Though perhaps not quite to the revolutionary standards of Douglas, there might still be something for a party that still celebrates forcing change on Paul Martin’s budget in 2005 and embraced a coalition last winter. “I do think that we’re into a period where people are saying competition in politics has turned into a bad thing that doesn’t produce better results,” Anderson says. “So when they look at politicians now, they really do like those who appear to be tackling problems from an angle of: ‘how can we develop good ideas that can help lots of people?’ ”
Such talk speaks to Paul Dewar’s stated motivations. Dewar, son of Marion Dewar, the late mayor of Ottawa and a former NDP MP herself, is a notable example in a party of insistent, eager parliamentarians. Though not without the traditional indignation of his party, he is talkative, hopeful, and apparently quite taken with the post-Obama belief in openness and participation. His, he says, is the party of ideas. His, he believes, could be the party of something new, especially now, less than a year removed from an election that saw less than 60 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. “I think the breakthrough will come when we’ve figured out how to engage with the 40 or more per cent of Canadians who don’t engage in politics,” he says, “and when Canadians look to us as not only the party of opposition and proposition but also a party that is going to really change how their voice is reflected in Ottawa.”
Such is the belief for which all the preparation continues.
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