New Politics Initiative

Founded:	2001
Dissolved:	2004
Political ideology:	social democracy Social democracy Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism... , democratic socialism Democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...

The New Politics Initiative (or NPI) was a faction of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

's 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...

. It was generally viewed to be further left than 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...

's leadership, but not as far left as the Socialist Caucus

New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus

The New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus is an unofficial left-wing faction within Canada's New Democratic Party. Its manifesto maintains that the New Democratic Party has moved too far to the right, and is in danger of becoming indistinguishable from the Liberal Party...

.

The NPI believed that the NDP was moving too close to the right, and was dangerously close to becoming another Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

. It believed in uniting Canada's left to combat this. The NPI viewed Canada's left as being more than just the labour unions, but rather as appealing to a staunch left wing who believe in anti-globalization

Anti-globalization

Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....

, feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

, gay rights, and environmentalism

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

. The NPI attributed the poor showing of the NDP in recent years to having alienated its left-wing base by moving towards the centre, and wished to bring these activists into the NDP by adopting their views.

The NPI was founded in June 2001, and was soon joined by British Columbian Members of Parliament Libby Davies

Libby Davies

Libby Davies is a Canadian Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party , representing the riding of Vancouver East in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2007, she was named Deputy Leader of the federal NDP, jointly with Thomas Mulcair.-Background:Davies was born in Aldershot, England and...

 and 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...

. Other prominent members included Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick

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

 and Jim Stanford

Jim Stanford

Jim Stanford, a Canadian economist, is economist for the Canadian Auto Workers and founder of the Progressive Economics Forum. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research...

. The NPI originally called for the NDP to disband and form another, more left wing, party under a different name with the participation of social movements. It was said that this would have followed the path set by the NDP when it was created in 1961 by its predecessor party, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, and labour unions, but the NPI did not propose a formal merger, but a disbanding.

The NPI never articulated a specific plan for how social movements could be integrated into the NDP. At the NDP convention held in Winnipeg in November 2001, opponents of the initiative used this lack of detail to defeat the proposal. The NPI's resolution did manage to win the support of almost 40% of convention delegates.

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...

 won the NDP leadership

New Democratic Party leadership election, 2003

The New Democratic Party leadership election of 2003 was held to replace New Democratic Party of Canada leader Alexa McDonough, after her retirement...

 in January 2003, it was taken as a victory by the NPI, with whom Jack Layton had sympathized, but never joined. Key NPI leaders such as Robinson, Davies and Rebick supported Layton's campaign for leader. With Layton's election the NPI became less vocal and formally dissolved in early 2004 with a concluding public meeting being held on February 22.

External links

• Official Website (Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
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  )