NDP votes to take 'socialism' out of party constitution

The NDP voted Sunday to take references to socialism out of the party's constitution, a controversial move to modernize that the party had to set aside two years ago.

Delegates voted 960 to 188 in favour of the change. The result was met with cheers of "NDP! NDP!"

www.cbc.ca...

Whoa!

I don't know if you guys follow Canadian politics but this is pretty huge.
I suspect they will form a coalittion with the liberals, and in the end still push socialism but can't be sure for now.

interesting times ahead, i'm a little surprised by this move though.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


No kidding WHOA!

and I suspect you're right. Truth is the Liberals have been more socialist than the NDP for some time - without ever making the claim. I am a bit worried about that pesky faction in the NDP that's full out global corporate - looks like they might have a lot of drag these days. Wonder why, all things considered especially the crisis bailouts.

OMG. Well I guess that ends any hope of me voting. But then I only really like the real NDPers, the old timers, the good ones, and I am far more socialistic than the NDP which is more union guys, and I'm a mother with 5 boys and grandmothers and mothers outrank generals in the universe. PERIOD.

I truly don't vote as there is no system or party on earth that is not crimes against all souls.

Freedom and Equality are the energies of Good Father and Good Mother best friends and happily married! Anything else is evil.

My mother said, betrayers of the people, for that is the people's party and the only one holding any kind of light in this country.

The NDP have been steadily moving toward center in order to draw the voters in the past few years anyway, so why not drop the word 'socialism'? In a couple of more years they will be no further left than the Liberals, and then they'll merge and leave Canadians with an American-style two-party system that'll lead us nowhere. I say we need a new left-wing federal party in this country, one that won't sell its founding principals for votes!

Originally posted by ArchAngel_X
The NDP have been steadily moving toward center in order to draw the voters in the past few years anyway, so why not drop the word 'socialism'? In a couple of more years they will be no further left than the Liberals, and then they'll merge and leave Canadians with an American-style two-party system that'll lead us nowhere. I say we need a new left-wing federal party in this country, one that won't sell its founding principals for votes!

You are contradicting yourself IMO
I see where you are coming from

But to acknowledge the threat of a two party system and then say we need a new left-wing federal party is self-contradictory.

Just my two cents

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
But to acknowledge the threat of a two party system and then say we need a new left-wing federal party is self-contradictory.

I was in the process of typing out a long reply to validate my viewpoint, but trashed it because I realized I was simply whining because I want a political party that's further left than the NDP, and there isn't any. They've been letting me down by evolving into a centrist party and I was attempting to make a bigger point of it than it actually was.

I may return to this topic once I assemble my thoughts into a more coherent argument. Sorry to muddy your thread.

reply to post by ArchAngel_X


That's fine you are not muddying it
When you say further to the left do you mean socialist?

You may not mean that, left means something different to different people

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Well, there goes socialism in Canada. When ever a socialist party starts to `remove` the same socialism from their fundamental ideas, you know you are now dealing with fake socialist who have turned their backs on the common people.

Ugh, when I lived in Canada I loved the NDP precisely because they were the socialist party. Very disappointing.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


There will be no coalition, because the lord and savior Pierre Trudeau thinks cooperation is a bad thing.

He's content with waging his war ( or alliance if you ask me) with Mr Harper by himself.

His arrogance will either lead to his defeat, or the further ruining of our country. Or maybe he'll be awesome, but I doubt it.

Just another rich American running the Liberal party in Canada.

~Tenth

People interested in this development might want to check out the thread Canadian Politics: What's Left of Jack?, which I started as a response to Jack Layton's initial attempt to remove "socialism" from NDP literature.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's a short thread but I rant good in it.

This development is very serious for Canadian politics and indicates that Jack Layton's initiatives continue to govern NDP thinking strategically and philosophically.

I did not like Jack Layton. (My one attempt at conversation with him was an explosive disaster and he, not me, was doing the exploding.)

Unlike Ed Broadbent, who represented the NDP at its apogee of serious credibility, in my view, as a socialist party, and who was a man governed by principles and intellect and who shunned flashy "personalism", Layton was a man driven as much by ego and personal ambition as by principle.

Thomas Mulcair appears to be ready to steer by Jack's compass and that bodes ill for Canadians who want a party of the left.

If the Liberal Party resurges under Trudeau 2, the NDP will lose masses of support and those people will be precisely the ones Jack Layton attracted to the Party. The Liberals will not form a coalition with the NDP. They will bite giant sized chunks out of it and watch as it bleeds to death.

This will destroy the NDP.

I have thought for years now that the New Democratic Party was a sham anyway. They aren't in the same league as European socialist parties. They are what used to be known as "parlour pinks". They don't even have a socialist newspaper.

This is a dreadful development, initiated by a dreadful mountebank whose poisonous influence on Canadian politics lingers long after his passing.

I'm not an expert in Canadian history or Canadian politics.

I am in my mid 60s, which means I have lived through all the important developments in Canadian politics of our time. I remember when people from Québec were referred to as "pea soupers". I was a child in Montréal when the Rocket Richard riot happened. I remember my parents being afraid to go downtown. I remember when Medicare was introduced, largely as a result of work done by T.C. Douglas, leader of the NDP.

Our world in Canada has been shaped in important ways by actions and agitation coming from the NDP. They have been the conscience of Parliament for decades. Medicare and its offshoots and developments is one of the reasons people can pretty much walk around most neighborhoods in Toronto at night carefree.

But the Canada I grew up in no longer exists. Not since WW2 has Canada been so influenced by events happening outside our borders, on the world stage. There has for some time now been a "hidden hand" operating in this land, influencing decisions taken by our legislators and our governments.

When something happens which is not an organic extension of developments that have occurred before it, you can be sure that an outside interest is operating.

When the NDP starts to remove "socialism" from its literature or its agenda, that is an unprecedented development that does not arise organically from the existing stasis in that Party.

When the NDP endorses the activities of NATO in Libya, that runs counter to Canadian ideals of non-intervention and is a complete contradiction to the pacifism that generally characterizes socialism around the world.

But it is not just the NDP that seems to be dancing to someone else's tune. Quite a few years ago I was floored when the Liberal Party of Canada's rising star and generally acknowledged odds on favorite for the leadership of the Party, Frank McKenna, suddenly announced that he would not seek that post.

For most people this was not quite the equivalent of Bobby Orr's early retirement from hockey, but it was damned near the political equivalent for the Liberal Party.

What's McKenna been doing since? Hobnobbing with the oligarchs here and in the US.

My question is "What happened to Jack and the NDP? Did someone make him an offer he couldn't refuse?"

Whatever the case, the fact is that the NDP, to which Canadians owe so much, is now vectored at the ditch.