'Fulfilling the dream'

By Erica Alini - Monday, June 20, 2011 at 8:55 AM - 35 Comments

The prepared text of Jack Layton’s closing speech to the NDP convention in Vancouver this weekend.

Mes amis, Il y a deux ans, les néo-démocrates se sont réunis à Halifax pour notre congrès. Nous avons créé un projet marquant qui nous a tous uni. Mener le NPD vers une grande percée. Plusieurs personnes nous disaient que ce serait impossible. Que vouloir changer Ottawa était un vœux pieux. Que les choses sont comme elles sont et que rien ne va changer. Le 2 mai, les Canadiens avaient une autre idée en tête. Les néo-démocrates ont montré qu’on pouvait y arriver. Quatre millions et demi de Canadiens ont clairement indiqué qu’un choix positif était possible. Ils ont voté pour le changement. Ils ont choisi un parti qui se bat à chaque jour, depuis cinquante ans, pour que les familles d’ici passent en premier.

My friends, 2 years ago, we came together in Halifax and left united behind a single purpose. To lead the New Democrats to a major breakthrough. The sceptics said it couldn’t be done. They said it was a fool’s errand to try to bring change to Ottawa. They said the way things are is the way things will always be. Well the Canadian people had a different idea.  And on May 2nd, New Democrats proved the sceptics wrong.

Continue…

Socialist or merely social

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 17, 2011 at 2:22 PM - 10 Comments

Joanna Smith previews this weekend’s existential crisis.

New Democrats are preparing to cast off the shackles of the socialist label by eliminating the word from the federal party constitution at a policy convention this weekend. “The New Democratic Party is dedicated to the application of social democratic principles to government,” reads part of a proposed new preamble to the party constitution, which will be voted on at the 50th anniversary convention in downtown Vancouver. “These principles include an unwavering commitment to economic and social equality, individual freedom and responsibility, and democratic rights of citizens to shape the future of their communities.”

That language is much different from what exists in the current version of the constitution, where the principles of “democratic socialism” are described as being against making profits and for social ownership.

In full, the new preamble would read as follows. Continue…

Ye Olde Ideas

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 9:19 PM - 22 Comments

The Globe dismisses the faithful’s efforts.

Jack Layton says he is offering Canadians a new way of thinking. But the policies approved at the NDP conference in Halifax this weekend are not new to New Democrats.

The more than 1,000 delegates endorsed action to prevent violence against aboriginal women. They endorsed enshrining childcare into law. They endorsed investment in environmentally friendly jobs. They endorsed ending rules that prevent homosexuals from donating organs. In the end, there were more than 50 policies approved. But there was little to raise the eyebrows of the party’s socialist founders.

Jack's Canada

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 8:44 PM - 3 Comments

Jack Layton sends the faithful home.

We will undo the legacy of neglect and inequality that the old thinking of the last three decades has left us. We ask all Canadians to join us, to imagine the Canada we will build together.

In our Canada, the unemployed get the EI benefits and the training that they need. In our Canada, First Nations, Inuit and Metis are full participants in the new economy. In our Canada, new Canadians are given help to find good jobs and they don’t have to fear, when they travel abroad, that their passports will be seized and their government will deny their identity. In our Canada, government protects citizens from the totally unfair practices of banks and credit-card companies. In our Canada, the disabled are treated with dignity and respect. In our Canada, families have access to affordable early-childhood education. In our Canada, climate change is tackled with tough limits on polluters, and a new energy economy, with technologies built here, creating jobs here, and exported to the world.

That’s the Canada we want.

So many motions, so little time

By kadyomalley - Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 7:57 AM - 48 Comments

… and no, we don’t yet know for sure if they’re going to make it to the resolutions on changing the name, although the slightly less committal approach — consulting with members and reporting back at the next convention — definitely seems more likely to make it to the floor. There are also emergency motions on everything from Omar Khadr to cell phone fees, and who knows what procedural antics the Larsenistas might have in store for their unwitting brothers and sisters. It’s going to be great, y’all! The action — such as it is — starts at 8am EST sharp, but since ITQ is probably the only one who actually set her berry alarm to wake up, y’all can join the fun at your leisure.

The resolutions up for debate still aren’t available on the convention website — seriously, y’all, what’s with the holdup? — but thanks to National Newswatch, you can follow along, and if you happen to be CPAC-deprived, you can watch the coverage via livestream over at ndp.ca, and tune into the #hfx09 hashtag on twitter for all the gossip from the floor, including lots of

Oh, and for yesterday’s thread, click here.

