MONTREAL—Canada's labor party, the New Democratic Party (NDP), scored its biggest election success ever in the February 18 federal election. The NDP won thirty-two seats and received 18.6 percent of the vote. This is an increase of five seats from the last Parliament.
The election was won by the Liberal Party, headed by Pierre Trudeau who will be the next prime minister. The Liberals won an absolute majority of seats, 148 of 281.
The NDP vote was largest in the western provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia. The number of seats remained the same in Ontario.
In Quebec, where the NDP has been traditionally weak, the party vote went from 5 percent in the last election to just under 10 percent this time.
The NDP campaign had two separate elements. One was the official party campaign featuring party leader Ed Broadbent. Broadbent's speeches focused on opposition to the austerity measures of both the Liberals and the Conservatives both the Liberals and the Conservatives and placed a big emphasis on Canadian nationalist rhetoric: more control by both Canadian government and business over the economy.
Key features of the campaign were defense of the nationalized oil company, Petrocan, and defense of the Medicare program.
The other part of the effort for the NDP was the "parallel campaign" organized by the Canadian Labor Congress (CLC), the union federation. The entire staff and resources of the CLC were thrown into organizing support for the NDP campaign among union members throughout the country.
This campaign involved training segsions for thousands of union stewards, distribution of millions of pieces of campaign literature on the shop floor, and innumerable organized discussions among workers about the election.
The "Cost-of-Living Calculator," a small leaflet that enabled each worker to compute the effect of inflation on his or her income for the next year, was undoubtedly the most effective piece of literature distributed in this campaign.
There was little news coverage of the CLC effort, but it was the most significant development in English Canada in this election. The Quebec unions did not carry out such a parallel campaign.
In Hamilton, the steel-making center an hour's drive southwest of Toronto, I talked to unionists involved in the parallel campaign a few days before the election.
One of them was Larry Wagg, the education director of the CLC who helped organize the effort in Hamilton. The NDP won a seat there as a result of that effort.
Wagg said, "Win, lose, or draw we come out of this stronger. We have an ongoing campaign. We have located people in the unions who are interested in politics and the NDP. Finding these new people will have a significant effect on the leadership of the local unions. There was an assumption in many unions that politics should not be discussed. But we've learned that the membership may be ahead of the leadership."
The strength and appeal of the NDP is that it is based on the unions. The party is financed and directed primarily by the Canadian labor movement. In this, it is qualitatively different from either the Liberals or Conservatives in Canada.
But the NDP campaign this time, as in the past, was weakened by its program. In contradiction to its working-class base, the NDP did not offer solutions for the immense problems facing Canadian workers.
Broadbent joined with Conservative leader Joe Clark and Trudeau in backing Carter's war threats in the Middle Fast-a Carter's war threats in the Middle East-a stance that drew immense opposition from some other NDP leaders.
Nevertheless, the NDP represents a historic break with capitalist politics by the Canadian working class.
Before the election, the Financial Post published a survey of Canadian business leaders. They were divided in supporting the Liberals and Conservatives but not a single one supported the NDP.
On election night, leaders of the three parties were interviewed on TV. The Liberals and Conservatives were in meeting rooms with generally well-dressed campaign supporters waving the usual campaign signs. It was indistinguishable from similar scenes in the U.S.
Broadbent's meeting was in the United Auto Workers hall in Oshawa, where there is a large General Motors plant. On the wall behind him was a sign, "UAW Local 222 supports the New Democratic Party."
The cameras panned the casually dressed crowd, obviously a majority auto workers.
Broadbent spoke, stressing the big gains for the NDP in the election. He then congratulated Trudeau for his victory. The crowd booed long and hard.