Lorne Nystrom - Right Message, Wrong Messenger

December 27, 2002

From the economy to the military to the environment, Lorne Nystrom articulates a set of policies that should be attractive to a wide swath of the Canadian public and should give NDP reformers heart. Nystrom has lead the way within the party in promoting democratic reform ideas, which a include a mixed (proportional and directly elected) electoral system, fixed election dates and radical improvements to Parliamentary rules. Nystrom is a long serving member of Parliament with impressive knowledge of Canadian economic and constitutional policy. On the personal side, Nystrom is a good speaker, in both official languages, and works a room with panache. He has a loyal following of young people, many of whom voted for him in 1995 when he was, for a time, the strongest candidate in the NDP leadership race.

Along with Pierre Ducasse, Nystrom is willing to press the party on difficult issues. He hints at a new relationship with organized labour, is willing (gasp) to support more military spending (arguing, rightly, that Canadians will be more credible in world affairs if we have a serious military force), and he puts forward economic policies that look very reasonable. If there is one policy flaw, it is his unfortunate tendency to use the usual, but worn, rhetoric about the "corporate agenda", globalization and the evils of trade deals. Unlike the other leadership candidates, however, who seem to believe in global conspiracy theories, Nystrom uses the rhetoric to get the party faithful to listen to his rather sensible proposals.

Herein lies the mystery; why is this man, who, arguably, represents the most attractive personal and policy package in the race, only able to attract the support of one caucus colleague and relatively few party members? Why is Lorne Nystrom (likely) running a distant third and not leading the NDP leadership race? Why isn't Lorne Nystrom considered one of the promising leaders of this Canadian political generation?

The answers to these questions aren't obvious and lie within the realm of the minutiae of backroom party and parliamentary politics. Lorne Nystrom's weak standing within the party arises from a combination of the following factors:

1) Weak regional base. Although Nystrom has "reconnected" with Saskatchewan in the last few years, for much of his political life he was a Saskatchewanite in name only. Bringing up his family in the Ottawa area, Nystrom became a consummate federal politician but didn't develop the regional political base he needed to win a leadership campaign.

2) Compromised by constitutional politics. Nystrom's role as the NDP's chief constitutional critic during the latter stages of the Meech Lake Accord process and through the Charlottetown failure represent a net loss of political capital. Nystrom, although acting with all of the right motivation, is forever enshrined in the NDP collective consciousness as a person who defended, and worse, cooperated with Brian Mulroney on, constitutional compromises that are (wrongly) blamed by many in the Party for the NDP's slide in the polls from 1992 on.

3) Not appreciated by his colleagues. Lorne Nystrom has never been a popular caucus or party figure. He is a very persistent politician who seldom gives up a policy fight - witness his success in getting the caucus to follow his constitutional lead. Although Nystrom's persistence has helped him win a number of caucus battles, it has not helped him win caucus endorsement. Embarrassingly, even his fellow Saskatchewan MP, Dick Proctor, is working for Bill Blaikie. Although Proctor has not served on the House of Commons benches with Nystrom for long, Proctor did serve as both NDP federal and Saskatchewan party secretary -- and presumably was not impressed by his interactions with Nystrom. Nystrom has a loyal youth following, but he has little support among the party stalwarts that he most needs to win a leadership race. The party "names" are split between Layton and Blaikie.

4) Little money and organization. A poor regional base and little caucus support has made it difficult to raise money during the leadership campaign. NDP candidates, and Nystrom is no exception, get few (read no) corporate donations,and, while Nystrom has some union support, he doesn't command the respect of the deep labour pockets. Inexplicably, given these known weaknesses, he did not appear to be aggressively fundraising prior to the start of the 2002/2003 leadership campaign.

Unfortunately, for both NDP reformers and for Canadians, the prospects of a Lorne Nystrom victory in this NDP leadership race are very slim. Unless and until Nystrom addresses his weak political standing within the party and caucus and/or develops a solid regional or issue-based political following, he will represent wasted raw political talent.