As an international student that came to Canada and UBC with no prior knowledge of Canadian politics, I feel a bit lost, not being too sure of which party I stand with. This is odd to me, because back home in the United States, I never really doubted where I stood politically, but now that I’m in a new country, I find myself with more political options, and therefore am unsure of where I stand. I thought it would be interesting to investigate the New Democratic Party, as they do not exist in the US, and are therefore a group I am unfamiliar with.

As I explored the NDP website, I clicked the link, “About Tom”, that would proceed to take me to a page containing the life story of the leading candidate of the NDP, Tom Mulcair. Mulcair presents himself as a family man, someone who grew up just as every other Canadian did, and who knows the struggles of the middle class. His story is similar to that of many, and it is his goal to get this message across. The life narrative he produces works to create a connection between himself and potential voters, swaying undecided, or other left-side voters to vote for someone they can relate to. Alongside the writing sit images of Mulcair, both in his personal life, and in professional life. Personally, I found this tactic to be very effective in making me feel good about Mulcair and what he stands for. Upon further investigation of the NDP website, I found a link labeled, “Tom’s Plan”. This link took me to a page where Mulcair provides insights into what changes he would make if elected to be prime minister. But inserted into this page are more small pieces of life narrative, where he describes the origin of his values, and talks more about his family. Mulcair’s tactic here seems to be, again, to make himself seem relatable.

When his use of life narrative is analyzed, I began to see connections to readings we have done in our ASTU 100 class by Gillian Whitlock and Kay Schaffer and Sidonie Smith. In Whitlock’s “Protection” and Schaffer and Smith’s “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights”, they work to create connections between the production of life narrative, and human rights discourse. Rather than writing to urge humanitarian movements though, Mulcair’s story works to inspire a movement in Canadian voters, hoping to get them to vote for him and the NDP. In Schaffer and Smith’s work, they study the commodification of life narrative, which they ultimately argue has become a form of “international currency” (Schaffer & Smith 11). But Mulcair uses life narrative as what I would describe to be a “political currency”, with his story working to get voters to feel as though they can strongly relate to him, ultimately leading to them voting for him. As I read through the website, I could feel his use of life narrative working on me, as I began to feel a connection to him and consider him more highly as someone I would vote for.

Overall, the use of life narrative in this political setting seems very effective, judging by the fact that I immediately developed a positive feeling for Tom Mulcair, and what he stands for.

Works Cited:

Schaffer, Kay and Sidonie Smith. “Conjunctions: Life Narratives in the Field of Human Rights.” Biography 27.1 (winter 2004) pp. 10-15. JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.

Published by: University of Hawai’i Press.

Whitlock, Gillian. “Protection.” We Shall Bear Witness: Life Narratives and Human Rights. Ed. Meg Jensen and Margaretta Jolly. Madison: University of Wisconsin P, 2014. 86-88. Scholarly e-book. 22 Sept. 2015.