What’s in a Name? New Democratic Party to Discuss Dropping “New” from its Name.

I find it appalling that in the midst of an economic crisis the likes of which none of us have ever seen, one of the main debates at the federal convention of the New Democratic Party of Canada will be discussing a name change. Surely there are more important things to talk about when hundreds of NDPers from across the country get together. Nevertheless, valuable time at this convention will be wasted debating a superficial change to the party’s brand.

But just how superficial is this name change? Many are worried that dropping the word “new” from the title could be seen as a move to align the party more closely with the Democratic Party in the United States. This is certainly how the move would be seen given the party leadership’s eagerness to jump on the Obama band wagon. It is getting harder and harder to find a large NDP event where they don’t start chanting “Yes We Can”. Oddly enough, if Barak Obama was Prime Minister of Canada he would be the most right wing Prime Minister we’ve had in generations.

Unfortunately, the NDP will waste this time staring at its own naval. The constitutional amendment would require a 2/3rds majority to pass and given the dived over this question, it is doubtful that they will get it. If there has to be discussion about changing the name of the NDP, I would suggest the title “Democratic Socialist Party”.