NDP Leadership Report

Together, we are calling on the NDP, Liberals and Greens to cooperate in key ridings to defeat Stephen Harper's government, and then work together in Parliament to pass electoral reforms and make sure our government better reflects the values and priorities of all Canadians. …Learn more

Amazingly, almost 10,000 Canadians have already responded to the Cooperate for Canada campaign by committing to join the NDP, Liberals or Greens to support cooperation for electoral reform in key votes within the parties. That response shows there are thousands of Canadians who will get involved to vote for this idea.

Our Questions to the Candidates

We asked the NDP leadership candidates for their positions on cooperation and electoral reform, the following is a summary of their responses that you can use to inform your vote. We will do the same during the Liberal leadership race.

	Do you support co-operating with the Liberals and Greens before the next election to defeat Stephen Harper's government? If so, how?	Do you support electoral reform? If so, what kind of electoral reform do you support?	Will you actively campaign on the issue of electoral reform before the 2015 election? Are you willing to co-operate with other parties once in government to make it happen?
Niki Ashton	Ashton does not support pre-electoral cooperation in key ridings to defeat Conservative incumbents.	Ashton supports examining different kinds of electoral reform.	Unclear.
Nathan Cullen	Cullen is the only candidate who has a concrete proposal for pre-electoral co-operation between the NDP, Liberals and Greens in key ridings to stop vote splitting and defeat Stephen Harper’s Government. He proposes joint-nomination meetings where local voters would choose their candidate to run against the Conservative incumbent.	Cullen supports mixed-member proportional representation. He promises to immediately implement electoral reform as the NDP’s first Bill in Parliament upon forming government.	Cullen promises to make campaigning for electoral reform a major priority for the Party. Cullen connects his cooperation proposal with campaigning for electoral reform.
Paul Dewar	Dewar does not support pre-electoral co-operation to defeat Stephen Harper’s government. He cites concern for voter choices and differences in policy and philosophy between parties and will focus on reaching people who did not vote in the last election.	Dewar supports mixed-member proportional representation. He promises to begin implementing this electoral reform upon forming government.	Dewar will make electoral reform a priority for the Party, using it as an organizing issue for grassroots campaigns to build Party support, and he will co-operate with other parties, once in government, to pass the legislation.
Thomas Mulcair	Mulcair does not support pre-electoral co-operation. Instead, he will focus on expanding the appeal of the NDP.	Mulcair supports a mixed-member proportional system.	Mulcair promises to make electoral reform a key priority for the party in the next election. He is open to co-operating with other parties, once in government, if that is necessary to pass the legislation.
Peggy Nash	Nash supports building consensus with Liberals and Greens on key issues, and she is open to “pooling resources” with them to defeat Harper’s government and open to considering other strategies for cooperation between the parties before the election.	Nash personally supports mixed-member proportional representation, and she has committed to a public commission within 6 months of winning election to seek input and recommend reform options to government so they can be swiftly implemented.	Nash has the strongest position on campaigning for electoral reform. She promises to make campaigning for electoral reform a focused priority for the party, emphasizing grassroots work and cooperation with civil society groups and other opposition parties to build a broad public consensus about the need for change.
Brian Topp	Topp does not support pre-electoral co-operation between the NDP, Liberals and Greens to target Conservative incumbents in key ridings. Instead, he promises to work with other opposition party efforts to challenge Conservative positions, and, significantly, he promises to actively build public acceptance of a post-election progressive coalition government.	Topp supports mixed-member proportional representation. He promises to initiate a public consultation on electoral reform after the 2015 election through parliamentary committee or commission, in order to recommend a proportional voting system that would then be implemented before the 2019 election.	Topp promises to make electoral reform a high priority for the party and he promises to cooperate with other parties once in government to achieve this goal.