Do Orange & Purple Mix?

It seems that the NDP Leadership Race Approvals Committee will soon have to make a very consequential decision: will they open the door to Naheed Nenshi to run for the party’s leadership?

The rules for the leadership contest say that, to run, a candidate must have been a member of the party six months ago. But they leave some room for discretion: a potential candidate who did not hold a party membership can apply.

In answering this question, the committee is doing more than considering his suitability and bona fides. It is tackling an existential question for the party: does it want to retain its place as the most pragmatic and centrist of the provincial new democratic parties? Or does it want to venture out of the NDP fold and position itself as the party of progressive Albertans?

Even with their many policy differences, New Democratic parties in Canada form a relatively cohesive network with some basic shared values, culture and organizational norms. They share some organizational characteristics that are meaningful, including ties to the union movement. Lots of politicians, organizers and activists within this network of parties refer to themselves as ‘lifelong new democrats.’

It’s hard to quantify this, but it seems to me that it would be a bigger deal for the NDP to permit an ‘outsider’ to run for their leadership than it would for a conservative or liberal party to welcome someone who had made a name for themselves in some other walk of life to walk in and compete for the top job.

If Nenshi applies to the committee for permission to run, what he’s really proposing is an informal merger between the Alberta New Democrats and his own political movement. Nenshi remains the unofficial leader of Calgary’s urban progressives. He burst into Calgary politics out of nowhere, and ran successfully for the top job. To do this, he built a movement of supporters who wanted something different for their city. The ideology of this movement is a mix of urbanism, social progressivism (such as on trans rights issues), commitment to pluralism, a dash of communitarianism and a love of politics in ‘full sentences.’

Orange and purple have lots in common: a foundational opposition to Danielle Smith’s UCP and the right-wing populism that animates it, deep commitment to social progressivism, similar stances on many policy issues. But there are also differences: Nenshi positions himself as “purple” - pragmatically mixing red and blue. Even the most centrist new democratic party in Canada might be uncomfortable with that positioning. Union organizers probably don’t see Nenshi as an ally.

Mergers can strengthen parties: this was true of the NDP (a merger between the CCF and the union movement) and the federal Conservatives. But not all mergers are successful. The UCP has struggled with the inherent tensions of its two merged parties, for example.

It’s possible to imagine Nenshi as a Jason Kenney on the left: able to bring together different political movements and perhaps even win office, but then unable to hold his coalition together.

But it’s also possible to imagine Nenshi as a Lougheed: someone who brings a new set of ideas to Alberta politics and changes the province profoundly, and for the better.

And, depending on the decision of the Leadership Race Approvals Committee, we may never find out which it would have been.

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