TRU professor weighs in whether Lewis’ election will create separation between federal and provincial NDP

“There is room for parties to rebrand themselves, but it comes with a lot of high risk when they change names,” added Hanlon.

The pre-text comes for New Democrat parties following the victory of Federal leader Avi Lewis last weekend.

“I don’t see any immediate rush to changing the names of provincial NDP parties, but it’s something that they are certainly going to be mindful of,” said Hanlon. “That is going to take some strong political communication to ensure what each party stands for, and what their mandate is and the jurisdictions they represent.”

“Throughout Canada, provincial parties are often very different than the federal parties. It will take some work for them to distinguish themselves on policy platforms.”

The blurred lines between federal and provincial parties is not unique for the NDP, with provincial liberal and conservative parties have similar differences across Canada.

“Federal Conservative Party and provincial affiliates don’t agree, I mean Ontario and Ottawa, Poilievre and Ford have a thing, and the same with the liberals,” said long-time NDP member Bill Sundhu. “That is just how you navigate politics, it takes good skills to listen, cooperative, compromise, but I’m confident that the family will come together.”

Sundhu, who has run for the NDP, called the provincial and federal parties ‘one’, but agreed policy across Canada can be varied.

“Canada is a very big, regional country with huge variations. So in a vibrant democracy there is going to be differences,” Sundhu told CFJC News. “If you listen, cooperative, and you work together, where you work together and build together. As Wab Kinew, the premier of Manitoba said, we can work together, we can listen and we disagree we will disagree honourably, that is the Canadian way.”

by Michael Reeve

TRU professor weighs in whether Lewis’ election will create separation between federal and provincial NDP

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