The appeal of new parties

OAKVILLE, ONT.—Whenever a new political party emerges on the scene, it elicits two different sorts of reactions. One type of reaction comes from political pundits; the other, from regular citizens. For instance, regular citizens will usually look at a new party and ask themselves questions such as: what are its policies, who are its leaders, and will its stances on the issues appeal to me? Pundits, by contrast, will look at that same party and wonder: how will it impact on the political balance of power? Will it steal votes away from more established parties? Should those established parties be worried? In other words, pundits tend to focus on a tactical perspective, or as I like to say, on the “politics of politics." We certainly see this “politics of politics” angle playing out, for example, with all the media buzz surrounding the emergence of a fledgling political party until recently known as Centre Ice Canadians—it changed its name to Canadian Future on Sept. 20 —which promises to push a moderate agenda that will supposedly appeal to Canadians fed up with both the Conservatives and Liberals. However, since Canadian Future was largely created by Red Tories concerned with the Conservative Party’s drift towards right-wing populism under Pierre Poilievre's leadership, pundits like to zero-in on whether the Tories should regard this new entity as a direct challenge to its voter base. Indeed, I recently saw two headlines dealing with this new party, one of which read: “New political party to take on Pierre Poilievre," while the other asked, “Can Poilievre stickhandle around rivals who are chasing his supporters?” Another story headlined, “Conservatives aren’t ‘losing any sleep’ over Canada’s new centrist party," included a quote from conservative strategist Ginny Roth who declared, “No. They have zero strategic impact. I think the PPC (People’s Party of Canada) has more impact on strategy than this party does.” Now I fully understand and appreciate why pundits and strategists love to focus on such “politics of politics” concerns. After all, it’s much more interesting and fun to write about strategy and inter-party conflict than it is to analyze boring old policy issues. This is why, by the way, if you’re working as a communications officer for a new political party, it’s always a good idea to stress to the media how you’ll pilfer votes from traditional parties as this will help get you news coverage. Heck, I’d love to write a column on whether Poilievre’s Conservatives should see the Canadian Future Party as a threat to their left flank. (Short answer: they shouldn’t.) But my point is, this kind of “inside baseball” stuff usually doesn’t resonate with regular Canadians. Nor should it. An upstart political party shouldn’t be seen as merely another playing piece to move around the gameboard, but as a vehicle for new ideas, new approaches and new priorities. Hence, in my view, no matter which party you support, you should welcome a new political party appearing on the stage. The more voices, the more choices, the more ideas that are out there, the better it is for voters. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with traditional parties facing some competition. The problem is our political system makes it difficult for new parties to fairly compete in the political arena. For one thing, Canada’s strict campaign finance laws render it next to impossible for a new party to raise the kind of money it would need to conduct polls, run TV ads, hire consultants and do all the other things political parties need to do to succeed. And in my view, whether you’re a pundit or a regular citizen, you should see that as bad for democracy. Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant. The Hill Times

The appeal of new parties

An upstart political party shouldn’t be seen as just another piece to move around the gameboard, but as a vehicle for new ideas, approaches and priorities.

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The appeal of new parties

An upstart political party shouldn’t be seen as just another piece to move around the gameboard, but as a vehicle for new ideas, approaches and priorities.

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