Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon says there is no “broad consensus” in the House of Commons to grant NDP official party status after it only won seven seats in last month’s election.
Parties can be granted official status—which comes with additional resources and funds—if they have a minimum of 12 seats. Interim NDP Leader Don Davies has been saying he wants to work with the government to change the rule so his party can still qualify as an official party with its current seat count.
MacKinnon told reporters on May 26 that won’t be possible.
He later said in an interview on CTV’s “Power Play” that the current rules require 12 members for a party to qualify for official status, and that this is not up to the government.
“In order to change that, it would require a broad consensus of the House of Commons, a consensus that I’m unaware of that exists as at this point,” he said.
But he said the governing party is open to discussing some of the NDP’s “more practical requests,” an apparent reference to NDP’s push for access to more House of Commons’ resources.
“We’ve really focused our conversations on other, more practical ways that we can honour the tradition and history of the New Democrats,” McKinnon said.
Seat Loss
NDP’s Davies said his party will play a “profoundly important role” in this Parliament despite the government’s decision.The party had petitioned Parliament earlier this month to retain official party status after losing 17 seats, including that of its former leader Jagmeet Singh, in the April 28 federal election.
The threshold for official party status has been adjusted in the past to reflect the makeup of the Parliament, Davies said during a May 26 press conference, citing several past examples of provincial legislatures awarding party status to an opposition party.
“We inquired about that, the government doesn’t seem interested,” he told reporters on Parliament Hill, noting that the lack of official party status will not keep the NDP from pushing for “progressive policies” and holding the government to account.
“In a minority Parliament where the minority government has 169 seats and needs three for a majority, any party that has seven seats, obviously, has a balance of power,” he said. “And so I think that we’re going to be able to play a profoundly important role in this Parliament.”
Fight for Resources
Without official party status, the NDP will lose many of the privileges it previously enjoyed. MPs will no longer be permitted to raise daily questions during question period and will not be guaranteed representation on standing committees. The party will also forfeit the financial support for research that is granted to recognized parties.Davies said the NDP is currently engaged in “fruitful discussions” with other parties about the assignment of committee positions to its MPs. The party is also focused on securing resources, he said.
“What we’re most interested in is just getting resources that we need that will allow us to carry the voices of Canadians more effectively to this House of Commons,” he said.
“One of the arguments I’ve made is we’re a national party. We had 1.2 million Canadians vote for us, and it’s important that we have the tools we need to function and discharge our responsibility.”
The party has already made some progress in its fight for resources, Davies added.
“We have access to the lobby. We’ve kept our offices. We have access to the onboard voting dashboard,” he said. “These are all little privileges that are only afforded to recognized parties, but we should be able to get those because it will help us to do our job better.”
The last time the NDP lost official party status was in 1993, when the party dropped to nine seats under Audrey McLaughlin’s leadership. It was able to recover its status in the 1997 vote, regaining 12 seats, which brought the total to 21 under the guidance of Alexa McDonough.
Aside from losing official party status in last month’s vote, the New Democrats also lost their leader. Singh lost his Burnaby Central seat, placing third behind the Liberal and Conservative candidates in the B.C. riding. Singh garnered just 18.1 percent of the popular vote behind the Conservatives’ James Yan at 38.7 percent and the Liberals’ Wade Chang at 42.1 percent.
Singh resigned shortly after his defeat and Davies will serve as the interim leader until a new leader is elected.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
