Social Democracy Without Illusions: Renewal of the Canadian Left

Richard Wilbur is Supervisor of the Legislative Research Service at the
New Brunswick Legislature and author of The Rise of French New
Brunswick.

Like many multi-authored efforts, this collection of essays came out of
a conference—in this case one held at McGill University in 1988 on the
general theme “The Economics of Social Democracy.” With a couple of
notable exceptions that are glaringly apparent in the last two essays,
the contributors still are NDPers, but, except for the bland comments of
Allan Blakeney, they are frustrated with the way the party of
Woodsworth, Douglas, and Lewis seems to be drifting under its present
leadership.

Most contributors were either aware of the collapse of the Soviet Union
or could see it coming—not that any of them, as democratic socialists,
were much influenced by that failed experiment. Most still look to
Sweden for ideas, and the article by Henry Milner is based on a year of
living in that country. Several echo Milner’s plea for a tripartite
approach to economic planning, and urge Canadian labor-union leaders to
put aside their outdated confrontational stance and instead sit down
with government and business to work out a common economic strategy.
Oddly, Blakeney and Milner are the only ones who note the progress
Quebec has made toward “joint economic consultation.”

Lynn McDonald’s urgent plea for the NDP to become “the green party
of Canada” stands out in bold relief, as does her clear writing style
and her gender. Was it coincidence that the only female contributor and
the only one to sit in Parliament is also the only one without an
academic post? Couldn’t the editors have found other women supporters
of the party to write their views? Judging by McDonald’s effort, they
would have strengthened and broadened the book’s diverse message.

The views of the last three contributors are stated so strongly and
succinctly that this reader was left wondering if the NDP would survive
the decade. Pierre Fortin challenges Canadian social democrats to
disprove his conclusion that Canada lacks a politically feasible policy
to reduce the pain of combatting inflation. His fellow Montrealer, John
McCallum, who used to advise the Schreyer government in Manitoba, in
explaining why he no longer takes the party seriously, charges that
federal NDP policy is dominated by leaders of special-interest groups,
especially those claiming to represent labor and women. The final essay,
by Clarence Barber, on Canada’s flawed economic policy, never mentions
the NDP. Instead, Barber extols the efforts of Sweden’s Social
Democrats to adopt combinations of income policies and fiscal and
monetary restraint that they hope would lower the country’s inflation
rate without increasing unemployment. Why didn’t the NDP advocate such
a policy in Canada?

In all, a provocative set of essays, one the movers and shakers of
Canada’s NDP should seriously consider.