The full message

Kevin Brennan posts another interesting article on the NDP's direction. But while Kevin seems to see his proposal as a radical change of course for the NDP, it looks to me largely like the party's existing plan - if perhaps with a slightly different focus:

(T)he NDP has to do two things: articulate a powerful message, and do it fast. It also needs to be a message that clearly differentiates them from the other parties, and one that can pull in voters. There may be others, but one that I think might be effective is to come out swinging in defence of federalism and the role of the federal government.

Why? Well, it’s a position that is neglected in Canada today. The Conservatives are a decentralist party that wants the federal government to do the absolute minimum demanded of it by the Constitution. The Liberals aren’t a hell of a lot better; in practice, they have drifted to the point where the federal role is mostly economic–redistributing money and balancing growth among regions. Both parties are content to leave most hard decision-making to the provinces, although for differing reasons (Harper because that’s what he actually believes, Martin because it’s easier). But I don’t see any party actively making the case that Canadian federalism is a good thing, and that the federal government should be actively doing stuff–even though a very substantial number of Canadians believe it.

It’s a winning message in Atlantic Canada and in Ontario, at a minimum. I think the only provinces where it would turn off a majority of voters are Québec and Alberta–not exactly NDP strongholds. In fact, it might even improve their vote count in those provinces, since nobody else is campaigning for those voters there. It could hardly cost them seats in either province. And (i)t would give Jack Layton a much stronger message than his current one, which amounts to little more than a collection of small things he wants to do for Working Families.

I certainly won't disagree that the NDP's strongest role in this election is as the true defender of federalism. But I'll have to disagree with the view that the NDP isn't doing that already.

Kevin seems to view the party's current focus on "getting results for people" as being different from an argument in favour of a strong federal government. But even to the extent that the NDP is now able to brag about its record, the party's signature policy accomplishment (the 2005 budget) reflects the NDP's hand in reversing a policy which would have shifted influence from government to the corporate sector, and achieving a positive result for Canadians with the money freed up in the process. And it would have been an awfully empty victory merely to cut out the tax cut with no prospect of putting that money to good use.

Stronger federalism is thus the means; results for people are the end. And it certainly won't do the NDP much good to try to focus on the former to the exclusion of the latter.

So what about the NDP's policy positions within the campaign? The strongest underlying theme within the NDP's platform is again the premise that the federal government is currently failing to take action in areas, ranging from health care to the environment to housing to education, where it could be doing a lot more good if it chose to take action...and the NDP is alone in making sure that added funding in those areas is based on concrete rules and results. In other words, while the NDP promises more funding from the federal government, it's the only federal party proposing to be at least a manager rather than a headwaiter (or worse).

At the same time, though, nobody's going to vote for the party merely because it presents the image of a federal government taking power back from the provinces - particularly if the provinces themselves have time to respond. Hence the NDP also making the case that in the areas where it proposes to exercise more influence, the effect is a genuine improvement in the lives of Canadians - not merely an expansion of power for the PMO.

In sum, the NDP's platform has been based on Kevin's suggestion all along. But instead of an empty argument based on promoting federalism solely for the sake of having a stronger central government, the NDP's platform is based both on showing that federal intervention is necessary, and on showing the concrete ways in which that federalism can help Canadians. Which should be enough to win over anybody primarily concerned about federalism swinging too far toward provincial control - but also to show Canadians looking for more tangible results that the NDP will benefit them as well.