The NDP in Nova Scotia mystery

On the Grand Lake Road, which is part of the highway between Sydney and Glace Bay, near Victoria Junction, is a set of traffic lights which allow traffic to come and go to Grand Lake Road from a few large parking lots. When I stand in the closest of these parking lots to the highway, my mind recalls a great Cape Breton and Nova Scotia mystery which has remained unsolved for at least four decades. Who are the voting constituency for the NDP in Nova Scotia? I grew up in Glace Bay and Sydney. Close to my backyard in Glace Bay were six operating coal mines. My grandparents lived in Sydney where on 3 shifts a day members of my family made steel. The United Mine Workers and the Steel Workers Union were strong healthy voices for hard working labour in Industrial Cape Breton. The Sterling district of Glace Bay was home of the “red” barn. These people who worked so hard in back breaking labour and rallied with their unions for better wages and conditions most often returned Liberal and Progressive Conservative members to the Legislature in Halifax. Today, this parking lot separates the Cape Breton University Campus from the Marconi Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College. This past week, two events involving teachers at these institutions raised the question of the NDP mystery again. The Faculty Association at Cape Breton University ratified a contract giving them an increase 2.9% a year for 4 years. The Faculty and Professional Support staff at the NSCC Marconi Campus prepare to strike because the NDP government will not allow the NSCC to even discuss a 2.9% in one year contract. I am confused. On which Campus are the constituents who support the NDP? Perhaps it is the CBU Campus where the NDP finds support. Thirty years ago, when I was taking a course in political science at Dalhousie, I was thrilled that the professor was a member of the executive of the NDP. As my political interest matured I came to understand the great division between academic socialists and workers struggling for fair wages and decent safe working conditions. I hope that the solution to “my NDP mystery” is not that they are “academic socialists”. The evidence from the voters of Cape Breton, with some exceptions, may favour a conclusion that socialist ideas and rhetoric may make a political party but not a party for fairness and equity in the workplace.