Nova Scotia's NDP are losing their minds !

Pulling up signs and ignoring political convention is a sure sign of a desperate party 

(A stock photo interpretation of the Nova Scotia NDP's supporters)

A story from the east coast caught my attention this week, regarding a provincial by-election which is being held in the “Needham” riding of Halifax Nova Scotia, and provincial NDP supporters stealing their opponents election signs. Before we get into the meat of the issue a little context is necessary.

The NDP in Nova Scotia had for a long time played third fiddle to the provincial Liberals and the NS Progressive Conservatives. Starting in the early 2000’s they started capitalizing on the urban support in the developing city, and by 2003 though they came third in the popular vote, but still won more seats than the Liberals making them the official opposition. This catapulted their popularity, and by 2009 for the first time in Nova Scotian history the NDP formed government, and a majority government at that. The NDP bubble wasn’t built to last however, and after a series of bad PR moves, and an inability to follow through on large campaign promises the urban support for the party absolutely collapsed. Proof of this came shortly after in the 2013 general election. Although the NDP’s support only went from 31% to 26.8%, in terms of seats they went from holding enough for a majority government  (31 out of 52 seats), to holding the same number of seats as a standard minivan (7 out of 52 seats). The leader of the party Darrell Dexter, was one of the many NDP members to lose his seat, essentially spelling the death of the party.

The last two bits of context we need are from April when the NS NDP elected a new leader, and one of the few people to survive the 2013 election, interim NDP leader Maureen Macdonald retired from the Halifax Needham riding she held for the last 18 years.

The problem with Garry Burrill is pretty simple, he isn't currently an elected MLA. Now this isn’t crazy, parties do sometimes elect a leader who doesn’t have a seat, and even if it appears his caucus doesn't support him, i’m sure that won’t be a big deal, so lets move on for the moment. Ms. Macdonald retiring from her long held (and presumably safe) riding shortly after Burrill was elected seemed like a perfect twist of fate. Most assumed the party would adhere to political convention and parachute their leader into the first available seat? Nope. Turns out the NS NDP isn’t even together enough to do that. Here’s a quote regarding Maureen Macdonald and the newly elected leader running in her former riding:

“At her resignation announcement, MacDonald didn’t directly endorse Burrill for her seat, and also wouldn’t commit to campaigning for him”

If you don’t get the subtext, the NDP MLA who held the riding, one of the only MLAs to hold her riding when the NS NDP collapsed electorally in 2013, won’t commit to campaigning for the newly chosen leader. If that doesn’t show a lack of faith and reek of a desperate party, I don't know what does. 

Lack of support from the former MLA aside, the party itself is taking the diss to their leader and choosing not to run their leader in the first election available (as is convention) but rather to wait till the all but assured fall general election. That's their defence of this action anyway.

However NDP insiders see what has really happened: the party has no faith it can win ANY NS riding, even a "safe" riding its held for eighteen years. 

Former NS NDP Finance minster Graham Steele wrote an entire op-ed for CBC basically saying the same thing. It was titled “Win or lose, Liberals win in Halifax Needham byelection”. The most interesting part of the article is where Mr. Steele drops the fact that the candidate who is running in the Needham by-election, Lisa Roberts, was the only candidate to be nominated. Here’s the quote from the article:

“It's not a good sign that the NDP, unlike the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals, couldn't even generate a contested nomination. Contested nominations are healthy and give would-be candidates a chance to show their chops.”

What this means is that interest in running in one of the safest NDP ridings on the east coast was down to literally one person - a political newbie/former CBC journalist with nothing but being a mother, and some community organization under her belt. The leader of the NS NDP himself, had no interest in legitimizing his status by running in the formerly safe Needham riding. In my opinion, the NS NDP absolutely reeks of a desperate, dying party.

When the party as a whole reeks of desperation, its not surprise that  desperation begins to trickle down to their supporters. The man pictured below is named Ken Clare, and he has recently decided to commit several acts of vandalism, in the name of the NS NDP 

(You can see Ken's subtle affiliation with the NS NDP
in one of his Facebook profile pictures)

Ken has taken it on himself to steal and presumably dispose of Liberal party election signs he feels aren’t legally placed 

(In this Facebook post, Ken brazenly admits to interfering with the Needham by-election)

The problems with his action being first of all, he's wrong :

“Halifax spokesperson Tiffany Chase said in addition to private property, signs are allowed on municipal right-of-ways — which includes sidewalks, roads, and grassy medians in between.”

Not only that but as can be seen in the previous image, Ken worked for the NDP and therefore should have some idea of the legality of what he did.

The Nova Scotia NDP refuse to abide by political convention and run their un-elected leader in a by-election partly because no one wanted to run in the “safe” riding, and partly because the former NDP-er who held said riding refused to endorse the un-elected leader. 

To top it off, party supporters have become so desperate that they have taken to committing acts of vandalism in the name of their party.

