Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 17/01) - Western Arctic NDP members, social democrats, and activists, along with federal New Democrats Leader Alexa McDonough gathered Wednesday to try and figure out a way to put the "left" back into Canadian politics.

The NDP's renewal forum at the Yellowknife Inn was one of 50 such public consultation meetings currently being held across the country in continuing efforts to rebuild the party.

Most of the 30 participants at the meeting agreed that the NDP -- or the political left for that matter -- is vastly under-represented in Ottawa, and like its counterparts on the right, plagued with internal divisions.

The rumbling within the ranks was all the more visible earlier in McDonough's meeting with social democrats in Vancouver before coming to Yellowknife.

NDP MP and former leadership rival Svend Robinson openly flaunted his New Policy Initiative platform, which eschews traditional big labour support for a more youthful and activist approach to leftist politics.

"Representatives from every part of the country are out there talking to Canadians who share the same values, so we can build an alternative to what we got (in Ottawa)," said McDonough in an interview with Yellowknifer.

When asked specifically what the NDP needs to do to regain its winning form in the North -- the party has not held the Western Arctic since Wally Firth won it in 1979's federal election -- McDonough had few answers to offer.

"That's part of why I'm here, to find out," she said. "That's a question that has to be answered by Northerners."

McDonough's visit to Yellowknife was brief, yet hectic. She lunched with representatives of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and then joined them briefly on the picket line to support them in their demand for higher wages from the federal government.

When not at the renewal forum, McDonough entertained media organizations in Yellowknife with interviews, and finished her day with a fundraising dinner at the Wildcat Cafe.

All the whirlwind activity lent the impression of a leader not only fighting for her party, but her job.

Yet McDonough insisted that her role as leader of the party is irrelevant, as long as her party can find away to rebuild.

"No leader is here to stay," she reiterated. "Any leader that thinks they're here to stay needs to go."

Fortunately for McDonough, the atmosphere at the renewal forum was relatively chummy -- even laid back.

None of the questions asked by participants at the forum were directed at her leadership, but rather focused primarily on party direction and ways to make the NDP more effective come next election.

"I don't see a problem with our message," said former Western Arctic NDP candidate Mary Beth Levan at the meeting.

"But we don't have a good understanding of building relationships and networking. There needs to be a big turnaround on how we look at things internally... Without relationships, we're dead."

As suggestion after suggestion was scribbled onto a scroll board kept by NDP staffer Ron Stipp, the irony of the party's seeming invisibility was not lost on the forum's participants when a intoxicated man found his way into the room and made a few suggestions of his own.

"Women's issues are very important," he announced to the room after gazing over the scroll board, apparently ignorant of the fact that one member of his audience was the leader of a national political party.

"I'm married to one," said the man to an outburst of laughter before exiting.