VANCOUVER – The federal NDP’s prairie beginnings seemed like old news at the party’s recent national convention.
Delegates met in Vancouver’s posh new, ocean front convention centre with dreams of forming the next government, and where just as much French as English was spoken.
While Tommy Douglas was mentioned often, prairie issues received short shrift at the three-day convention, which celebrated the party’s 50th anniversary and its unexpected 103-seat win in May’s federal election.
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There were resolutions concerning the Canadian Wheat Board, supporting the family farm and ensuring food security, but much of the debate centred on removing the word “socialism” from the party’s constitution, the role of Canada in Libya and strengthening Canada’s pension plan.
NDP leader Jack Layton said the party’s Saskatchewan roots have not been forgotten.
“We don’t want to abandon what got us here,” said Layton.
Instead, he said, “the spirit of working together” is needed to bring the to the next level.
His party has only one MP from Alberta, two in Manitoba and none in Saskatchewan, but Layton wasn’t worried that the 59 Quebec MPs, who make up more than half of his 103-person caucus, will take over the 50-year-old party.
Layton stressed that the 1,560 delegates at the convention represent Canadians from across the country and not just one area.
“When I look at this caucus, I see the face of Canada and the future of our country,” Layton said.
He was particularly buoyed by the number of young people at the convention, as well as the Quebec contingent, many of them young.
Rookie NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice said the NDP tried for years to reach Quebeckers and it’s finally happened.
“It’s a thrill. Wow,” said Boulerice, a former journalist and adviser to the Canadian Union of Public Employees who now represents the Montreal riding of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie.
The priority now for what Layton calls his “government-in-waiting” is to take on the Conservatives.
“Why take us seriously?,” he said.
“We’re the official opposition. We’ll not only criticize the government. We’re the government-in-waiting.”
Delegates from across the country voiced the same sentiment.
Shannon Phillips, a delegate from Lethbridge, said the Liberals have been written off as a threat and the NDP is well-positioned to form the next government as it moves to attract more voters with policies that address social programs, health care and the environment.
She said the NDP may have elected only one MP in Alberta, but it did capture 25 percent of the vote in the province.
FOR MORE FROM THE CONVENTION, SEE PAGE 68.
Where the delegates came from:
B.C.: 660 Alberta: 84
Saskatchewan: 60 Manitoba: 56 Ontario: 449 Quebec: 183
New Brunswick: 14 Nova Scotia: 28 P.E. I: 3
Newfoundland &Labrador: 7 N.W. T: 6 Yukon: 6
Total:1,556
