A day after announcing she would resign later this year as federal New
Democratic Party leader, Alex McDonough was on her feet in the House of
Commons June 6, asking one of those serious policy questions that has
garnered her little media attention in scandal-obsessed Ottawa.
Why doesn’t the government make ethanol mandatory in gasoline? “It
could reduce fossil fuel consumption and save the family farm.”
Natural resources minister Herb Dhaliwal said the government is
considering it, but it needs consultations with provinces and the oil
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It left McDonough fuming.
“This should be a no-brainer,” she said in a later interview.
“It is a perfect opportunity to deal with two big files, environment
and the farm crisis. This government is drifting.”
As she spoke in the Commons lobby, reporters were running past her this
way and that, chasing opposition MPs prepared to cry “corruption” and
any Liberal MP prepared to shout “Chrétien should resign”.
Her inability to catch public attention and lift the NDP out of its
popularity doldrums is one reason the Halifax MP has decided to step
down after almost seven years as leader. She said it is part of the
party’s renewal process.
During her leadership, the party scored breakthrough electoral support
in Atlantic Canada, but lost ground in its traditional heartland of the
rural Prairies.
As a leadership race develops with at least two veteran prairie MPs as
likely candidates, part of the debate will be how, or if, the party can
regain the favour of farmers and rural voters.
“It’s a good question and if I knew the answer, I suppose I’d be
running, which I’m not,” said NDP caucus chair Dick Proctor of Regina.
“There’s no question we have been badly injured by the rise of Reform
Alliance and it has eroded our support in the rural areas that
sustained Tommy Douglas during his years as premier.”
Proctor himself is an example.
In 1997, he won the Palliser seat on the strength of the Regina vote
while losing every rural poll.
In 2000, after years as the party agriculture critic and a sustained
effort to become better known in the riding’s rural districts, he won
on the strength of the city vote and lost all rural polls by bigger
margins than in 1997.
For veteran Saskatchewan MP Lorne Nystrom, who is almost certain to
make his third attempt to win the leadership, the answer is for the
party to move the emphasis away from “social justice” issues and to
concentrate on strong economic policies and democratic issues.
“I think the Reform party took over a lot of our populist base and we
have to return to democracy issues like getting rid of the Senate,
accountability, proportional representation, things like that.”
Winnipeg MP Bill Blaikie is likely to be the other prairie candidate.
As New Democrats tried to peer into their future last week, there was
little talk about need to reform traditional NDP farm policies of
advocating orderly marketing and strong farm supports.
McDonough suggested farmers have strayed from their traditional
political preferences, but will return when they realize the error of
their ways.
“We have been through a very distressing period when snake oil has been
sold to farmers in this country that somehow abandoning sensible
support programs was the way to go,” she said.
It was primarily Reform, later picked up by the Liberals.
She said she is “optimistic” that the tide is turning back to the view
that markets are not necessarily fair for farmers and the NDP will
benefit from that.
“Now that farmers realize they need help, the Alliance is passing
itself off as a defender of farm support,” McDonough said.
“They are not.”
