How the NDP Reduced Themselves to Mediocrity

There is a campaign right now in my province of BC to ensure that the new Harmonised Sales Tax (HST) does not apply to bicycles. The HST is replacing the federal and provincial sales taxes, and bicycles, apparently, are currently exempt from Provincial Sales Tax (PST) but will not be under the HST. One of the two major parties in BC is running a campaign to gain an exemption for bicycles from the HST.

And this, it seems to me, is at the heart of the NDP’s loss of moral authority. The federal NDP party is no better, having not long ago campaigned hard against bank fees. Both the federal and provincial NDP parties claim to ‘get’ the danger of climate change, and frequently complain bitterly that the Green Party is taking voters from them.

But…they clearly don’t ‘get’ it.

I understand that we want to encourage more people to ride bikes. It’s good for their health, it reduces traffic congestion, and it cuts greenhouse gas emissions. And of course nobody except banks likes bank fees.

But rather than fighting for a special exemption of a few percent for bicycles, why not fight against the subsidies to fossil-fueled vehicles? If you’re serious about climate change, if you’re serious about improving health through reducing pollution, and if you don’t think we should be subsidising fossil industries, you should be working for streetcars, and building codes for shopping malls that allow electric buses to drop passengers inside the mall, instead of across the parking lot, and pedestrian and bike-friendly neighbourhoods.

If the HST adds a few percent to the cost of a bike – that should be no big deal for most people. And bike riders use roads, too, do they not? Are those not paid for with taxes?

If you’re concerned about social justice, then you should be fighting to ensure that bicycles are not such a major expense that paying a few percent more discourages it.

They are also standing in the way of going green, which isn’t helping their credibility. I ran against Lana Popham in my riding. Lana was the NDP candidate, I was the Green Party candidate. I had a chance to talk with her a bit during the campaign, and Lana does seem to ‘get’ the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

I even considered withdrawing as a candidate and endorsing her – if she would cross the floor and become a Green MLA if and when her own party didn’t follow-through on various green promises. I didn’t do it; the Green Party leader persuaded me not to, believing it would be utterly misinterpreted by the media and public, and she was probably right.

Regardless, the outcome is that a small-g green NDPer was elected…and that did nothing to green the NDP or raise awareness of the danger of climate change. The opposite has happened. The NDP has Lana fighting to keep bicycles a few dollars cheaper in an attempt to woo the cycling crowd, rather than proposing realistic solutions to deeper problems, like why we have to give people a discount of a few percent before they can or will buy a bicycle. Or talking about the fact that climate change will wipe us off the planet, regardless of the final cost of bicycles.

The same problem applies nationally – look at the time the federal NDP spend making a lot of noise about bank fees. OK, nobody likes paying bank fees, but if you can’t take it any more the credit unions will be delighted to have you. And ultimately, when you claim we’re facing ruin due to climate change, devoting your party to fight bank fees utterly trivialises this claim, doesn’t it?

With the federal Conservatives and Liberals at high levels of unpopularity and in the middle of a bankster-induced recession, the NDP (and the Greens, but that’s another matter) should be shooting up in the polls, but they’re stuck at <15%. There’s a good reason for that: The NDP has whittled away at their own credibility and their moral authority until they’ve become just another political party.

They have no vision, and as a result they chase bank fees rather focusing on actual crises. They pander to cyclists by looking to save a few percent on the cost of a bike. Why was the NDP in favour of bailing out the American auto companies? It wasn’t to save the jobs, it was to save the unions. The jobs could have been saved by putting those workers to work building electric streetcars and windmills. That would also have helped with carbon emissions and greening the economy.

I am no longer affiliated with any political party, and I can’t imagine what would induce me to run again, but I will say this: If you want a green economy, you’re not going to get it by voting NDP. They claim to ‘get it,’ but their actions speak volumes otherwise. And they continue to waste good candidates like Lana Popham in trivial causes when we face real crises.