The NDP Needs to Start Saying Socialism Again

The Next Leader should be a proud Democratic Socialist

It’s time to start saying the S-Word again, loudly and proudly. In recent years, it seems like many (though by no means all) NDP figures have become reluctant to say the word socialism, instead deferring to more nebulous terms like “progressive.” And while I can accept using progressive as a term in certain contexts, it means something quite a bit different than socialism, and it also doesn’t inspire people into thinking the NDP is really committed to building a different Canada that works for the working-class¹

One of my biggest criticisms as a long-time NDP member who has held elected positions in the party² is that we scare ourselves into timidity and inaction. To be sure, when we take good positions—from championing dentalcare to denouncing Israel’s genocide—the capitalist press launches many attacks. But it’s incumbent upon us to resist those attacks and amplify them as examples of our enemies being wrong. Bernie Sanders, during his presidential runs for example, would produce lists of “anti-endorsements” which included capitalists and right-wingers who opposed his widely popular policies like Medicare For All and wealth taxes.

The capitalist press will NEVER give the NDP a fair shot, and nor should we expect it to: if the NDP is doing its job correctly, it should strike existential fear in the boardrooms of Toronto and New York.

The press already does this now from time-to-time certainly, but not enough to convince Canadians that the NDP is the alternative to the emerging Carney-Poilievre coalition. Saying the word socialism can instantly cut through.

And let’s be clear: If Zohran Mamdani can say it in the United States—a country which has never had an successful established democratic socialist party—then we can say it in Canada. And Mamdani didn’t just say he was a socialist critical of capitalism quietly in front of a niche audience. He went into the capitalist media den to do so.

"No. I have many critiques of capitalism…I think ultimately, the definition for me, of why I call myself a democratic socialist, is the words of Dr. King decades ago. Call it democracy or call it democratic socialism; there must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God's children in this country.' And that's what I'm focused on, is dignity and taking on income inequality.

You read that correctly. The CNN host called Mamdani a democratic socialist, and he did not flinch, even for a moment. He then explained how capitalism fails the human spirit and any sense of justice, and how socialism fulfills it. Folks who are familiar with the Canadian left back to the CCF days will hear echoes of Tommy Douglas, J.S Woodsworth, and Stanley Knowles in this statement: all people who had a socialism defined in part by faith in building a better world.

We need to be more explicit in our language: we shouldn’t simply be trying to “grow the middle class” or “stop corporate greed” or “make the rich pay their fair share”

Those are all perfectly fine goals, but in reality we should be trying to build a society where democracy extends into the workplace, where the people own the economy as a commonwealth, and where billionaires and centi-millionaires are extinct as a concept. They should be able to plainly say that capitalism is bad because it doesn’t work for the 99%.

That’s not progressivism: that’s socialism. And if the Globe and Mail and National Post flip their lids as we say it, we know we’re on the right track.

1. We’ll talk about how the NDP needs to stop obsessing about the middle class in the future!

2. I was for a time a delegate to the Ontario NDP provincial Council and also a riding association Vice President for both the Federal and Provincial party.