New Democratic Party of Canada Debates Whether to Drop “Socialist” from Party’s Constitution

The New Democratic Party of Canada, which placed second in the recent Canadian parliamentary election, is holding a national meeting on the weekend of June 18-19. Up for debate is whether to delete the party’s description of itself as “socialist” from its Statement of Principles. See this story.


Comments

New Democratic Party of Canada Debates Whether to Drop “Socialist” from Party’s Constitution — 9 Comments

  1. Oh, so if you delete the word “socialist” from your constitution then you are not socialist? Please. This is exactly what happens in America with “liberals” and “progressives.”

  2. So, aiming toward the center, the Democrats under Clinton became New Democrats and Blair-era Labour became New Labour. Will Canada’s New Democrats now become the New New Democrats?

  3. @1

    I largely expect its due to now being a centre – centre-left political party and quite the opposite to what your insinuating. Its policies are social democrat like many other non-Socialist Left leaning Parties in the world, continuing to call it Socialist would be a misjudgement.

    As @3 has hinted, Centring policies seems like a gimmick in itself and will dilute the NDP’s policies to the point that its little different than the other major Canadian parties and lead to the Ideological stagnation that most of the world seems to suffer in Democratic elections these days.

  4. Mikebloke, well said. It also reminds – although this is just speculation on my part – me of how Democrats in the US have gotten friendlier and friendlier to corporations, and so have unions as they’ve gotten weaker, so that an establishment party that once had a few connections to working people now has none. I think the NDP was more genuinely populist than the Democrats ever were.

  5. What happened to the *Socialist* in the DEAD U.S.S.R. regime ???

    or even the *Socialist* in the nazi party regime in 1933-1945 ???

    NO shortage of econ MORON *socialist* folks in the U.S.A. since 1929 — with the resulting $$$ 17.1 TRILLION in Fed/State/local debts since 1929.

    What is the ratio of debt due NOW/income before lots of folks go personally bankrupt ???

    See the many Felony Fraud loans in 2001-2006 producing the current 2006-XXXX Great Depression II.

  6. If a merger should happen, the NDP (at the Liberals’ insistance)will probably have to leave the Socialist International.

  7. How about the obvious —
    changing the fraudulent *New Democratic* in the party name to —

    New Socialist or even Old Socialist ??? — to end the fraud on the voters in Canada.

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