8:01 AM

And we’re back! Good morning, everyone — by which, of course, I mean the one or two of you who were able to drag yourself out of bed on this lovely Sunday morning. CPAC’s Martin Stringer is rarin’ to go — he has two delegates up as we speak, including an already irate woman from Toronto who is very, very disappointed by the overwhelming Obamamania that the organizers have demonstrated thus far; she also has a warning for her fellow New Democrats in Nova Scotia: Don’t take victory for granted, and don’t assume that just because they’ve managed to install an NDP government, it doesn’t mean the work is over. The other delegate — a Nova Scotian, and a former Progressive Conservative — is far less doom and gloomy.

He — Stringer, that is — then switches to a pair of Quebec delegates, including the party’s candidate in Hochelaga, Jean-Claude Rocheleau, who talks about the passage of resolution to “force companies to work in French in Quebec”, which he sees as a “great success”, as was a motion to transfer cultural funding to the province.

Continue…

Political conventions are inherently bonkers

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 14, 2009 at 2:24 PM - 7 Comments

Twenty minutes into the NDP convention business and we’ve got a request that everyone celebrating a birthday or anniversary this weekend be recognized and a rant against Barack Obama’s “regime.”

CPAC has never been more entertaining.

NDP to win eight more seats!

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 14, 2009 at 1:45 PM - 16 Comments

Ed Broadbent rallies the faithful in Halifax.

At the federal level it is the Liberals and Conservatives who mismanaged the economy and created the crisis of inequality by slashing programs and imposing regressive taxation. Their policies will perpetuate the status quo. Our task, once again, is to lead the struggle. We must restore the dream for social justice. But this isn’t just a dream. We now know it is both ideal and possible to create a Canada that is healthier in every respect; a Canada with more involvement by our citizens; a Canada where neighbours are seen as friends, not as competitors; a Canada in which babies born the same day in Cape Breton and Calgary will have equal opportunities in life. Our task as New Democrats is to demonstrate, show and persuade Canadians that with more equality this kind of Canada is possible. Let’s get on with the job.

'Brick-by-brick, block-by-block'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 14, 2009 at 11:45 AM - 2 Comments

Here is a piece from this week’s print edition on the state of the NDP. Several dozen sentences ensue, just one of those having anything to do with the fact the party may or may not change something about its name.

Even by the normally quixotic standards of the NDP, it has been a strange year. For a fleeting moment in December, it appeared Jack Layton was going to be a cabinet minister in a coalition government. By the end of June, Michael Ignatieff had a deal instead with Stephen Harper, and the Prime Minister was addressing the party in Parliament’s far corner as the “Bloc Anglais.”

The leader of the NDP, now six years into his tenure, remains relentlessly enthusiastic. “It was a fascinating eight months,” Layton says, explaining himself next with duelling metaphors. “I always say to folks: get ready, I’m a long-time sailor; I don’t go tacking back and forth to try to catch the lightest little gust of wind. When I ran for leader, I laid out a plan and I said it’s like a construction project. You’ve got to start with the foundation and you build, brick-by-brick, block-by-block.”

The life of the party

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 2:30 PM - 8 Comments

The penultimate day of business for the House of Commons this spring would have passed without incident were it not for 10 words from Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. “Mr. Speaker,” he said, “the government will comply with the court order.”

With that sentence, the government signalled its intent to relent and allow Abousfian Abdelrazik to return home from exile in Sudan. It was the NDP’s Paul Dewar who had first raised Abdelrazik’s plight in the House, more than a year earlier. But it was Liberal Irwin Cotler, asking that the government accede to a federal court ruling that the Canadian be granted safe passage, who was honoured with an answer. When Dewar attempted to follow up, he was unceremoniously rebuffed. “The one place we will not get advice from on this,” Nicholson huffed, “is the NDP.” Continue…

The easily impressed vote

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 12:03 PM - 15 Comments

According to a Canadian Press poll, 13 percent of “NDP-inclined” voters will be more likely to vote for the party if it drops “new” from its name.

'New Democrats are serious about victory'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 10:56 AM - 18 Comments

Jack Layton lets slip the NDP’s secret plan to win the next election.

Premier Dexter’s victory is an inspiration to New Democrats from Halifax Harbour to Vancouver Bay. But the road to victory in Nova Scotia – just like Premier Doer’s in Manitoba – was long.

They built slowly with good candidates, sound new policies, and focused discipline. Critics often said they had no chance of winning. They say the same thing about federal New Democrats.

But we know that victory will not happen overnight. We are pursuing a similar strategy of incremental growth.