NDP Convention: Same Old, Same Old

Former federal leader Ed Broadbent exhorted delegates Friday to keep fighting for the party's old social democratic values, including adequate taxation, so economic wealth can be shared among all Canadians.
Sounds pretty much like the same old, same old for the NDP's national convention in Halifax.
The proposed name change didn't come about. We heard a lot about that leading up to the convention but in the end the name change idea fizzled and died.
There wasn't enough appetite for change," said Ian Capstick, a former NDP staff member in leader Jack Layton's office, who is attending the convention as a delegate and political consultant. Capstick and others in the party, such as Ottawa MP Paul Dewar, had advocated a name change as a way of signalling to both party members and voters that the NDP was embarking on a new era of pragmatism and professionalism.
So the New Democrats are still, well the Old Democrats in more ways than one. Earlier in the convention, party heavyweights, such as former leaders Ed Broadbent and Alexa McDonough, and Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter, all said a name change was unnecessary. Also Sunday, 89 per cent of delegates voted down a motion, required at every convention, to review Layton's leadership. And in three days of policy debate, most delegates sided with Broadbent. They spent hours discussing and affirming dozens of well-worn NDP concerns, including child poverty, aboriginal rights, pay equity, national child care, violence against women and arts funding.
So Jack Layton continues to lead the NDP with it appears plenty of assistance from Ed Broadbent . Little wonder Prime Minster Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff consider the NDP party irrelevant.