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Friday, June 17, 2011

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NEWS OF ThE DAY, PLUS ANALYSIS ThAT TELLS YOU WhErE ITS GOING InteractIve features and up-to-the mInute poLItIcaL coverage PhOTOS, GALLErIES, AND PhOTOFILMS a specIaL subscrIptIon offer Visit us Monday for your downloadable souvenir booklet of VANCON2011 Because like Jack Layton, behind the smiling, happy warrior, Tommy was a tough, hard-edged and sometimes challenging leader. Caucus members and staff felt his lash, convention delegates and voters, never. To this veteran party hack, who, to get through a fractious convention while avoiding political disaster had to engineer packing the mike line-ups, plotting secret entrances and escape routes for key political figures, and other political dirty tricks too shabby to reveal, this Vancouver convention looks like an enviable cakewalk. The party is joyous and triumphant. Dissidents will get short shrift on the floor. And (continued on pg. 2)

Former NDP leader Tommy Douglas in Ottawa on Oct. 19, 1983.

PhOTO: ThE CANADIAN PrESS MANIPULATION: JESSIE WILLMS

And so it begins
Celebrate, of course. And then make this a weekend that transforms the NDP
Robin SeaRS smacked Ed Broadbent for even considering a coalition with Pierre Trudeau. They narrowly avoided a probably fatal split over the Constitution. The NDP was near the crest of its previous high tide. They too were celebrating an election victory; the 1980 campaign set a high-water mark that was exceeded only once, in 1988. But what a different party it was! Smaller, older, whiter, anglophone. The Quebec delegation was probably less than a hundred, including spouses and pets. The Socialist Caucus was not a joke then, but a real problem to be monitored

he NDPs Vancouver convention took place on long, sunny days and nights in the bucolic setting of the UBCs lawns and stunning views. Inside, however, it was a tense and fraught occasion with big issues, hotly contended. The delegates to Vancouver 1981

nervously by party managers. The 1981 convention fit easily into a UBC gym, and only baldies exceeded the aging heads of long grey hair. Many of the veterans of those years would not recognize todays younger, browner, greener, more francophone party a generation who sneer at moral victories and the traditional role of the left as the conscience of Canadian politics. They want to govern. Jack Layton will reap a level of well-earned adulation at this event that only Tommy Douglas achieved in his prime. Ed Broadbent, David Lewis, J.S. Woodsworth were loved as leaders. But Tommy existed in a stratosphere of adoration that made his internal competitors grind their teeth.

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Layton and Co. need to achieve three tasks this weekend

(continued from pg. 1) embarrassing resolutions will be as scarce as aging Trots at this festive gathering. Layton and Co. need to achieve three tasks to make this gathering of the faithful as important to their launch into the new Parliament as harper Inc.s was for the blue team last week. None of them are being seen to move the party to the economic centre at this convention. That will continue to happen, but not in the febrile atmosphere of an NDP convention, thank you very much. No, first he needs to continue the education of the new young activists he has attracted in the harsh lessons of politics. Like harper, they must learn that their political fantasies wholesale nationalization and constitutional legerdemain in the starry-eyed New Dem camp as opposed to slowly strangling government in the dark blue Tory fantasyland are fine to

salivate and spar over at midnight in the bar. But such rude talk is now forbidden on the floor of the convention. The convention will be pragmatic and thoughtful, on the verge of boring, both in rhetoric and tone, as the conventions of the Saskatchewan NDP and other serious parties of government inevitably are. Secondly, it must be fun. New Dems still fight their stereotype as dour, insanely politically correct, and joyless. Loud, boisterous celebration should be part of the coverage on The National. Young delegates giving confident proud interviews about their determination to march to government, en les deux langues, should also be part of Canadians vision of the party. No bozo commentary on Twitter, or failed videos on stage, either. Finally, Jack needs to begin to convey that the party has captured ownership of the Liberal partys secret sauce: that is, management of le question national. If the NDP can avoid falling into the ditch labelled pandering to Quebec and the one on the other side of the road marked Party Splits

over Vision of Canada, this will have been a successful chapter in the partys evolution. It will require thoughtful spotlighting of the best of the young new Quebec MPs, sensible, gracious welcomes from older B.C. and Ontario delegates to that improbable team of proud young Quebeckers, and a genuine celebration rather than resentment of the partys new Quebec centre of gravity.

