The future, like everything else, is not what it used to be.

—Paul Valéry

Particular since the advent of Thomas Mulcair as Leader of the Opposition, the party seems to have staked out territory firmly in what might be deemed the middle of the political spectrum, just slightly to the left of the Liberals, who seem to want to plant a foot in the centre left and the other firmly on the right (from which they would govern, if past experience teaches us anything), leaving no one to defend the interests of the majority of Canadians.  Into this quagmire steps Linda McQuaig, who won the NDP nomination in  the upcoming Toronto-Centre by-election, a presence that could inject some interesting sparks into the debate leading up to the by-election, as well as in any parliament in which Ms. McQuaig would sit, as long as she doesn’t run into too much of that ol’ party discipline.

The problem lies in her background of tireless and well-documented opposition to the trade agreements of whatever initials that have essentially turned the world into a sandbox for the playing out of corporate misdeeds, games in which the government referees only get to rule in favour of one business interest or another, and where the welfare of the broader constituency is of no account.  If the NDP can’t embrace McQuaig’s distaste for corporate shenanigans, she will be hung out to dry, or might have to join Elizabeth May in a coalition of the disdained, the lonely Cassandra party, trumpeting wisdom and truth that will be utterly ignored by both the press and the general electorate. What happens when you have good people butting their heads against a nonsensical and intransigent system? I suspect we will get a good look at it if Ms. McQuaig gets elected, giving her the chance to tilt at the Mulcair/Trudeau/Harper windmills.