Role of New Democratic Party in Canada in Supporting Organized Labor

Running head: POLITICAL SCIENCE
Political Science
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1POLITICAL SCIENCE
Organized labor is a very complicated context in the labor politics. Organized labor
means the association of the workers that will represent their entities in the local and
international spheres. These associations of the organized labor will work to improve the
economic status of the workers in society.
The transition of the trade unionism began in the 18th Century when the free-wage labor
system had begun. The New Democratic Party in Canada has taken up some strategies for the
unification of the labors and protest against any injustice being done to them.
Though this party has never been in power at the Federal level of the country, it has some
influences in the bottom levels among the labors. Therefore, the relationship between the New
Democratic Party and organized labor will be discussed in this paper.
The essay aims to discuss the role played by the New Democratic Party in Canada in
taking care of the organized labor workforce, mitigating their demands and looking forward to
their well-being.
New Democratic Party and its ideals
The New Democratic Party is a very old political party in Canada. According to the
progressive politicians, one of the most important political roles of the trade union movements
was to engage in the activities where social democratic federal political party would take
initiatives to take care of the laborers.1
1 Ndp.ca. 2019. "Canada's NDP". Canada's NDP. https://www.ndp.ca/.

2POLITICAL SCIENCE
The trade unions will have to ascertain that the organized labor at the place. At the
beginning, it must be said that neo-liberal economic policies of Canada has showed the decline
of labor in the country. The question that lies here is regarding the ethical considerations of the
New Democratic Party. Organized labor is a very significant way of providing support to the
New Democrats.
This will give all types of moral and practical support to the New Democratic Party.
Some leaders of the Canadian labor union have opined that this party has been struggling to
reach the labor movements of the Canadians to be precise.
The primary purpose of the New Democratic Party has always been to reach to the
ordinary Canadian people in general. However, they have not been able to achieve this situation.2
In the polls, the New Democratic Party has lagged behind the other parties like Liberals
and the Conservatives. There are several shortcomings to this party. Therefore, they have been
unable to reach the hearts of the people of Canada.
The working president of the Canadian Labor Congress Hassan Yussuff has opined that
his union has tried to keep the relationship with NDP at a good point.3
He controls the largest labor union in Canada. Some critics have also pointed out that the
fundraising strategies of the New Democratic Party have been inferior. It has failed to cater to
2 Ndp.ca. 2019. "Canada's NDP". Canada's NDP. https://www.ndp.ca/.
3 Peter, Waterman, ed. Labour Worldwide in the Era of Globalization: Alternative Union Models in the New World
Order. Springer, 2016.

3POLITICAL SCIENCE
the purpose of the people in the labor union. The workers are not happy with the ways they have
connected with them.4
Yussuff controls several labor unions with more than 3 million workers. He has given his
opinion that Congress has put value to the relationship with the New Democratic Party. He was
very critical when commenting about the issues that he has seen in this situation.
He has mentioned that the New Democratic Party has to figure out what kind of
relationship they would like to maintain with the labor unions and people associated with it.
Hassan Yussuf has noted some shortcomings and problems. It is the fact that people
around are not giving any proper response to the party’s calling. Many significant movements
had been created regarding the creation of the party.
Many activists of politics have highlighted the fact that the labor movement of Canada
has gone through several changes over the past.5 It has always been a matter of fact that the
United States based labor unions are quite envious of the fact that Canadian unions have created
a labor union based political party that would look to care for all the workers.
The New Democratic Party now holds around three provinces in the country. These
provinces are Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. These three provinces out of 10 in
Canada provides for around 50% of the GDP of the country.
4
5 Scott, Pruysers,, and William Cross. "Candidate selection in Canada: Local autonomy, centralization, and
competing for democratic norms." American Behavioral Scientist 60, no. 7 (2016): 788.