There’s something rotten in the state of Canada’s kumbaya party. For generations, the NDP — with its almost evangelical roots — has promoted an image of itself as the party of peace, harmony and understanding.

Kiss that mirage goodbye. I’ve spent the past few days probing what amounts to a declaration of war between a banned aspiring nominee, his aggrieved supporters and the NDP’s operatives in Ottawa — who have morphed, it appears, into the evasive, secretive Harperites that holier-than-thou New Democrats take such pleasure in bashing.

It’s all getting rather ugly, with veiled and not-so-veiled accusations of smears, innuendo and muzzling flying halfway across the continent in phone calls, letters and emails. The irony is that the trigger for this internecine political war may or may not be (depending on whose version you believe) the latest deadly spasm of violence between besieged Palestinians in Gaza and frightened Israelis.

This bitter skirmish also has revealed smouldering discontent — particularly on social media — with the party’s and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair’s muted response to the disproportionate toll suffered by Palestinians in Gaza.

The man in the middle of this brewing conflict is Paul Manly, a documentarian, musician and rejected candidate for a party nomination in traditionally NDP-friendly British Columbia. Manly insists he’s the victim of a “smear” perpetrated by senior NDP officials in Ottawa.

Read full article: http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/07/16/the-ndps-simmering-civil-war-over-gaza/