LILLEY: Ontario’s NDP has an identity crisis and a leadership crisis

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Ontario’s NDP introduced their new interim chief Tuesday evening however they nonetheless haven’t determined when a everlasting substitute for Andrea Horwath will likely be picked.

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It’s most likely for the perfect as a result of the social gathering has to determine who they’re earlier than deciding who will lead them.

Toronto-Danforth MPP Peter Tabuns is the caretaker chief for the social gathering, that means he’ll get all the trimmings of chief of the official opposition in Ontario.

It’s not a lot, particularly not in comparison with the home, the chef, the automobile and driver that the federal opposition chief is granted. Certain, at Queen’s Park being the official opposition chief means you get extra workers, however none of them will make you an omelet earlier than work or whip up your favorite supper whenever you get dwelling.

Reality be informed although, our premiers don’t get any of these trappings both.

Essentially the most thrilling factor Tabuns will get to do between now and when a brand new chief is chosen is ask Ford the lead-off query within the legislature every day. It may not get most individuals off the bed within the morning however let’s simply admit that these of us who centre our lives round politics are bizarre.

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The social gathering was anticipated to announce additional particulars on the management race Tuesday however that has been postpone till a later date.

“We’re a various, multi-generational, fashionable social democratic social gathering with supporters and volunteers in each area of this province. We’re financially sound and extra energized than ever earlier than,” social gathering president Janelle Brady mentioned in a information launch.

I’d say the election outcomes would dispute the concept the NDP is extra energized than ever earlier than. Between 2018 and 2022, the NDP misplaced greater than 800,000 votes and eight seats.

Certain, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives misplaced greater than 400,000 votes in comparison with 2018, however additionally they saved their majority and added 7 seats to their 2018 depend.

Ford’s PCs did that partly by consuming the NDP’s lunch in industrial break rooms throughout the province.

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Certain, the NDP tried to downplay the impression of eight completely different development unions endorsing Ford’s PC – however that’s a part of the issue for the supposed social gathering of labour. The NDP has given up on blue-collar employees and places all their give attention to lecturers, nurses and bureaucrats whereas ignoring those that get their palms soiled at work.

“I actually consider that our province is constructed by those that bathe on the finish of the day, not the beginning,” Ford’s Labour Minister Monte McNaughton mentioned in a speech to a enterprise viewers in Toronto final March.

McNaughton, and Ford, have each put an emphasis on employees within the expert trades, in development, in manufacturing at a time when the NDP ignores them. If you happen to suppose that’s hyperbole, then clarify why the NDP misplaced seats in locations like Windsor, Hamilton and Timmins to Ford’s PC Occasion.

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Autoworkers, steelworkers, miners not see themselves represented by a celebration that’s pushed by the grievance politics of teachers and concrete activists.

The NDP, which began because the social gathering of the working class, must determine if these are voters they nonetheless need to enchantment to. In that case, they might want to discover a chief who speaks to these voters as an alternative of being pushed by the woke agenda that almost all blue-collar employees don’t see as working for them.

Who the NDP picks as their subsequent chief in Ontario will inform us if they need these blue collar votes again or in the event that they’ve deserted the store flooring for the college school membership as soon as and for all.

blilley@postmedia.com