New Democrats set to debate pact with Liberals as party conference begins

New Democrats will get their chance to give the party's leaders an earful about the confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals when NDP members meet in Hamilton today for the start of a three-day convention.

It's the first such gathering of New Democrats since the party signed the confidence-and-supply agreement with the governing Liberals in 2022.

The federal NDP holds the balance of power in the House of Commons. The Liberal minority government relies on New Democrats' votes to pass legislation through a formal agreement that both parties signed.

Under the terms of that confidence-and-supply agreement, the NDP agrees to support key government legislation in exchange for the Liberals advancing a number of NDP policy priorities.

While national polls suggest the pact with the Liberals hasn't cost or gained the party any support, some party faithful are heading to Hamilton with concerns about how the agreement is playing out.

Trudy Spiller, the head of the party's Indigenous People's Commission, is one of them. She's going to the convention to push Indigenous rights issues and call for the establishment of a Red Dress alert system for missing Indigenous women, girls and LGBTQ+ people.

Spiller, who sits on the party's federal executive, said she's pleased the agreement with the Liberals delivered government-subsidized dental care coverage to low and middle-income Canadians. She said she also thinks it's time for her party to terminate the agreement.

"I think after this convention, [the deal] has served its purpose. It's time to get out and be on our own as New Democrats," Spiller said.

None of the prioritized resolutions set to hit the convention floor call on the party to end the confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals. It's still expected to emerge as a topic in speeches, panels and informal discussions.

"Absolutely, I'm sure that people are going to want to talk about the supply and confidence agreement, and we're going to have those open discussions with those folks," said outgoing party president Dhananjai Kohli.

MPs and NDP leaders have said that party members are generally supportive of the deal — but they acknowledge that many want MPs to use their leverage to push for stronger labour legislation, universal dental care and pharmacare. 

"I think, if anything, folks want us to be able to do more," Kohli said. "And that's totally fair."

'Liberal light'

Kristine Wickner, the NDP's B.C. women's representative, said her hope was that the agreement would have delivered more affordable housing and a wealth tax by now.

Instead, she said, the pact has blurred the party's political identity.

"I think a lot of us are looking for the party at the federal level to occupy a truly left space. And I think Canadians want that, too," Wickner said.

"When I talk to my friends who are not super partisan ... they don't really understand, at a fundamental level, the difference between the Liberal Party and the NDP. They don't see why they would vote for the NDP.

"They'll say things like Liberal 2.0 or Liberal light or Orange Liberals. And so, I think that's presenting a pretty big challenge to us. It's almost an identity crisis, it feels like."

She said she isn't criticizing the party's leaders personally. "There's a tendency to be hard on people in politics ... we need to be softer on people and harder on systems, and talk about how we create a different system," Wickner said. 

Singh faces a leadership review

One barometer of members' satisfaction with the pact could be the leadership review that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will face at the convention on Saturday.

According to the NDP constitution, if 51 per cent or more of the delegates vote in favour of a review, a leadership convention must be called within one year of that vote.

Singh has enjoyed broad support in these votes. In 2018, 90.7 per cent of delegates voted against triggering a leadership race. In 2021, 87 per cent of party delegates voted against a leadership convention.

Previous NDP leaders have enjoyed similar support during such votes. One exception was Tom Mulcair after the party fell from Official Opposition to third-party status in the 2015 election. In 2016, 52 per cent of New Democrat delegates voted to proceed with a leadership election.

Jordan Leichnitz is a former NDP deputy chief of staff and Canadian program manager in the Washington office of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a social democratic organization. She said she doesn't expect Singh to experience an upset in Saturday's vote.

"I don't expect it to be a problem," she said. "He has demonstrated great political deftness.

"He took a fourth-place finish and has parlayed that into, by far and away, the most influence that the federal NDP has ever had on government. And that is not a small accomplishment."

New Democrats feeling upbeat, insiders say

Party insiders say they expect delegates to go into the three-day convention in a celebratory mood.

The party has scored some recent policy wins — on subsidized dental care coverage, the GST tax credit and the housing benefit — and is basking in the afterglow of the Manitoba NDP's election victory and former NDP MP Olivia Chow's election as mayor of Toronto.

Chow, Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath (the former leader of the Ontario NDP) and B.C. Premier David Eby are expected to address the delegates in Hamilton.

Thanks to the confidence-and-supply agreement, this weekend's convention could set party policy that the federal New Democrats could urge upon the governing Liberals.

"Every position that the party takes is part of our policy book, and those policies are determined by the delegates who come to the convention. So, in that sense, our conventions really do matter," Kohli said.