Why do so many political writers believe that groupthink is achieved by constantly rewriting history? Never a fan of Ed Broadbent or the Broadbent Institute, it was still dismaying the other day to read a puff-piece in the Toronto Star about the so-called institute. It was promoting itself for activities planned for the next year.
But why launch self-congratulatory puffery with being excited about the publicity for the New Democratic Party in recent months. Much of that media attention was drawn by the controversy over NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. While few could have predicted the measure of his downfall at the recent party convention, it was hardly positive attention for the NDP.
Even the publicity at the convention that featured an impassioned plea by Alberta Premier Rachel Notley for support of pipelines for the products of Alberta’s tar sands was far from being in line with core progressive policies of the NDP or anyone else.
And yet the Broadbent Institute writers give the back of their hand to the Leap Manifesto, the first really progressive material from the national NDP in many years. The creators of the manifesto hardly need to be patronized or put down by Broadbent and company.
For the writers of this puff-piece to point at fundraising tactics of the Liberal governments in Ontario and Quebec is a gratuitous smear that reflects badly on provincial NDP efforts in Ontario.
And when they laud the federal government for considering reforming the Canadian voting system, it is nothing more than a plug for proportional voting. To commend proportionality as an effective electoral system for democracies is farcical. It is also an effective system around the world for despots and police state tyrants. It gives all the power to centralized political parties and little to the people. It is a system designed for illiterate voters and separates the politicians from the people who elected them.
And can you imagine these people being proud of the claim that the word ‘socialism’ is the most looked up word in the Miriam-Webster on-line dictionary? All that means is that fewer people are aware today of what socialism really means.
While there is both good and bad among the issues promoted by the Broadbent Institute, the people there seem less and less in tune with the progressive side of Canadian politics. There is definitely little future for people who spend their time trying to rewrite history. Their moment in time might be long past.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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