2013 national convention | Party to present winning strategies for retrieving western votes
When federal New Democrats gather next year at a national convention, they will be presented with a proposal on how to re-win the West, says an MP involved in the project.
Niki Ashton, MP for the northern Manitoba riding of Churchill and one of only three prairie NDP MPs, said Aug. 30 that party activists are organizing meetings across the region to find out how the once prairie-based party can re-establish its roots.
The initiative is based on the Lethbridge Declaration that has as its slogan: “Building a Prairie breakthrough from the ground up.”
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Ashton said the region is ready to listen to a political alternative to the Conservatives that have dominated for years.
“I really believe this government is not acting in the West’s interests, whether it is on climate change, farm programs, the (Canadian) Wheat Board and I think people are beginning to realize that,” she said in a telephone interview during a tour of her riding. “They are open to an alternative.”
But first, they want to be listened to, she said.
“We are putting together a campaign to reach out to prairie folk,” she said. “But rather than tell them what should be done, it is geared to listening and not just to our activists but to anyone who would like to speak to us.”
Two decades ago, the federal NDP dominated Saskatchewan and had significant support in Winnipeg and in ridings north of the city.
In the 2011 election, the party elected just three prairie MPs — Ashton, Winnipeg’s Pat Martin and Edmonton’s Linda Duncan.
It has not elected a Saskatchewan MP through four elections over the past decade.
The Liberals, as part of an historic drubbing across Canada, fared even worse on the Prairies.
Ashton said the NDP that now is the official opposition after a Quebec breakthrough in 2011 needs strong prairie representation to be a national party.
