Winner of NDP race faces divisions

By James Wood
The StarPhoenix
June 2, 2009

With nearly half of the potential votes already cast in the NDP leadership race, the four candidates running to become the next Opposition leader can see the finish line as they head toward Saturday's convention.

But after a hard-fought campaign that became increasingly contentious as it wore on, the NDP's potential leaders have to think not only about last-minute strategy but also about what shape the party will be in -- and what they need to do to heal its wounds -- after the last vote is counted.

From the start the four candidates brought some sharp differences in demographics, experience, ideology, policy and political style to the race. The four are former deputy premier turned energy executive Dwain Lingenfelter, Regina lawyer and former party president Yens Pedersen, Moose Jaw Wakamow MLA and former cabinet minister Deb Higgins and Saskatoon physician and activist Ryan Meili.

When controversy arose over the Lingenfelter campaign both selling and buying 1,100 memberships on two First Nations, it shone a hard light on some of the divisions that existed, said Higgins in a recent interview.

"It's a bit of a concern, that the party ends up splitting left or right when we've always done a very good job of being more all-encompassing and being able to accommodate and adjust for the different views," said Higgins, who has tried to position herself as a centrist between Lingenfelter on the right of the party and Pedersen and Meili on the left.

"I don't know whether these past events have maybe hardened the division a little bit and that's a concern, and that's a concern for the future."

NDP provincial secretary Deb McDonald said Monday that 44 per cent of the approximately 13,000 party members eligible to vote have already cast their preferential ballot in advance polling through mail, telephone or Internet. On Saturday, party members who haven't yet voted will be able to cast their ballots in real time by telephone or online or in person at the convention in Regina.

The timing around voting adds an interesting twist to the membership kerfuffle, with many party members voting as controversy flared up after the release of a much-criticized, party-commissioned report into the issue.

All of Lingenfelter's rivals accepted -- with some reservations -- the report. It said there was no evidence connecting Lingenfelter to the scheme, which saw a mass sign-up of individuals to party memberships without their consent or knowledge by a campaign volunteer, who has remained silent.

However, Pedersen had already called for Lingenfelter to get out of the race over the issue and Meili later called for the party to reopen its investigation and potentially go to the RCMP.

In a recent interview, Pedersen suggested the Lingenfelter campaign has indulged in negative campaigning against all three of the other candidates, including spreading misinformation about Pedersen's tenure as party president.

But Lingenfelter said he has tried to treat his rivals with respect and has asked his campaign to follow suit.

This is the first NDP campaign where the Internet -- with its back-and-forth between supporters of different candidates -- has played a prominent role and it "has brought a hard edge that the New Democratic Party really isn't used to," he said.

Lingenfelter has been viewed as the front-runner -- racking up financial and caucus support -- and for about three months was the only candidate in the race to succeed Lorne Calvert.

But his absence from provincial politics to work in Alberta and his support in the past for nuclear power development had already made him a polarizing figure for some New Democrats before the membership storm broke.

Lingenfelter said in the final days of a tough leadership race, there is "a sense this thing can never be brought back together," but he pointed to the Obama-Clinton battle for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination as proof even the deepest cuts can be mended.

"After a couple of weeks, everybody got back together and did what they had to do to beat the Republicans and I just know that's what's going to happen in this campaign regardless of who wins," said Lingenfelter, who noted the first job of any new leader involves reaching out to those party members who didn't support him or her.

Meili, a political newcomer who has likely been the biggest surprise in the race -- both he and Lingenfelter peg him at second place on the convention's first ballot -- echoed Lingenfelter's comments about the party coming together while at the same time getting in a swipe at the former deputy premier.

"Honestly, there will be work to be done. I do feel that unless we make a clear break from that sort of political practice and unless we are putting forward a really positive, ideas-based, inspiring platform, it will be very hard to unify the party. However, I think that's what we're going to do. I think I've got a very good chance of being the leader. I think whoever the leader is, the NDP will come together around that leader because we have to," he said.

Ironically, Pedersen, who has been most publicly at odds with Lingenfelter, downplayed the significance of bad blood in the leadership race.

Pedersen, who describes himself as a "democratic socialist," said splits in the party are nothing new and there are bigger issues to deal with.

"I don't think it's a choice of values or age or anything like that . . . I think what it is, it's a choice of direction and this party has to decide whether we're going to be a party of small-l liberals or whether we're going to be a democratic socialist party. To me, that's the big division or big question of principle and direction underscoring this race."

jwood@sp.canwest.com
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