NDP leadership candidates will face big challenges in 2017

[Oscar]

NDP leadership candidates will face big challenges in 2017

[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-ne ... enges-2017 ]

By Karl Nerenberg | January 6, 2017

EXCERPT:

But only the NDP probes the government on issues related to workers' rights (steelworkers in Hamilton for instance), on its as-yet-unfulfilled promises on environmental regulation, on electoral reform, on consumer protection and regulation of the financial industry, and on much more on the progressive side of the political ledger.

The party is playing its traditional conscience of parliament role well. It is a tradition that goes back to the days when Stanley Knowles was a lonely voice in favour of pensions for the elderly, and Frank Howard was almost alone in speaking up for prisoners and Indigenous people.

NDPers, and before them CCFers, have tended to be champion parliamentarians.

The harsh truth, though, is that very few pay close attention to what happens in Canada's parliament.

Politics has become a war of images and bumper stickers, and their digital incarnation, tweets.

Worse for the NDP -- the unfolding, worldwide political narrative poses a particular challenge for the moderate left. . . . .