OUR PRINCIPLES

As social democrats, we hold firmly to certain fundamental principles, including:

• the dignity of the human person in all of his or her dimensions ;
• the principle of equality and its achievement ;
• the necessity of collectively pursuing common ends ;
• the common good ;
• social inclusion and participation ;
• the exercise of rights and responsibilities ;
• democracy and active citizenship ;
• the role of the State, particularly in redistributing wealth ;
• cooperation ;
• the equitable and sustainable development of our world ;
• etc.

Having said as much, our priorities in this campaign can be grouped around the four major themes below. These themes form the standard against which we evaluate all of our policies.

• democratization, both of society and of the economy ;
• the concrete quality of life enjoyed by people and families ;
• the distribution of wealth and the fight against poverty and exclusion ;
• solidarity.

OUR OUTLOOK: PRAGMATIC RADICALISM

Our vision and our political strategy are based on what we call « pragmatic radicalism. » This expression is not a contradiction in terms: it expresses a fundamental political outlook. As social democrats, we must be clear about our goals, our horizon. But we must be completely realistic and pragmatic in getting there, playing strategically and making the necessary compromises. We must continue to value our ideals, and we must never sacrifice our dreams. But there is no magical path to reaching these ideals: we must move forward by proposing pragmatic and realistic measures. Let us be firm on principles, but flexible in terms of means.

As democrats and socialists, our goal cannot simply be to accommodate or humanize the capitalist system, or to try and overturn it immediately. What we must do ­ using innovative, progressive and well thought-out policies ­ is bring deep changes to the existing economic structure so that, in the long term, we establish a social and economic system founded on social democratic principles. We are opposed to savage capitalism. But the party must promote gradual and structural measures that will bring about a real political, social and economic democracy.

We must have the imagination necessary to develop policies that respond to the consequences of poverty and other social problems in the here and now, even as they attack the deeper causes of these problems.

In our view, this vision can create a real and lasting consensus within our party. Winning elections does not contradict our principles. We have the profound conviction that the NDP can make significant electoral gains not in spite of its values and ideals, but because of them.

To attain the results you've never had, you have to do what you've never done!