The Waffle (also known as the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada) was a radical wing of
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
's
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* t ...
(NDP) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little electoral success before it permanently disbanded in the mid-1970s. It was generally a
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
youth movement that espoused Canadian nationalism and solidarity with Quebec's sovereignty movement.
Formation
The group formed in 1969. Its leaders were university professors
Mel Watkins
Melville Henry Watkins (May 15, 1932 – April 2, 2020) was a Canadian political economist and activist and professor emeritus of economics and political science at the University of Toronto. He was a founder and co-leader with James Laxer o ...
and
James Laxer
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
. It issued a
Manifesto for an Independent Socialist Canada and with support in the NDP caucus and membership worked to push the party leftward. The Waffle supported the nationalization of Canadian industries to take them out of the hands of American interests. The group was endorsed by the
New Democratic Youth. The Waffle manifesto stated, "A socialist society must be one in which there is democratic control of all institutions, which have a major effect on men's lives and where there is equal opportunity for creative non-exploitative self-development. It is now time to go beyond the welfare state." According to the manifesto, "The New Democratic Party must provide leadership in the struggle to extend working men's influence into every area of industrial decision-making.... By bringing men together primarily as buyers and sellers of each other, by enshrining profitability and material gain in place of humanity and spiritual growth, capitalism has always been inherently alienating. Today, sheer size combined with modern technology further exaggerates man's sense of insignificance and impotence. A socialist transformation of society will return to man his sense of humanity, to replace his sense of being a commodity. But a socialist democracy implies man's control of his immediate environment as well, and in any strategy for building socialism, community democracy is as vital as the struggle for electoral success."
The Waffle developed a Canadian nationalist policy. According to the founding manifesto, "The major threat to Canadian survival today is American control of the Canadian economy. The major issue of our times is not national unity but national survival."
Origins of the Waffle name
The name was meant ironically; one story, quoted in historian
Desmond Morton's book ''The New Democrats'', has the name originating during the drafting of the group's manifesto when, at one point,
Ed Broadbent
John Edward "Ed" Broadbent (born March 21, 1936) is a Canadian social-democratic politician, political scientist, and chair of the Broadbent Institute, a policy thinktank. He was leader of the New Democratic Party from 1975 to 1989. In the 200 ...
said "that if they had to choose between waffling to the left and waffling to the right, they waffle to the left."
[Morton (1986), p. 92.] "The Waffle Manifesto" was the published headline of Jean Howarth's editorial piece in ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' on September 6, 1969.
[
] Howarth heard about the waffle line from
Hugh Winsor
Hugh Fraser Winsor, (born 18 April 1938 at Saint John, New Brunswick) is a Canadian journalist, noted for his work with ''The Globe and Mail'' and CBC Television's ''The Journal (Canadian TV show), The Journal''. He received the Charles Lynch Aw ...
, who also worked at ''The Globe and Mail'', and was also a co-signer of the manifesto.
[Smith (1989), p. 579.] When Laxer and other members of the group read the headline, they adopted it.
Another possible origin for the name comes from a film-clip excerpt from a CBC documentary on the NDP, taken during a meeting of the group some months prior to the October 1969 NDP Winnipeg convention.
[
] According to the film excerpt, the Waffle term appears to have originated with Jim Laxer when he stated, "in terms of the proposed manifesto, that if it doesn't talk about nationalization of key industries, it becomes a 'waffle document.'"
The term "waffle" was picked up by subsequent speakers in the discussion.
1971 Ottawa leadership convention
The 1971 NDP leadership convention was a battleground between the party establishment and the Waffle. About 2,000 people, out of the NDP's approximately 90,000 membership, were members of the Waffle in 1971.
[Avakumovic, pp. 231, 237] The Waffle tried to get as many of their supporters onto the party's governing bodies, but were rebuked by the large bloc of rank-and-file union voters at the convention.
[
] Carol Gudmundson — of the
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
,
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
Waffle — ran unsuccessfully for the party presidency.
She was up against former Ontario NDP leader
Donald C. MacDonald and lost to him during the April 23rd vote.
University of Toronto professor Mel Watkins lost his vice-president position, but managed to get elected to the party's federal council.
