Forget crossing the floor; Idlout should lead NDP
Readers fixated on seeing an MP with more clout should encourage Nunavut MP to replace Singh
Some Nunatsiaq News readers have encouraged Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, right, seen at a March political event in Iqaluit, to cross the floor and join the Liberal benches in the House of Commons when Parliament resumes next week. But she could also consider replacing Jagmeet Singh, left, as the NDP’s permanent leader as a result of Singh’s post-election resignation. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Nearly a month after the federal election, some Nunatsiaq News readers continue to urge Nunavut MP Lori Idlout to cross the floor and join the Liberals in the House of Commons.
But it’s not the right move. Like it or not, for the third time in three elections Nunavummiut have elected a New Democrat who will sit in opposition. But could she lead her party?
On April 28, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals won a minority government with 169 seats in the House of Commons. That’s just three seats short of the 172 needed to form a majority government.
If just two MPs switch sides, Carney would have his majority.
Many Canadians think their community is better off with a member of Parliament who is a member of the governing party. The government will spend more money in a riding held by a Liberal member than in one held by a New Democrat, the thinking goes. Likewise, it’s easier for an MP in the government benches to get the attention of a cabinet minister than it is for a Conservative. Government MPs simply have more clout.
But crossing the floor — the parliamentary term for leaving one party’s benches for another’s — would be an uncomfortable, near-impossible transformation for Idlout.
She spent the past four years accusing the Liberal party of then-prime minister Justin Trudeau of having broken promises to northerners and to Inuit.
“A lot of promises have been broken for us,” she said in 2021, during her first interview after she announced she was seeking the NDP’s nomination to run in Nunavut.
It was a recurring theme in her first term.
If Nunavummiut are looking for a way for their MP to wield more clout on Parliament Hill, they should encourage Idlout to run to be the NDP’s permanent leader.
Party leader Jagmeet Singh announced his resignation on election night. It was inevitable, after the NDP’s seat total fell to seven from 24.
Idlout dismissed the idea of running for the leadership almost immediately.
But why?
During the campaign, she told a Nunatsiaq News reporter that, as a seven-year-old girl, “I wanted to be the first Inuk prime minister of Canada.”
The only route to the Prime Minister’s Office is by first becoming a leader of a political party.
Singh’s resignation means there’s an opening. And because there are only seven members of the NDP caucus, any of the party’s MPs has pretty good odds.
Since the election, Idlout and two other New Democrats (representing nearly half the NDP caucus) have complained about the process their own party followed to pick B.C. MP Don Davies as its interim leader.
With a four-year track record of bashing broken promises, joining the Liberals should be nearly impossible for Idlout. She would be a bad fit.
She had childhood aspirations to be Canada’s first Inuk prime minister.
Now her party needs a new, effective, popular, strong campaigner who is already in the House of Commons.
Idlout’s political career path is clear. It’s not in the Liberal benches; it should be leading the NDP’s.
Sounds like a plan! Appoint the Land Guardians to Cabinet posts… so we can get this done right
Yes it would be great to have Lori as the leader of the NDP and help shape the political landscape for Canada. The Arctic, especially Nunavut needs representation given that the world is focused on the Norths resources.
There are a few things that will need to be addressed, learning french, and growing the NDP base. The Canadian government needs to wake up. Nunavut has 3 regions. There needs to be 3 MP’s. It is virtually impossible for the MP to go to all the communities in the calender year , sometimes two years because of weather ,scheduling and the limited time the MP has when the house is not sitting.
At any rate, Nunavut is going to have great representation in a minority government needing support . Lori will be sure to be working to get Nunavut voices heard. Now to get the territorial government to work with her would be also beneficial
Might as well call it the 《Nunavut Party》 if she becomes leader.
I swear to god Corey, you smoke a bat before you write these don’t you? I’ve thought it a few times, but this makes it almost certain.
I had exactly the same thought.
Lori as leader would likely complete the sidelining of the NDP and Nunavut along with it.
NDP is useless, it’s not even a party anymore, no party status. Might as will be green part or the lesser parties.
Another long four years of no meaningful representation for Nunavut, we had such a opportunity to have a MP representing us on the winning team, able to sit at the table in the back room meetings helping to decide new funding and programs for Nunavut, again we will have a MP making some small comments in her member voice in the back of the chambers.
Nothing to see here, what a lost opportunity for Nunavut.
What would force government to build clean water facilitis in all of the Arctic communities and on reserves where there is no safe water?
The reserves have brought an awful lot of this onto themselves. The amount of money that has been mishandled and misappropriated that was meant for water is an incredible scandal.
This is a good editorial.
Yes, you’ll see the peanut gallery throwing stones and mocking, but they haven’t had an original thought in years and only know how to deride those that do. Ignore them, everyone else does.
Lori as leader would be very interesting. She may not be PM, but she would promote Arctic and Indigenous issues in a way few others could. She would have a platform to speak for Inuit in a way no one else does.
Jose Kusugak used to talk about the crab bucket mentality of Inuit politics. Instead of pulling each other down, it would be nice to see Inuit leaders lifting each other up for a change.
One of the more depressing developments of the past decade is the big-L Liberalization of both the GN and the Inuit Orgs. Always looking to daddy for a pat on the head.
Lori would have a chance to actually represent Inuit interests, free from the sycophancy and atta boys endemic to the Liberal political apparatus in Nunavut.
HAHAHAHAHA. Good joke there Corey.
Its really not though…
Thank you for this editorial!! One of the funniest things I’ve read in a long while!! Hilarious!! I laughed till tears ran down my cheeks!!
NDP are a JOKE!!! If nunavumiu want to benefit more, she should cross the floor to Liberals. nevermind be a leader for ndp!! wake up Nunavut! vote for a party that has power (Conservative or Liberal)
Is it April Fool’s Day?
It’s pretty much irrelevant what Ms. Idlout does as Prime Minister Carney is governing as if he had a majority. And it is likely that he will have NDP, BQ, or even PC support for a lot of his initiatives. Also there is no appetite for another election. Give it a year, eighteen months, or two years and we will see if the opposition parties want to try again.
The NDP will make a comeback, but to be a force for the average Canadian it needs a new leader. Mr. Singh was not that leader, and Ms. Idlout is not that leader.
The NDP needs a new Jack Layton. I’m not sure that there is one in the party, but that’s what they need. Jack was able to articulate his vision for Canada and it resonated with a large segment of the population.
Agreed… Lori’s focus has been consistently parochial and that is not the stuff of a federal party leader.
The NDP is a grievance party with little serious attention (or aspiration) paid to governance. In that sense Lori is the perfect fit.
Agreed, years of throwing shade at the Liberals seem to make the idea of floor crossing awkward and implausible.
To draw on some of the better points made above, the NDP would become the Nunavut party with her as leader. Indeed, the limits to her vision indeed appear far too parochial and small. Even within Nunavut her open hostility to mining betrays a mentality that can’t see anything beyond the extraction of entitlements from a larger government. That is her only play.
Another good observation, which seems almost certain is how this would entirely sideline the NDP, relegating them to permanently to the fringe.