The Left in Power

Bob Rae’s NDP and the Working Class

Steven High

• Publisher: Between the Lines
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781771136686
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

At the end of the twentieth century, as social democratic parties around the world struggled to produce a coherent response to the deindustrialization crisis, many pivoted towards progressive neoliberalism and Third Way social democracy. Almost everywhere, they turned their backs on the weakened trade union movement and embraced neoliberal assumptions about labour force flexibility and global competition. Shamefully, Third Way social democrats emphasized the moral dimension of poverty rather than its structural causes as they abandoned the old redistributive class politics of the Left.

Based on extensive archival research and interviews with NDP politicians, senior economic policy advisors, and trade unionists, The Left in Power examines the response of the political Left in Ontario to the crisis that gripped the old 'industrialized world.' Steven High revisits the heartbreaking years of Bob Rae's Ontario NDP government—from their historic and unexpected 1990 victory, to their policy shifts that left working-class voters feeling betrayed, to their landslide defeat in 1995—to uncover what we can learn from one social democratic party's mistakes about how to govern from the Left.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1: Fighting Plant Shutdowns
• 2: The Hamilton Challenge
• 3: Competing in the New Global Economy
• 4: An Agenda for People
• 5: Bob Mackenzie’s Labourism
• 6: Worker Ownership and Labour-Led Venture Capital
• 7: Northern Exceptionalism
• 8: From Downsview to Davos
• 9: Corporatism’s Moment
• 10: New Left Communitarianism
• Conclusion: The Seductive Mist of Pragmatism
• Notes
• Index