The campaign for leader of the NDP pitted
David Lewis against James Laxer. Through the strong support of the labour unions, Lewis succeeded in defeating Laxer on the fourth ballot on April 24.
[
] Laxer won approximately 37 percent of the final ballot vote, and established that the Waffle had some strength in the party and were no longer a small fringe group.
The Waffle's demise in Ontario
During the leadership convention, the Waffle was described in the press as a "party within a party."
One of the last hurrahs for the Waffle came during the
October 1971 Ontario provincial election. The Waffle's Ontario chairman, Steve Penner, was
Ontario NDP
The Ontario New Democratic Party (french: link=no, Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Ontario; abbr. ONDP or NDP) is a social-democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in Ontario following th ...
candidate for
MPP
MPP or M.P.P. may refer to:
* Marginal physical product
* Master of Public Policy, an academic degree
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), Canada
* Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape), South Africa
* ''Merriweather Post Pavilio ...
from the
Dovercourt riding.
Despite the public infighting between Penner and Ontario NDP leader
Stephen Lewis
Stephen Henry Lewis (born November 11, 1937) is a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster, and diplomat. He was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s.
During many of those years as leade ...
(son of national NDP leader David Lewis), Penner lost by only 55 votes.
The Waffle considered this a success, because in the 1967 election, the NDP candidate lost by over 1,400 votes.
Lewis remained hostile; in 1972 he described the Waffle as "an encumbrance around my neck".
Then at the NDP's Provincial Council on 24 June, Lewis obtained a resolution ordering the Waffle to disband or else leave the NDP.
Debate on the motion lasted for three hours, with labour leaders leading the charge to expel the Waffle.
Finally, the council approved the anti-Waffle motion 217 to 86, thereby ending months of public feuding.
Independent party: end of the road
Some members of the Waffle remained New Democrats, but Laxer and Watkins accepted Lewis's ultimatum and quit the NDP in 1972. They continued the Waffle under the name the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada, but it was still commonly referred to as the Waffle. The group existed until the Canadian federal election in 1974, when it unsuccessfully ran candidates for
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in the federal election. Laxer ran in the
York West
York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...
electoral district in Toronto, placing fourth in a field of seven with 673 votes and only 1.26 percent of the popular vote.
Effect on NDP youth movement
The dispute over the Waffle led to the disbanding of the
Ontario NDP
The Ontario New Democratic Party (french: link=no, Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Ontario; abbr. ONDP or NDP) is a social-democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in Ontario following th ...
's youth wing in 1972, which was not revived until 1988. The federal NDP also disbanded the
New Brunswick NDP
The New Brunswick New Democratic Party (french: link=no, Nouveau Parti démocratique du Nouveau-Brunswick) is a social-democratic provincial political party in New Brunswick, Canada linked with the federal New Democratic Party (NDP).
History ...
for a period in late 1971 after a local Waffle group gained control of it.
Legacy
Many of its leaders eventually came back into the party and held important positions within it, which also shaped many of the NDP's policies in the 1980s through to the early 21st century.
[
]
See also
*
New Politics Initiative
The New Politics Initiative (NPI) was a faction of Canada's New Democratic Party. It was generally viewed to be further left than Alexa McDonough's leadership, but not as far left as the Socialist Caucus.
The NPI believed that the NDP was movin ...
*
Leap Manifesto
The Leap Manifesto is a Canadian political manifesto that was issued by a coalition of environmentalists, Indigenous, labour, and faith leaders, authors, and artists in September 2015 in the context of that year's Canadian federal election c ...
*
National Party of Canada (1979) The National Party of Canada was considered a left-wing nationalist political party that was founded in Canada in 1979 to promote Canadian independence.
The party's leader, Robin Mathews, was an active member and cultural critic for the Waffle mov ...
References and notes
References
*
*
*
External links
The Waffle Manifesto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waffle, The
Political parties established in 1969
Political movements in Canada
Socialist parties in Canada
Political party factions in Canada
History of the New Democratic Party (Canada)
Democratic socialism
Canadian nationalism
Left-wing nationalist parties
Nationalist parties in Canada
1969 establishments in Canada
1974 disestablishments in Canada
Political parties disestablished in 1974