Movement to centre

Editorial

Last weekend saw what may turn out to be an historical turning point in Canadian politics. More significant than the landslide election of Justin Trudeau as federal Liberal leader may have been the federal NDP’s emphatic move to the middle of the political spectrum. Though there was a kerfuffle from the far left of the party, delegates meeting at the NDP federal convention overwhelmingly voted to remove the dedication to socialism from their party constitution and to otherwise make noises that sound less radical and more, well, liberal.

Coming at the very moment when the once-grand Liberal party is attempting a revival from its lowest ebb, the NDP unequivocally staked out the centre-left position that kept the Liberals in power for most of the 20th century. Thomas Mulcair is declaring himself the sole “progressive” alternative to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

Yet, even here we see a distinctly Canadian phenomenon. In this country, power drags politicians and parties into the political centre. A new book posits that Harper has turned Canada into a right-of-centre country and that his party is poised for the kind of dominance the Liberals once held, but the argument is only half-convincing. If Harper’s party remains the dominant force, it will not be because the country has moved far to the right, but because it has moved, as all governing parties do, into the centre. On the notorious talismans of social policy – capital punishment, gay rights and, most notably in the news recently, abortion – the Conservatives have accepted the centrist consensus. On a host of other issues, the warnings of a “hidden agenda” have proven illusory. Canadians stick close to the middle and our leaders follow our lead.

For Jewish Canadians, this is reassuring. Political extremes, unwelcoming poles for plenty of cultural groups, have proven especially dangerous for Jewish communities across history and geography.

The most vocal anti-Israel extremism heard from the NDP in recent decades has come from the far-left fringe that was effectively neutered last weekend. Just as all three major federal parties have moved to the middle in general, so too have they accepted, to varying degrees, the consensus that democratic, peace-seeking countries like Canada must stand with Israel in the face of theocratic terrorism.

Above all, events of last weekend demonstrate that Canada is still a decidedly moderate country. Diversity of opinion is welcome and necessary in a democracy and parties will find plenty to disagree upon but, while voters and our representatives may disagree on a range of issues, on the big, philosophical ones, we are agreed. Canadians remain tolerant, moderate and pragmatic. It is one of the reasons the Jewish community has been as integral and comfortable as we have been in this country.

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