To do this weekend: 1. Transform activists into politicians. 2. Have loud, boisterous fun. 3. Seize national leadership baton.

Liberals from the 1930s to 1980 were consummate masters at this delicate balancing act at the heart of Canadian political craft. Chretien ragged the Quebec puck for a decade, and harper has at least for now blown his opportunity

to be seen as the leader that can keep Quebec and the rOC happy. Jack Layton has an opportunity to seize that national leadership baton, just at the moment when it seems likely that the Parti Quebecois may be heading back to power. If he is successful in staking out that turf at this convention, and is judged as a competent successor to Mackenzie King, Louis St.Laurent, and Lester Pearson in managing the central challenge of Canadian political leadership, this will have been an important gathering. New Dems will then look back on this week as not only a celebration of their 50th anniversary and an election triumph but the beginning of their transformation into a new national party of government. And a generation ago, at that anxious 1981 Vancouver convention, if youd suggested such an ambition was a possible dream, along with every other political hack at the time, I would have chortled mightily at your naivete. Robin Sears is a senior partner at Navigator Ltd. He was national director of the NDP from 1974 to 1981.

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Whats on
Friday
2 p.m.: Opening ceremonies

Good Friday morning. Safe to say New Democrats arriving in Vancouver are in a better mood than the Canucks fans they will find there. People are still in a state of wonderful shock, MP Nathan Cullen tells iPolitics. When they see 103 MPs step up on the stage, thats when it actually starts to become real. The convention is also a celebration of the NDPs 50th anniversary, of course. Fifty years ago, Tommy Douglas and thousands of committed activists founded our party with a vision for a better Canada, Jack Layton says. And weve spent the last five decades delivering on this vision one practical result at a time. Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus says the convention is a chance to get back to grassroots. how much of that ends up becoming policy, how much of it gets voted down, how much of it gets brought back to the house, its issue by issue, he said. Delegates will be faced with a slew of policy proposals, many of which reflect the NDPs campaign platform and some that highlight recent contentious parliamentary issues. The Quebec Section will put forth a resolution on Canadas digital economy. The Wascana riding wants the party to preserve and strengthen the Canadian Wheat Boards position as a single-desk marketer. There are also lengthy resolutions on the negotiation of the 2014 health accord, and on expanding Canadas pension plan. Two B.C. ridings want the party to push for an oil tanker ban for waters just off the West Coast. Another from New Westminster-Coquitlam asks that the party protect wild salmon by switching to closed containment fish farm systems. Delegates will also discuss a resolution put forth by the Toronto Centre riding to reject any proposals to merge with the Liberal Party. Its a particularly poignant resolution given that it comes from Liberal leader Bob raes riding. The latest issue of Macleans promises to tell the untold story of Jack Layton. In a cover story titled You Dont Know Jack, Ottawa bureau chief John Geddes chronicles the life and times of the official Opposition leader from hanging out at the yacht club in hudson, Que., to falling under the thrall of Charles Taylor at McGill, to learning politics at Toronto City hall. Last but not least, here is some of what the NDP socialist caucus plans to champion this weekend. For starters, the group wants the NDP to push to nationalize hamilton Works-U.S. Steel Canada, the auto and banking industries, and oil and gas companies; it wants to shut down the oil sands in northern Alberta; legalize marijuana; get Canada out of NATO; and boycott apartheid Israel. The socialist caucus is not an official organization. Its members would be the first to admit their resolutions are unlikely to go anywhere. Still, Layton says, they will be heard. Therell be a wide-open debate, he said yesterday after question period. Some people like to assume that any proposal that comes to the convention is suddenly NDP policy. Thats simply not true. Every weekday morning, The Morning Brief goes beyond headlines to start conversations about the legislative, regulatory, political and policy developments that matter most to businesspeople, professionals, politicians, public servants, political activists, and people who just enjoy all things political. To sign up for a free trial of our daily bulletin, go to www.ipolitics.ca/ndp

Saturday

9 a.m.: Speech by Ken Georgetti

11 a.m.: Campaign 2011 1:30 p.m.: Darrell Dexter

2:15 p.m.: Stephen Lewis

4:15 p.m.: The Next Generation of Leadership

Sunday

noon: Jack Layton speech

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