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Ontario New Democratic Party leader Howard Hampton
was unapologetic about the party’s dismal results in the October 10
provincial election (see November 2007 Northern Lights), but he did
signal that he intends to step down as leader in less than a year.
Hampton told the ONDP Provincial Council on November
24 that he’s “not going anywhere soon”,
that is, not until after the next federal election, which many expect
will take place in early Spring 2008. But business media reporters
present somehow got it wrong. Evidently, they failed to hear the
word “soon”, along with the ensuing explanation.
Likewise, they neglected to report the contents of the
spirited discussion that then occurred amongst the nearly 200
delegates. Remarks sharply critical of the NDP campaign's 'status
quo' stance on public funding for Catholic separate schools (in the face
of opinion polls showing that up to 70 per cent of Ontarions favour an
end to public funding of all religious schools) were loudly
applauded. So were criticisms of the party establishment's focus on
Liberal broken promises, as well as its stifling control of financing for
local NDP constituency campaigns.
The discussion continued at a lunch time Socialist
Caucus forum, attended by over 25 delegates and observers. There
the consensus was that both Hampton's leadership and his departure
are neither the main problem nor necessarily the solution. As
potential candidates to replace Hampton now jockey for position, NDP
Socialists pose the need to turn the party decisively to the left.
This includes projecting the demand for a unified, secular school system
and for public ownership of energy resources and basic industry to plan
production to meet social needs and to foster a sustainable environment.
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