NDP: Still Socialist, After All These Years

The party keeps 'socialist' around – for now – as it rings in a half-century of existence.

The NDP's 50th anniversary bash wrapped up in Vancouver on the weekend with the party holding on to the word “socialist” in its constitution, and voting against a proposal that would have officially banned any talk of merging with the Liberals. The convention also gave Leader Jack Layton a nearly unanimous vote of confidence, with 97.9 per cent of delegates voting in support of his continued tenure as leader, a month and a half after he guided the party to its best-ever electoral showing. The “socialist” debate, which would have exchanged that word for “social democratic” in describing the party's principles, was shelved for a later date.