Canada’s NDP needs to rekindle the anti-capitalist thinking and activist energy that spurred its creation. That logic has shaped my campaign’s recently released platform.

In July 1933 the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) met in Regina for its first national convention. About 130 delegates approved what became known as the Regina Manifesto. It said, “genuine international cooperation is incompatible with the capitalist regime” and aimed to “REPLACE the present capitalist system.” It concluded, “No CCF Government will rest content until it has eradicated capitalism.”

The Regina Manifesto was drafted six months after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. Benito Musolini had come to power in Italy a decade earlier.

The political headwinds we face today are similar to 1933. The specter of fascism is rising rapidly down south and elsewhere. Donald Trump recently labelled antifa a terror organization, labelled “anti-capitalist”, “anti-Christian” and “anti-American” as extremist ideas and has deployed troops/ICE agents to many cities.

Like down south and other NATO countries, Zionist authoritarianism has shaped Canadian policy over the past two years. The main opposition party wants to go even further down the authoritarian, rightist direction than our current billionaire focused prime minister who has quickly tightened the border, deepened surveillance and radically boosted military spending.

NATO countries are setting the stage for a world war. Tensions between NATO and Russia or the US targeting China could spur a conflict.

In response to these headwinds, we need to articulate an unapologetically eco-socialist, anti-colonial and internationalist alternative. My NDP leadership campaign’s “Capitalism can’t be fixed — onward to a socialist future” offers an alternative vision to our ecologically damaging, billionaire producing, economic system. Just like the party argued in its early days it finds that many of our current ills are rooted in an economic system of private ownership, master-servant relations and private entitlement. It notes, “A socialist Canada requires democratic ownership and control of the economy’s commanding heights for planned and sustainable development. Essential sectors must serve the public good, not private profit. Our core promises are to fight unambiguously for our interests against the billionaire class, ensuring public ownership of all corporate industries, including production, transportation, communication, and finance.”

The policy is thoughtful and comprehensive. It argues for “anticolonial transformation” and that “settler-colonialism is the basis of the Canadian state; we must dismantle colonialism as a first step towards public ownership and worker control of industries, and wealth redistribution on the path to socialism.”

NDP 2026 was also drafted democratically. It was drawn up by 45 activists and researchers who were assisted by dozens more with help in translating, laying out and designing the platform. The 45 activists came together in a policy committee where they created six different subcommittees focused on specific themes. After the subcommittees drafted policies, some outside researchers and indigenous leaders were consulted. Hundreds, maybe a thousand, hours of volunteer labour went into the policy document over the past three months.

This was a decidedly bottom-up exercise with my involvement only peripheral. Marketers or polling experts weren’t commissioned to ask if the policy was “sellable”. It’s highly unlikely that any of the other NDP leadership campaigns will allow volunteers to shape policy in a similar way.

As such, the policy doesn’t simply better address the policy needs of our times, it was consummated in a way that allows us to better address the challenges. You can’t overcome entrenched power if you don’t empower people and build popular consciousness.

NDP 2026 is my campaign’s platform but it’s also a blueprint for a generation.

To assist, donate or learn more about my bid to lead the NDP check out yvesforndpleader.ca

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