental to the democratic process, but there’s not. There’s a huge gaping divide. And unless the NDP can fix this and get people to pay attention, everyone loses. Because if you can’t engage voters, you don’t deserve voters.