NDProgress
NDProgress was a pressure group or faction within the Canadian federal New Democratic Party. 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 and Ontario, the group called for five reforms in an open letter to the party signed by Nova Scotia NDP MP Peter Stoffer. The five reforms were:
- Introducing a one member one vote system to elect the party leader;
- Banning union and corporate donations to the party;
- Changing the relationship of the party with the Canadian Labour Congress;
- Separating the provincial and federal wings of the party;
- Changing the party name.
NDProgress emphasized loyalty to the party, avoiding accusations of factionalism that some critics leveled against the New Politics Initiative backed by MP Svend Robinson and social activist Judy Rebick.
In the spring of 2001, NDProgress organized a conference in Ottawa where federal leader Alexa McDonough 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.
A modified version of the OMOV system proposed by NDProgress was utilised at the 2003 leadership election with the modification being that labour delegates would be allotted weight equivalent to 25% of the overall vote. Subsequently, this modification was eliminated and the 2012 leadership election will use the straight OMOV system endorsed by NDProgress.[1]
At the convention in 2003, when Jack Layton 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. Subsequently, the Jean Chretien government banned corporate and union donations to all political parties.
One of NDProgress' co-founders was Dominic Cardy who would go on to become leader of the New Brunswick NDP in 2011.[2]