This is clearly the death rattle for the Nova Scotia NDP. On August 30th when the by-election occurs, and the NDP lose their “safe” seat we will see the beginning of the end of the NS NDP. 

When the general election occurs and the party slips from a minivan’s worth of seats, to the same number of seats as a smart car, maybe without even finding a seat for their leader to win, that will be the final sign the NS NDP is dead. In the meantime, their supporters will continue to go crazy and commit vigilante acts that attack free and fair elections.

Rachel Notely Can't Take a Joke

However, she's fine condemning political participation

Alberta’s NDP, their leader in particular are up in arms over a target shaped like Rachel Notely that was used at a golf tournament last week.  For the life of me I really can’t figure out why. Obviously I understand the offence taken, nobody likes to have their face used as a target for fast moving projectiles. As well, it’s likely few would cheer when they hear their likeness was unceremoniously run over by a golf cart, as was the fate of the target resembling Ms. Notely.

As much the destruction of an effigy made in ones likeness is unpleasant, you have to consider that to even feel that unpleasantness you have to be "effigy worthy". What Ms. Notely fails to consider is the rather disguised compliment in this action. Her political presence and activism has inspired people to actually care about politics! You know what people say about press: no press is bad press, so I can’t blame Ms. Notely for feigning outrage to make the most of this. On the other hand… really ? 

(The target in question which used a not
altogether terrible picture of Ms. Notely)

Being in politics is basically asking for ridicule. Political satire is one of the oldest forms of comedy dating almost as far back as written word. Effigy’s are often made of politicians, and they are generally made to be either: very unflattering, or very flammable  - both of which were spared of Ms. Notely’s effigy. 

Some people have responded to this trying to tie violence and gender politics into the issue. Doing so is about as regressive as you can get. Saying that Rachel Notely cannot be treated in the same way as her male counterparts (lets go with this flattering Ralph Klein effigy, and the Rob Ford golf target for similarities sake) is regressive, and misogynistic. The Alberta NDP with Ms. Notely at the helm took power after defeating the Alberta Progressive Conservatives. The Alberta PCs had held power in the province from 1971 till 2015. Needless to say after 44 years of the same government provincially, the Alberta NDP are challenging long held views that the west is nothing but a bastion of conservatism. To do this without expecting any push back is just Ludacris. 

(Rapper and actor Christopher Brain Bridges,

whose stage name I often spell in place of the word "ludicrous")

A normal citizen, albeit in a crass way, created a golf target in the shape of a politician with whom he disagrees politically. In an act of political participation, a person with the right to free speech and press, committed the egregious act of satire against a public figure.

The reason why demonizing this act gets my jimmies so rustled, is because political satire is where my love of politics started. Even before I could fully understand the issues they were mocking, I loved to watch the comedy of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and the Royal Canadian Air Farce. Heck, the only reason I vividly remember politicians like Joe Clark, and Lucian Bouchard who came long before my time, is because they were impersonated with such gusto. What the heck happened though, sites like The Beaverton which have only recently begun to emerge are about the only evidence Canadians have any sense of humour regarding our own politics. With that said, we haven’t seen sketches like Talking to Americans, News From Away, or Marg Delehunty Warrior Princess in years (to be fair they are still doing this sketch its just not funny anymore). For that matter, does anyone even get the reference anymore? When did Xena go off the air anyway … 2001, almost fifteen years ago, I caution to say it, but that’s probably when Canadian political satire stopped being relevant to Canadians.

Its not like we don’t produce funny people, or even that we don’t produce funny people who make jokes about politicians. These funny folks are born here, but we don't keep them. Half the writing staff of The Daily Show, most notably the wonderful Samantha Bee, were Canucks. Such a pity that program mysteriously went off the air (Warning admitting Trevor Noah took over TDS, is like Admitting there were sequels to The Matrix). 

(One of the top images for the google search
"Samantha Bee Canada" ... I think we've lost her)

If people don’t care enough about something they don’t talk about it with their friends, or their social group let alone participate in it or motivate others to do so. In political science we call this political apathy, and its something that most people in the field agree is sucking the life out of politics. Youth simply don’t vote, and sure maybe Trudeau was the turning point and the 18-25’s will come out in droves for every election from here on in - but I doubt it. 

People of the up and coming generations don’t care about politics. Its not that they don't care about it enough to joke about it, because thats a very different level. To joke about something, or to find a joke funny, you need at the very least some basic context, something most people 18-25 have very little of when it comes to politics. The danger we face when people demonize political satire is that people will cease to care about politics at all. Even the bottom of the barrel, crass, political satire - such as making someones face into a golf target needs to be tolerated, if thats all people have the context to understand (Notely bad HaHa! Hit face with golf ball HaHa! Funny HaHa!). If Canadians are told that even this rudimentary type of political comedy is objectionable, you then have a population who barely care about politics to begin with, don't have the context to understand a complex political joke, and are told the only jokes (or in this case cutout) about politicians they do understand are nothing but objectionable. 

