The president of the Canadian Autoworkers Union has written to NDP MPs to support Pat Martin's appeal for a merger between the NDP and the Liberals.
In his letter to Martin, Lewenza praises Harper's "incredibly successful" vision in uniting the right.
"The writing has been on the wall since the Conservative alliance," says the letter. "To suggest otherwise would be misleading and not credible. The CAW would be prepared to take part in this idea in the interest of progressive politics in the interest of all Canadians."
The CAW is among the largest unions in Canada, and traditionally has played a powerful role in backroom NDP politics, although during the Paul Martin minority Liberal government then-president Buzz Hargrove lent his political muscle to the Liberals.
I'm immediately curious what NDP MP Peggy Nash thinks, because her last gig, prior to her election campaign, was as assistant to Lewenza? Also, NDP MP Malcom Allen is a CAW member, as is MP Peter Stoffer and MP Claude Patry(former local president).
I believe this letter to be relevant, simply because it doesn't leave Pat Martin hanging in the wind, he finds concrete backing from a traditional NDP powerbase (recent developments incorporated). One thing is quite clear, merger talk is here to stay during this NDP leadership race, no question about it. Should be fascinating...
7 comments:
I think Nash has lots of practice dissociating herself from comments by the leader of the CAW (which btw is not one of the unions that is formally affiliated to the NDP). Before Lawenza there was Hargrove hugging Paul Martin a(that great defender of the lab our movement) nd urging people to vote Liberal. I guess Lewenza takes more of a "if you't beat'em, join 'em" attitude. In the end its all irrelevant. I won't pay attention to any merger talk until federal Liberal Christy Clark of BC announced she will ditch the BC Liberal coalition with Tories and instead join forces with the NDP in her province.
It's not "irrelevant". Sheesh.
The right wing of the liberal party, the force that kyboshed the democracy package and then voted for Harper anyway, is corporate to the core, and liberals and corporatism are mutually exclusive political philosophies, and probably why liberalism is as doomed in Canada as it is everywhere else.
The right wing of the Liberal Party will NEVER let the Party become liberal-democrat. It's their toy, and they will keep it that way.
So unless Liberals are ready to ditch their own right wing and get rid of their own fascists, the Liberal Party will be history anyway, along with liberal political philosophy.
The NDP has a much smaller right wing. And progressives will have to move to the NDP (or Greens)if they want an alternative to the Con, UNLESS the Liberals repudiate corporatism and bring in policies that will free enterprise from corporate capitalism.
The NDP has a much smaller right wing.
Does the NDP really have a right-wing to their party?
Anyway, this discussion about wings reminds me of this quote by Joe Clark:
"When I was a boy in High River, Alberta, I used to lie in the fields and study the heavens. And I noticed a very peculiar thing about birds. They have two wings, a left wing and a right wing. And if they had only one wing, they would fly around in circles."
always felt that the Liberal Party worked best from the centre. I am not at all in favour of a merger with the NDP if the thoughts are that we are moving to a left position.
I think that the old Conservative party, the Progressive Conservative coveted that middle. We have moved way too much to the right...and help me please if we move to the other pole...like driving on ice...don't over-correct..only leads to disaster
JP, I love how anyone to the right of you is a fascist.
mobious: corporatism is what it is, we don't live in a democracy, we live in a corporate state, the rich have gotten profoundly richer since Free Trade: the middle and underclasses are losing everything to the uber rich: to people who are in essence gangster capitalists: Harper certainly isn't a democrat,and the right wing of the Liberal party is also corporatist, the John Manley's etc. The big business state versus democracy is what's going on in the world.
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