By Barry Weisleder
MPP Marit Stiles is hanging on as leader of the New Democratic Party in Ontario after a not very convincing vote of confidence on September 20. At the party convention in Niagara Falls, Stiles received 68 per cent of the votes cast, asking her to remain, while 32 per cent said it’s time for a new leader. Normally, a sitting party chief wins by a margin of 85 to 95 per cent. Clearly, many members are dissatisfied with Stiles’ milquetoast policies and lackluster leadership. Meanwhile, the NDP languishes at a lowly 12 per cent in the latest provincial opinion poll. Federally the party registers below 7 per cent.
The relatively low convention attendance reflected a demoralized state of affairs. According to the credentials committee, up to one thousand delegates registered (of a potential 1,500). But on the floor, fewer than 450 chairs were occupied most of the time. A few dozen members participated online. One bright spot was the participation of about one hundred youth delegates, several joining for the first time. Another hopeful sign was the presence of many union members, backed by the recurrent theme Labour and the NDP Together.
The convention was a magnet for visiting federal NDP leadership candidates. While MP Heather McPherson, journalist Avi Lewis, and longshore union president Rob Ashton greeted delegates on the floor and in the hallways, Ontario party officials would not grant a visitor credential, an observer certificate, or even a media pass to socialist candidate Yves Engler.
Indeed, officials were very uncooperative towards partisans of Engler and the NDP Socialist Caucus. They were denied a display table, despite inquiring months before the convention — with no acknowledgement from the top brass.
Nonetheless, at the Socialist Caucus hub, which was a ‘coffee table’ situated in the main lobby, volunteers distributed hundreds of copies of Turn Left magazine, sold many books and buttons, and invited NDPers to a Saturday evening gathering at a local pizzeria. There Yves addressed an appreciative crowd, answered questions and autographed books.
Over the three days of convention, scarcely six hours was devoted to debate and voting on policy resolutions – the rest of the 19 hours on the floor was consumed by guest speakers and ‘expert’ talking heads chosen to orate on topical panels. As a result, from among the hundreds of resolutions submitted by district associations, affiliated unions and youth clubs, fewer than ten from each of the five policy blocks made it to the floor for consideration.
The stranglehold of the party bureaucracy on elected positions continues. The vast majority of those elected were endorsed by MPPs and party controllers. But thanks to the Socialist Caucus, no acclamation occurred. Socialists contested for President, Treasurer, Vice-President, Regional reps, Equity committee co-chairs and other positions. Typically, the leftists scored 13.5 to 17.5 per cent. One SC candidate, Damon Baldwin-Fox, won as the Indigenous Peoples Committee co-chair and will serve for two years on the ONDP Executive. The SC candidate for President, London-based Dirka Prout, came second in a field of four contenders.
Across the country on September 20, tens of thousands marched under the banner of Draw the Line, a broad coalition demanding an end to war, genocide, fossil fuel energy systems, anti-immigrant racism, colonialism and corporate rule. Niagara Falls was no exception to the cause. Over one hundred local people rallied in a field across from the entrance to the convention center, joined by scores of delegates, the Socialist Caucus, and Yves Engler.
In terms of adopted policy, the ONDP convention was quite unremarkable. It denounced privatization and spending cuts in heath care, education, mass transit, and other fields. Protection of the public sector and workers’ rights were featured in an array of mainly defensive motions, none of which identified capitalism and the private profit system as the root cause of human suffering.
Of the many resolutions that addressed Palestine, the weakest one came to the floor. Oddly enough, it arrived under the title “A Healthier, More Inclusive Ontario.” It affirms the ONDP’s “unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people”, “condemns all forms of apartheid, occupation, and ethnic cleansing”, and supports “legal mechanisms to prevent and reverse the illegal transfer or sale of land in the West Bank and Gaza…”
Noticeably, there is no mention of genocide, no call for a 2-Way Arms Embargo Now, and no demand for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the Zionist state. Nonetheless, the adopted policy represents modest progress, the result of years of global mass protest in the streets.
A bold Socialist Caucus intervention, on the subject of rent, presented a referral motion demanding a rollback, not just a freeze, of exorbitant rent increases. The motion carried by a count of raised cards on the floor, but according to an unscrutinized digital re-vote it narrowly failed. The chair refused to disclose the number who voted. Why? Was it because the participation rate was extremely low due to technical issues in the rushed e-vote?
One approved resolution may explain the presence of many youth delegates. It calls for the ONDP to “establish a full-time paid summer internship program… with applications open to all members of the Ontario New Democratic Youth… to include positions in MPP offices… and within the Party itself.”
An item distributed, but not discussed, is the final report of the 2025 Governance Review Committee. Concerning the cancellation of the ONDP convention on December 21, 2024, it concluded that “Provincial Officers proceeded with a decision in violation of the constitution, setting the cancellation in motion operationally, and were supported in this decision by a questionable and unsound interpretation of the Constitution.”
So, who should be held accountable for this misdemeanor? The report is mute. The matter of personal culpability, and any appropriate consequences, is not even raised.
Impunity in matters of the gross violation of democracy in the workers’ movement is symptomatic of a party in crisis. This too is a reason for the growing socialist insurgency in the ranks of the NDP and Labour – quite evident in the federal leadership race.
