Concerned that "New" Democrats might be a misnomer, Saskatchewan's NDP members are considering a name change.
When party members gather in Saskatoon for their annual convention Nov. 17-19, one of the resolutions they will discuss is a change of name from the New Democratic Party to the Social Democratic Party.
According to the proposal from Batoche New Democrats, the change makes sense, since the "new" in New Democratic is now more than four decades old.
The NDP was created in 1961 as a merger of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Tommy Douglas, who had been CCF premier of Saskatchewan, was elected the party's first national leader.
Industry Minister Eric Cline is among the NDP members who say they would consider a name change.
In fact, Cline said, he wouldn't mind adding "Saskatchewan" to his party's name — countering the Saskatchewan Party's use of the province's name.
"It bothers me that there's one political party in this province that has taken the name of our province as their name," Cline said.
"It might be in order for our party to incorporate the name Saskatchewan in our name because we are proud Saskatchewan people as well as proud New Democrats."
Asked whether voters might be confused about having two parties with Saskatchewan in their name, Cline said people are more sophisticated than that.
The Opposition Saskatchewan Party has been around since 1997, when Liberals and Tories joined together to create a new party.
The name debate was grist for question period in the Saskatchewan legislature on Thursday.
Wall mocked the NDP's name resolution and accused the party of trying to make people forget about its record.
"It's amazing," he said.
But the Saskatchewan Party is just the pot calling the kettle black, Premier Lorne Calvert replied.
"They had to get a new name to hide from their history," Calvert said.
