Socialist rhetoric tempered in party’s new mission statement
New Democrats voted overwhelmingly in favour of changing their constitution at the party’s policy convention Sunday, a move that effectively removed much of the socialist rhetoric that helped define the party’s raison d’être for decades.
After a fiery debate and numerous procedural delays, 960 delegates voted in favour of the resolution to amend the preamble to the constitution — essentially the NDP’s mission statement — while 188 voted against. The changes required a two-thirds majority to pass.
“I’m a social democrat and it’s a social democratic party, but you’ll notice that both of those words are still in the preamble,” NDP Leader Tom Mulcair told reporters shortly after the vote.
“A lot of Canadians share our vision and our goals in the NDP. We just gotta make sure that, by modernizing, by using the language that resonates with a wider public in Canada, that we’ll be able to do what we have to do, which is to defeat Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in 2015.”
Social democracy, he said, is about “removing inequalities in our society.” While many of those battles — such as those related to improving working conditions — have been won, he said today’s fight is about the inequalities between generations and the need for sustainable development.
Mulcair argued the purpose of the change is to “connect and reach out beyond our traditional base,” while still acknowledging the party’s traditions. He added it’s not so much about “bringing the party to the centre” as some critics, including party stalwart Ed Broadbent, have charged, but rather about “bringing the centre to the party.”
The new preamble was drafted by notable party members, including former national leader Alexa McDonough, former Manitoba MP Bill Blaikie and past party president and leadership contender Brian Topp, on instruction from the late Jack Layton after the party failed to agree on an earlier revision at the last policy convention in 2011. It’s considerably longer than the original and focuses on the principles of “sustainable prosperity,” “freedom and democracy” and a “rules based economy.”
It also references the party’s “social democratic and democratic socialist traditions,” and affirms pride in its “political and activist heritage.”
It was amended slightly by delegates to also include a commitment to “First Nations, Metis and Inuit,” as well as support for “intercultural integration.”