The candidates talked about establishing new economic policies, abolishing free trade, reforming the electoral process and improving media relations. 

But mainly, the six contenders argued over how to pull the NDP back from the Canadian political wasteland. 

Going into the January leadership convention in Toronto, the biggest challenge the candidates face is skepticism about whether anyone can raise the party back to the kind of support it enjoyed at its peak in 1988, under Ed Broadbent. 

Leadership candidates (from left) Pierre Ducasse, Jack Layton and Lorne Nystrom debate in Ottawa.

"We used to have 44 MPs in the House; now we have 14," says Toronto city councillor and candidate Jack Layton. "Things have got to change. We can't carry on with the old ways."

B.C. activist and candidate Bev Meslo agrees that "the party needs a shake up."

Manitoba MP Bill Blaikie, Saskatchewan MP Lorne Nystrom, Ontario MP Joe Comartin and Quebec candidate Pierre Ducasse round out the group. And they also say things must change.

No one agrees what those changes should be.

Planning for the election

"I have a strategy," Comartin says. "We go for official opposition in the next election, and we take government the one after that."

Ducasse, the youngest candidate at 30, says he thinks the NDP can make a big comeback.

"I do think it's realistic to aim at official opposition next election, and to campaign on that basis. Our plan must be a 10-year plan towards government."

Veteran New Democrat Nystrom says the NDP should aim for the bull's eye every time out. This is his third run for the leadership in three decades.

"I don't think you run to lose. If you run for second place, you'll finish fourth."

Yet Comartin says he will not risk his personal credibility on a platform that promises the party can capture the seat of government. 

"I'm not going to go to the country and say that we can take government," he says. "We can't turn the country around in the next two years to win enough seats to take government."

Winning more seats

NDP candidates disagree on how they can form the top party on Parliament Hill.

Regardless of who forms the next government, Layton says, "let's remember this — this campaign is about electing many, many more New Democrat members of Parliament in the next election."

Part of Layton's strategy is to break new ground in provinces like Ontario and Quebec, where NDP support is minimal.

"If we can't win ridings in places like Toronto and Ottawa in the next election then we're finished," he says.

Comartin estimates that the party could take between 10 and 20 seats in Ontario. When he won his seat for Windsor in 2000, he was the first NDP candidate elected in Ontario in 10 years.

"Jack ran in '97, he ran in '93 — no seats in Toronto," Comartin says. "I got the seats in Ontario."

Yet Layton argues that low NDP support is a result of party failure to get media attention.

"We have to get in the news, we have not been effective there."

One way to do this, Layton argues, is to put the public to work in their ridings, working around federal issues.

Breaking new ground 

One federal issue candidates hope to tackle is how to sustain agriculture in the Prairies.  

Comartin says we need a national policy, one like Germany created three years ago.

"It's a simple enough program," he says. "They have a policy that says that they will ensure that 20 per cent of the family farms will continue to exist."

"And the way they'll do that is that people who buy food supplies have to buy 20 per cent of that from the family farm."

Comartin says making a market for the family farm is not the only way to create more income for farmers. 

"I think the Kyoto implementation program has a great opportunity in it for the family farm," he says. "Putting a wind turbine right on the family farm, as an alternative energy source, creates income of $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 a year."

Yet Nystrom doesn't see this as a changing of the old ways. "I'm not satisfied with being a third party, a party of opposition, a party of protest. We must be more than a party of single-issue campaigns."

Blaikie wants the focus of the party to be the abolition of trade agreements.

"It's the trade agreements that are the real threat to democracy," he says, "and the ability of democratically elected governments to act in public interest."

In the past, Blaikie says, Quebec's support of free trade has made it difficult to break through in that province. 

Wooing Quebec

One of the front runners, Bill Blaikie (left) with dark horse Joe Comartin at the Ottawa debates.

"We didn't do well in Quebec for the last 10, 15 years because the left in Quebec was in favour of free trade. What were we supposed to do? Abandon our position on free trade and support the national position on free trade?

"The left in Quebec is finally coming around to the NDP position on free trade against the FTAA and the WTO. Now, there's opportunities that weren't there before. It wasn't our fault. We had the right position on free trade. They had the wrong position."

Nystrom says personal disagreements are insignificant compared to the real challenge facing the NDP in all provinces — uniting social democrats. 

"I believe about half the people in this country are social democrats — some don't know it but they are."  

Related Links With just over two months left, many supporters are undecided on how they will cast their vote. See the Environics Research Group's most recent poll on who is ahead in the race. On Jun. 5, 2002, Alexa McDonough announced she would step down as leader of the NDP, sparking the race between six candidates for succession. Learn more about the candidates' views and background. Want to learn more about the NDP? Check out the history of the NDP and its leaders.