Broadbent’s Popularity Grows : Canada’s Parties Keep Wary Eye on Socialists

Socialism has never been much of a national force in North America, and this rumpled Quebec mill town does not look like a launch pad for transforming leftist philosophy into wide political power for the first time in the continent’s history.

Neither, for that matter, does a conservatively-suited, cigar-smoking ex-political philosophy teacher seem the likely leader of a movement that suddenly threatens to overturn what was once one of the most stable and comfortable political systems in the democratic world.

Yet a recent two-day visit to Lachenaie by Ed Broadbent, leader of the New Democratic Party, was a clear sign that socialism, at least as practiced in Canada, is a serious force that no longer can be ignored by the entrenched political organizations in either Canada or the United States.

For if the New Democrats were to win power or even just hold the balance of power in a coalition or minority government, Canada’s traditional role in European and North American defense would likely be weakened and its strong economic and cultural ties with the United States sure to be affected.

Party on the Move

History suggests that such a scenario is fantasy. But after years of only regional success and support by an odd alliance of populist farmers, university intellectuals and labor leaders, the New Democrats have bolted past the ruling Progressive Conservative Party in the polls and are only a coattail’s distance behind the Liberal Party.

The latest Gallup Polls give the Liberals 44% popular support, the New Democratic Party 32% and the Progressive Conservatives 22%.

Further, Broadbent has for several months ranked well above his rivals, Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Liberal Party leader John Turner, as the most liked and trusted of national political figures.

None of this means that the New Democrats would win a national election now, and many politicians and political experts caution that the figures may reflect “vote parking”--that is, temporary distress over the inept, scandal-burdened Conservative government.

But the polls, combined with recent shifts in national voting patterns, indicate that a fundamental change could be at work, one that could turn Canada into a true three-party system with the possibility of the New Democratic Party holding the balance of power.

And as Robin Sears, a New Democratic Party strategist, said in an interview: “At this point, I don’t worry if the voters are parking here. In the past, we couldn’t even get them to drive by the garage.”

The change in voter attitudes is most significantly underlined here in Quebec, Canada’s second most populous province and the key to national success, particularly for the New Democratic Party, which has never won a parliamentary seat east of Ontario.

The polls in Quebec now show that Broadbent’s party’s strength has grown from under 10% in the 1984 federal elections to 33% now.

That indication of success, in conjunction with the recent defection of Robert Toupin to the New Democrats ranks after his election as a Conservative member of Parliament from Quebec, has galvanized the party and brought Broadbent to Lachenaie looking for tangible support.

Broadbent’s journey into an arena where political support has normally gone to the Liberals at the federal level and the separatist Parti Quebecois in provincial terms, underscored both the NDP’s strengths and the problems that it faces as it seeks to expand into a truly national force.

It has been axiomatic that only a French speaker can get even a look by the voters here. Yet, in a region where English-speaking politicians are usually dismissed, Broadbent is at least tolerated.

“It’s not very good, but he tries.” said Pierre Arpin, a grocer, after hearing Broadbent tell a joke in French that was incomprehensible in any language.

Fractured French

The best description for Broadbent’s French is “earnest.” He largely ignores the rules of French pronunciation. By speaking in French, Broadbent also loses some of the force and eloquence that marks him as one of Canada’s best speakers.

Broadbent also is the beneficiary of the Parti Quebecois’ loss of power. Although the party was best known outside Quebec for its efforts to set up a separate French-speaking nation, much of its support came from a self-proclaimed social democratic political philosophy.

With the Parti Quebecois’ defeat in last year’s provincial election, many former Parti Quebcois supporters started to look to Broadbent’s party as a natural repository for their political sympathies.

But Quebec, like the rest of Canada, is largely middle-class, albeit with liberal tendencies, and still believes that capitalism is essential to economic well-being. Furthermore, Quebeckers, as outsiders in a largely English-speaking country, want to go with the winner nationally.

So Broadbent spent much of his time here trying to assure his audiences that the New Democratic Party is not a radical party out to destroy business and that, having won in other provinces, it is now a truly national power.

During a luncheon with the local Chamber of Commerce, Broadbent recited his belief in a mixed economy, low taxes and the need for business in Canada.

Whether he reassured the cautious small-businessmen in the audience is arguable. Some were dozing and those still awake after the 40-minute speech applauded politely for less than 10 seconds.

That speech symbolized both the strength and weakness of the NDP. Broadbent and his party both espouse socialism, but in an effort to broaden support, they fudge their positions to the point where it is often difficult to distinguish them from the other parties.

In fact, while the NDP policy papers sound radical, Broadbent stresses a pragmatic program of government hopes of taking advantage of the public disillusionment with Mulroney and Turner. Canadian journalists put it in focus by distilling the NDP’s attraction down to the label “Honest Ed.”

While the party platform calls for withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the North American Air Defense Command, Broadbent quietly lets it be known that he isn’t so sure.

The party, which is affiliated with democratic socialist movements in Europe and South America, demands an end to free trade negotiations with the United States, a reduction of economic ties with America and stronger cultural and political nationalism. But Broadbent often speaks of the United States as Canada’s best friend and cites the need for strong trade relations.

What it boils down to is the subjugation of philosophy to electoral necessity, a political tactic adopted by the NDP in the 1984 election campaign when its candidates’ hard-line socialist rhetoric was threatening to finish off the party as a serious political player.

Changed Emphasis

After the party fell to about 10% in the polls, Broadbent, under the prodding of party political strategists, dropped his emphasis on issues, particularly the more strident tenets of socialism, and replaced them with an approach stressing himself as the honest spokesman for the people and depicting his opponents as two Tweedledum-Tweedledee representatives of entrenched interests.

It worked, bringing the New Democratic Party back up to its traditional level of national support. It also convinced party leaders that, to get votes, they must lock socialist issues and dogma in a closet.

What the NDP will depend on are the ordinary tools of modern successful political parties: organization, money and personality.

Whatever the tactic, the New Democratic Party is making the best showing of any North American political party that calls itself socialist, and its opponents are taking it seriously.