Platypus Halifax hosted a panel event which took place the University of Kings College in Halifax, Canada, on October 9, 2013.
Panelists:
Howard Epstein (outgoing NDP MLA for Halifax
Chebucto)
Judy Haiven (Solidarity Halifax, Saint Mary’s
University)
Alex Khasnabish (Halifax Radical Imagination Project, Mount Saint Vincent University)
Description:
This Nova Scotia election season saw an array
of positions on the Left concerning the outcome that might
follow from the victory of the NDP. Among them, there were some
who openly supported the incumbent Darrell Dexter as the lesser
of evils, others who opposed him by casting a vote for another
candidate, and still others who followed the abstentionist line
by not voting at all. Many of those who voted for the NDP did so
under the assumption that the they were a broadly center-left
party with vaguely social-democratic tendencies, who might be
pushed to reverse neoliberal policies and stave off measures of
austerity. Some, while generally less optimistic, endorsed the
NDP on the premise that organizing a mass movement against
capitalism would be easier with the NDP in power. Others argued
that the NDP had done nothing to deserve reelection, offering no
hope for either change or progress moving forward. The rest, who
took no stance either for or against any party, chose instead to
eschew electoral politics altogether.