Michael Prue Feature Interview

Editor's note: This is the final installment of a four-part rabble.ca series featuring interviews with each of the ONDP leadership candidates. The new leader will be decided in convention this weekend, March 6-8.

Michael Prue's campaign will soar or plummet on the back of the Separate School funding issue. He has made the issue a central component of the campaign - but in a move which can be seen either as nuanced or equivocating, he refused to formally state that he personally supports amalgamating the public and separate systems and only says that the party should debate it at convention.

Critics have denounced Prue as opportunistic and divisive adding that if the NDP adopted the school funding issue as part of its platform it would end up dominating the next election campaign and wipe all other issues off the table. Prue's view is that he is returning the NDP to its roots as a democratic party willing to discuss and take a stand on tough issues.

"I stand up and I'm not afraid to discuss tough ideas," he told rabble.ca. "One of the ones that people have been angry at me [about] but I still think needs to be discussed is the whole issue of funding two school boards because we have declining enrolment, we have limited amounts of funds, we have schools that don't have vice-principals or janitors or music teachers or gym teachers or art teachers. We are bussing kids from one end of town to the other ... and I just think that we have to start looking at whether or not we can afford this any longer."

He dismisses critics within the party as being "terrified of the membership and what the membership might say. I am not terrified. I think we have nothing to fear from our members."

Prue also rejects fears that the NDP might lose seats with large Catholic populations, saying, "I'm not going to shut down anybody's school, the school system's [still] going to be there."

"When they've done polling ... 70 per cent said they'd rather go to one [school board]. There might be a little bit of push but we as New Democrats need to know what's best for the children ... we need to discuss that and I'm not afraid of the discussion."
Prue's argues that the party needs to allow members to have a greater say in policy.

"We now only spend 20 per cent of our time at convention on policy which I think is a mistake ... I would support up to 50 percent of the convention being related to policy and I think policy needs to be binding. It doesn't need to be part of the platform but the policy needs to be binding ... it should be a guide to NDP members and the leadership and the caucus."

He also appeals to the party grassroots by promising to give each riding association $10,000 to spend during election campaigns and sees that as key to replicating Barack Obama's "50 state" electoral strategy. "I know what needs to be done is to decentralize the party ... to make the local riding associations strong and to give them sufficient money so that we can run a strong campaign in all 107 ridings."

To detractors who say his plan is unaffordable, Prue replies, "We spend $4 million for advertising and what I'm saying is we get better bang for the buck advertising in the ridings. If you take one million out of the four, still spend three million on television and radio, and put one million into the riding so there's signs, there's literature, there's a campaign office - so when the other signs go up and an NDP sign goes up to too, local people will say ‘hey, the NDP's in the race this time,' they won't dismiss that we're gone before we start ... We will go from 40 or 50 ridings getting 15 per cent and getting the rebate, to 75 or 80 ridings in one election getting the rebate that will position them with money for the next time."

A former mayor of East York, Prue draws on his municipal experience as a guide for the party, arguing that he can replicate his success as a mayor in drawing support from across the political spectrum by putting forward solutions such as abolishing property tax and replacing it with other forms of revenue generation. He also sees cities as the engine for the province. "Part of my platform is to urbanize the NDP, to make it into a party where we look upon the cities to power the regions and I think that's the wave of the future."

Prue has received significant support from public school teachers and municipal politicians and activists as a result of his highlighting of urban and education issues. Whether this will offset the opposition some in the NDP have to opening the school funding question and allow him to win the leadership depends, largely, on Prue's success in drawing new people into the party who are attracted by his championing of their concerns.

For the rest of the interview with Michael Prue please see the rabble.ca article.

For previous interviews see:
Peter Tabuns: Green jobs key to Ontario's future
Andrea Horwath: Can a fresh face change the ONDP's fortunes?
Gilles Bisson: Good for the business of revitalizing the ONDP?