The NDP's plummet started on Aug. 25th, the day Mulcair shocked his political base by announcing the NDP would deliver four years of balanced budgets, despite record low borrowing rates and growing evidence that Canada was slipping into another recession, despite the fact that even borderline progressive economists like Krugman and Stiglitz were writing that running small deficits and spending the money on infrastructure improvements was the way to go. Canada was ready for a Bernie Sanders or a Jeremy Corbyn to inspire them, instead, Tom talked austerity.
Another turning point IMO was the NDP's failure to capture the anti-capitalist spirit of the nation in regards to the corporate friendly TPP. During the summer, when the NDP led in the polls, NDP trade critic Don Davies said pragmatism is the guiding principle for his party’s policy on international agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Davies said the NDP’s support of free-trade deals with South Korea and Jordan in the last session of Parliament were the first two such agreements the party has supported in its history. Then late in the election campaign, when it became obvious that Tom and the NDP were in trouble, Tom flip-flopped and the Liberals pounced immediately accusing Mulcair of saying whatever is "convenient." "He pretends to oppose TPP today, but he was 'enthusiastically in favour' of it at the beginning of this campaign," Liberal John McCallum said. "It's just transparent politics."
Mulcair made other glaring mistakes too. Like the day he said "Israel has no greater friend than the NDP" in response to a question about the way candidates Paul Manly, Morgan Wheeldon, Sana Hassainia and Jerry Natanine were ousted for mildly supporting Palestinians. Mulcair's silencing of opposing opinions on Israel/Palestine or the Tar Sands then cutting ties with any candidate who speaks his/her mind and disagrees with current policy, especially foreign policy, was Orwellian.
Tom and the NDP abandoned the NDP's long held principles in an effort to gain votes in the mushy middle and in the process lost election. Mulcair must resign and the NDP must put socialism back in the constitution of the party. The NDP must once again become a leading advocate for the environment, for the little guy not the corporations, for fair trade not free trade. Tom Mulcair must resign and allow new leadership to take the party back to its roots, back to being the people's party. If he continues to refuse to resign the membership must show him the door by way of the mandatory secret ballot leadership review during this coming spring's national convention.
The only place Tom Mulcair can lead the NDP to is political oblivion.
