Left, but how left? Analyzing the foreign policy of the New Democratic Party of Canada

Abstract

This article analyzes the modern foreign policy of the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP). It uses the framework of Aaron Ettinger's work in the International Journal on an emerging left-wing in the US Democratic Party. I first situate the research within the existing literature on leftist internationalism, Canadian foreign policy, and the New Democratic Party. I then analyze a dataset that I created based on the last five NDP federal election platforms and use it to analyze 210 different foreign policy commitments. I use these findings to argue two things: (1) the NDP has a comprehensive foreign policy that reflects dual struggles of electability and left-wing ideals; (2) there is no identifiable left-wing turn in recent NDP platforms. I conclude this article with a discussion on the future of NDP foreign policy.