We need political satire if we want people to care about politics, i’ll agree this wasn’t great satire, but to demonize it, is to attack the foundation of political participation. 

The NDP are just flat wrong on decriminalization

Do you want organized crime ? Because that's how you get organized crime...

I don’t necessarily think that the Liberal move to legalize and regulate marijuana will go well. With that said, I do think it will go a lot better than any move to decriminalize marijuana. Unlike most ambiguous questions around the legalization of soft drugs, there is some evidence to attest to decriminalization’s poor record. I am of course talking about the world’s foremost marijuana mecca, Amsterdam. 

To give a brief positive view, the Dutch policies have done a lot to reduce drug use among addicts, reduce soft drug use by youth, and have proved true a lot of the other harm reduction principles purported by supporters of both legalization and decriminalization. That’s about where the good ends. Turning Amsterdam into the number one destination for global stoners and European stag parties is a move that surprisingly is not appreciated by the majority of residents. After all Amsterdam is home to the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank house, and countless other austere cultural landmarks - but that’s not what most people think of. This is …

(A very subtle fan of Dutch Cannabis)

I can see why this rather dim view of a diverse cultural region might annoy some. I grew up in Nova Scotia after all and we have a similar situation.

(A Proud piece of N.S. Culture)

So the tourism benefits are at best a mixed bag, and would probably annoy the crap out of anyone who was a resident of the area effected. 

Now we get to the straight up bad. The Dutch laws when they were written in 1976 attempted to decriminalize personal soft drug use, while keeping traffickers out of the equation. Through a variety of loopholes, and eventual tolerance through public support, the coffee shop evolved out of these polices. Now this is where stuff gets really weird. The laws strictly forbid large-scale production. People are only allowed to buy 5g at a time, and can technically only carry 5g. Coffee shops themselves are only allowed to keep a stock of 500g of product. Now if we ignore the fact that anyone transporting the 500g a coffee shop needs is already breaking the law, how do the shops restock, because 500g of product at 5g a sale will last 100 transactions. I can tell you from experience that most shops serve far  more than 100 customers a day.  What am i hinting at here? Well because the laws are only designed to protect the individual and don’t really facilitate large scale production and sale, there is an awful lot of cannabis production that occurs on the grey market. This is produced in mostly unregulated illegal ways, then put into legitimate businesses that plead the 5th on where they got it and continue to sell it unabated. Here’s a quote from the website of one of Amsterdam’s premier seed producers:

The policy of tolerance was intended as a first step towards complete regulation. However, further steps were never taken, and the consequences have taken their toll. The biggest problem is that it is tolerated for coffeeshops to sell via the front door, while it is illegal for them to purchase via the so-called back door. Professional production is not permitted either. Thus, the system has created an operational business practise that is partly dependent on an illegal production and purchasing process that obliges coffeeshop owners to do business with criminals.

So if I didn’t explain it well enough, there it is from the horses mouth. Having a system where personal possession is decriminalized means people will demand somewhere to buy and consume the product they are personally entitled to use. 

This is what has been happening on the West coast, where simple possession has been de-facto decriminalized with various municipalities refusing to prosecute personal amounts. Coffee shops have quickly flooded in, and medical retailers are offering Skype sessions with a nurse where you can get a medical card in about three hours.  Since Canada’s dedicated medical suppliers can’t possibly be filling the west coast demand this means that there is very likely a lot of grey market growing going on. Vancouver and Toronto have begun to crack down and regulate this budding industry (Victoria has as well to a lesser extent), but the flood gate have opened and people are unwilling to comply. In the case of Amsterdam it took a while for the grey market to evolve, it was after all 1976 that their laws were changed,and ideas took a little longer to spread then. However, today  the Dutch marijuana business is by best estimates selling 265,000 kg of marijuana and its byproducts with an annual gross revenue of about $3.2 billion USD. Not only that but they are able to pass on all the experience they gained building up this hidden industry to anyone who has an internet connection. 

This is why the NDP is flat out wrong on its suggestion that the Liberals should decriminalize marijuana ahead of next March’s announced release of marijuana legislation. This will lead to a possible last hold for organized crime groups, and may give them the fuel they need to legitimize their businesses when full legalization comes. If it’s anything like Amsterdam it will also lead to a massive spike in production of hard drugs by these organized crimes groups, looking to diversify their interests. This is exactly the thing that the move to full legalization is trying to combat. 

Uruguay, a country who interestingly never actually  criminalized marijuana, tried to shut out drug producers by regulating government pot shops, that set the price at half of the black market average. This move undercut the black market so much that many experts speculate illegal cannabis production has all but ceased in the country. All thanks to the market, not heavy handed enforcement. 

Whats the summation here? Back off NDP, unless you want to help create the next great crime syndicate, the Liberals actually seem to be navigating this as best they can. Let’s not turn Canada into one big Amsterdam.