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In Alberta, 1993 was mockingly referred to as the ‘Year of the Family’ for Conservative MPs.
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At the end of the Mulroney era, with Kim Campbell as their unpopular new leader, the province’s incumbent Tory MPs could see the writing on the wall. With Preston Manning and the Reform party on the rise, many sitting Progressive Conservatives imagined it was time to leave politics before voters tossed them out.
In the months leading up to the October 1993 vote, one Tory after another announced they were leaving politics so they could spend more time with their families, hence the sarcastic nickname the ‘Year of the Family.’
Indeed, the Conservatives ended up losing every seat in the province.
Now it appears the federal NDP may be headed to its own ‘Year of the Family.’
Following a weekly caucus meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday, which people in attendance described as “chaotic,” three veteran NDP MPs announced they would not be seeking re-election whenever the next election rolls around.
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Two long-standing NDP MPs, Charlie Angus and Carol Hughes, both of whom represent northern Ontario ridings, are leaving, in part, because their ridings are being redistricted to make it harder for them to be re-elected and easier for the local Liberal candidates to unseat them.
Meanwhile, the third, Rachel Blaney from Vancouver Island, is leaving to – you guessed it – “focus on my family and stay closer to home.”
A fourth New Democrat MP, Daniel Blaikie of Winnipeg, announced a week earlier that he was leaving office to take a job advising new Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and because he’s “been hoping to find a way to spend more time with my young kids and with my wife.”
Being an MP, especially one who has to fly across the country every week to Ottawa and back, is tough on a family. Quitting to spend more time back home is a legitimate reason. However, it’s also a convenient cover for, “I was going to be handed my electoral head on a platter anyway, so…”
The ‘Year of the Family’ announcements, resulting from this week’s fractious NDP caucus meeting, may spell the beginning of the end of the NDP’s cozy relationship with the Trudeau Liberals.
Apparently in caucus, frustrations came to a head over NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s willingness to go along with anything and everything the Liberal government does.
There is no real pharmacare deal. The national daycare strategy created by the Trudeau government (at NDP urging) has been a flop. Housing costs continue to soar, whether rents or mortgages. And the Liberals have been plagued by one scandal after another.
In return for propping up the Grits and saving them from an election, an increasing number of NDP MPs have reportedly concluded their party is receiving too little in return.
It also doesn’t help that poll after poll shows the NDP has gained nothing from its “confidence and supply” coalition with Trudeau. If an election were held today, the NDP would win just about the same number of seats as it currently holds (24).
Some members are said to be losing faith in Singh’s leadership, especially because young voters, who are leaving the Liberals en masse, are shifting right to Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives and not left to the NDP. There is seen to be too little of a difference between Singh and Trudeau on major issues.
One NDP strategist even accused Singh of lashing the NDP to the mast of a sinking Liberal ship.
When word seeped out of the NDP’s heated caucus, even Trudeau’s office was said to be worried about the implications.
Can it be too much longer before the NDP caucus finally forces Singh to pull the plug on the Liberal minority?
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