NDProgress was a pressure group or faction within the Canadian federal New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

. Founded in 2000, NDProgress pushed for structural reform of the party as a means of increasing its electoral success.

Started by activists principally from Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 and Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, the group called for five reforms in an open letter to the party signed by Nova Scotia NDP MP Peter Stoffer

Peter Stoffer

Peter Arend Stoffer is a Canadian politician.Stoffer is currently a member of the New Democratic Party caucus in the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Sackville—Eastern Shore. He represented Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore after the 2000 election, and after the...

. The five reforms were:

1. Introducing a one member one vote system to elect the party leader;
2. Banning union and corporate donations to the party;
3. Changing the relationship of the party with the Canadian Labour Congress
   Canadian Labour Congress
   The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in English Canada to which most Canadian labour unions are affiliated.- Formation :...
   
   ;
4. Separating the provincial and federal wings of the party;
5. Changing the party name.

NDProgress emphasized loyalty to the party, avoiding accusations of factionalism that some critics leveled against the New Politics Initiative

New Politics Initiative

New Politics InitiativeFounded:2001Dissolved:2004Political ideology:social democracy,democratic socialismThe New Politics Initiative was a faction of Canada's New Democratic Party...

 backed by MP Svend Robinson

Svend Robinson

Svend Robinson is a former Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 2004, representing the suburban Vancouver-area constituency of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party...

 and social activist Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick , arrived in Toronto at age 9, and is a Canadian journalist, political activist, and feminist.-Career:...

.

In the spring of 2001, NDProgress organized a conference in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 where federal leader Alexa McDonough

Alexa McDonough

Alexa Ann Shaw McDonough OC is a Canadian politician who became the first woman to lead a major, recognized political party in Canada, when she was elected the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party's leader in 1980...

 endorsed the one member one vote plank. An amendment to the party's constitution, to provide a variant of one member one vote wherein affiliated labour groups would continue to have their own blocs of votes, was made at the following party convention after an effective lobbying campaign by NDProgress activists. The measure won support across the party, despite NDProgresses leadership being identified with the Third Way

Third way (centrism)

The Third Way refers to various political positions which try to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of right-wing economic and left-wing social policies. Third Way approaches are commonly viewed from within the first- and second-way perspectives as...

 ideology of British Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 leader Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

, which was unpopular in NDP activist circles.

At the next convention in 2003, when Jack Layton

Jack Layton

John Gilbert "Jack" Layton, PC was a Canadian social democratic politician and the Leader of the Official Opposition. He was the leader of the New Democratic Party from 2003 to 2011, and previously sat on Toronto City Council, serving at times during that period as acting mayor and deputy mayor of...

 was elected leader by party members using the new system, NDProgress proposed and won passage of a resolution limiting corporate and union donations, fundamentally changing the financial character of the party.

One of NDProgress' co-founders was Dominic Cardy

Dominic Cardy

Dominic Cardy is a Canadian politician. He was selected as the leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party in the party's leadership election process on March 2, 2011. A resident of Fredericton, Cardy was the party's campaign director in the 2010 provincial election.Cardy was acclaimed party...

 who would go on to become leader of the New Brunswick NDP in 2011.

External links

• NDProgress discussion papers