If we can't recognize that we need to pull out all the stops to rebuild the left in this country, to reafirm our commitment to common cause, to recognize all the friends of the left, whether they carry cards or not, whether they profess strategic voting or not, then we'd might as well fold up our tents and go home. We might just as well allow the Jean Chretiens, Mike Harris' and Ralph Kleins of the world continue to rule the roost in perpetuity because we cannot conceivably challenge their power without beating them at their game.
We do not have the financial resources nor will we ever have the support of Corporate Canada to help us wage our war on the right. The only power we do wield at this time is fuelled by our own conviction and determination. The only real resource we have is the fact that the majority of Canadians agree with what we stand for.
We need what Ed Broadbent, Buzz Hargrove and most recently Alexa McDonagh have been calling for. I have not heard anyone yet suggest excluding the existing leadership of the NDP in the much needed discussions. But, many of us often can't see the forests for the trees. It does us all good to step back once in a while, to look at things from another perspective, to walk a mile in another man's mocassins.
If we can't attract the youth in this country, with their energy, their intelligence, their savvy, then we will have done our collective future irreparable harm. What our youth may lack in experience they more than make up in spunk. The NDP needs that spunk.
I applaud wholeheartedly those who are calling for a new vision, for a new direction, for new blood. I also admire the ego required in anyone who has the nerve to stand up and have their opinions heard and have the courage of their convictions to take the heat for it. Without this kind of leadership, the NDP would simply sink further into irrelevance and eventual obsolescence.
In Solidarity
Ben Lefebvre
Note: benle5@nt.net
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