Can Canada's NDP survive?

It's a tough question, raised by Canada's rough equivalent of Harper's, The Walrus.

They say it won't be easy.

They note the "Third Way" has hit all Western social democratic parties. Compounding this, the New Democratic Party never was as strong as Germany's Social Democrats or Britain's Labour.

But, the NDP joined them in creating self-inflicted pain.

And, just-resigned former leader Jagmeet Singh arguably botched it by entering the confidence and supply agreement with Liberals, arguably getting too little from it, arguably exiting too late, and exiting at a point a Liberal loss would be blamed on them.

So, many NDPers acted kind of like DSA Roseys in the US, and halfway sheepdogged for the Liberals. Certainly, many rank and file jumped ship. 

There's other problems, going back nearly 15 years.

Jack Layton caved into Canada's version of a professional class, and the NDP started moving rightward then, at least partially unmooring from his party's roots. Then came the whole fiasco of how Tom Mulcair replaced Layton. 

And, that professional class and its inside-NDP enablers don't want to accept the messages of this election:

Left-wing politics in Canada appears to be at a crossroads. The NDP just suffered a spectacular defeat. Certainly, there will be a battle for the party’s soul. But the party establishment is not interested in ceding control and seems not to have really gotten the message. They want a quick leadership race where only “serious” candidates run, with an entry fee of $150,000, five times what it was in 2017 when Singh ran for leader.

Oy. 

What gets me is why Jagmeet Singh did the confidence and supply agreement with Liberals when Pretty Boy Trudeau had already sabotaged electoral reform. This piece says that, along with European-style labor representation on corporate boards, laws boosting employee coops, a national bank and more, have to be part of a new NDP agenda. After all, much of this was part of Tommy Douglas' original agenda.

The opportunity is there. That piece, from a left-liberal Canadian site, notes new Prime Minister Mark Carney is already moving rightward. 

And so, from south of the border, if Carney keeps raising the word "Canadianism," or the phrase "Elbows Up," or the bogeyman of Trump, even while continuing that rightward move the NDP has to avoid getting suckered. And, they need to get a new party head elected soon, and someone from outside Layton's professional-managerial-consultant group.