Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Open letter to Andrea Horwath and the Ontario New Democratic Party

Dear Andrea Horwath and the Ontario New Democratic Party,

I have just watched your first television spot presenting the NDP election platform, and am as a result seriously concerned with the direction the party is taking. In the ad Andrea talks about removing HST from a few essential services and products. Frankly, it appears as though a significant amount of the NDP campaign is based around this idea of giving back a few dollars in HST to working families. Such is indeed a noble effort, but you are guaranteed to lose this election based on that platform.

                It is certainly true that many families would benefit from the HST cut and, since the NDP philosophically orients itself with a strong middle-class, support for such policy would seem logical enough. However, Tim Hudak has centred his platform on middle-class tax cuts such as the exact HST exemption proposed by the NDP, and the Federal Conservatives have already lowered taxes for some working families.  Furthermore, regardless of whether it is objectively “true” or not the latent public discourse and awareness around Canadian political candidates – this narrative in which for most Canadians the political game is played between teams with distinct characteristics: namely that NDP candidates focus on social programs (because they don’t understand numbers) while the Conservatives focus on tax cuts (because they don’t understand culture) – ensures that many (if you like, “swing”) voters who want tax cuts will vote PC. In effect, by aligning the election platform almost exclusively on tax cuts, the NDP will be donating free advertising and support to the Conservative campaign. Many voters will interpret this “new” NDP position on taxes as an attempt to pander to them to buy their votes (even while simultaneously supporting the Conservatives for pandering to them in the same way, and even while liking Jack Layton as a person, etc...). As such, if you focus on the HST cuts for working families you will lose this election, and by extension so will working families.

                Instead of small dollar items, the NDP should focus on a long-term issue with real importance to working families, and indeed to the economic and social strength of the province and country as a whole. Beginning next year, the provinces will be renegotiating the health-care funding accords with the federal government. It is clear that the federal and provincial Conservative parties will speak about protecting health care while progressively removing its funding. This is the message that the NDP needs to get into their platform and their advertising campaign: “Who do you trust with health care: the party which supports corporate tax cuts or the party which invented public health care?”

Certainly the NDP has followed such a mantra in previous elections, to mixed reception. However, as your policy folks are well aware, a number of studies have been completed over the last ten years or so which empirically demonstrate the economic value of publically-funded health care. Typically, an explanation of the benefits of health care delivered as a public service, and perhaps more importantly as a representation of public wealth, requires a long conversation. Such long conversations are increasingly impossible within mainstream “consumer” electronic media, for a variety of reasons. It is very easy for conservative ideologies to be summarized in few words: “I don’t want to pay for it.” These words, while not new, have come to dominate political discourse right now, to the extent that the voters of Toronto voted in a complete liar in Rob Ford. Ford’s policies had no chance of being even remotely possible or even rational, and yet he won the election because people are desperate for hope, a public sentiment which the Ford campaign manipulated for victory. Rational minds can ineffectively fuss and fume all they want about the decline of democracy, as even when voters know that a candidate is lying, they will often support the idea behind “I don’t want to pay for it.” Perhaps this attitude is a result of everyone being nervous about their own economic situation, as many people continue to live in the 2008 recession and do not see many opportunities for recovery in their near-future. The trick for the NDP is that the party has to convince voters that certain public systems such as health-care and education are worth paying for. You will need to do this, or you will lose the upcoming election.

                So it is with this letter that I propose new words for the New Democratic Party, words which suggest hope and optimism which is so desperately needed and so easily manipulated, while simultaneously invoking the economic pragmatism so essential in these times. “Health Care Works” – simple, short, memorable, and a good entry point into a longer conversation about how public health care keeps families working in times of both hardship and success. Health care works because large employers such as Toyota have chosen Ontario precisely because of the social benefits of public health care and education. Public wealth makes better workers. Surely your strategists already know this. Even when they intend to actually cut taxes, the NDP is the party of health care, not tax cuts.

Regards,