I’m going to jump to this question b/c it’s a good one & was most intriguing to me upon reading.

Before I do so, I should note that I’m not in a position to say what the NDP does or does not “intend” to do.

While I have in the past, I don’t work for the Caucus or the Party. https://twitter.com/theturner/status/1247939806849413120

Nor do I hold a leadership position w/in the Party anymore (my term ended in 2018).

So all you get here are one dude’s opinions. Nonetheless, I do have opinions.

Chris is right that my thread lays out the nuts & bolts to winning. That was info I thought was worth sharing.

Building the tent is another project. And it’s a project in which I’m pretty keenly interested.

I’ve been trying in varying degrees to contribute to building our tent for about 9 years. We made some decent progress on that front between 2015-19.

Obviously winning govt helped.

But neither was our progress sufficient, as indicated by the election outcome.

For my $0.02, I think we really need to drop the “build it & they will come” mindset that pervades many of not most political parties.

I admit you can see that mindset at play in my own thread.

I believe the NDP needs to engage in some thoroughgoing community based organizing. We need to go meet people where they are at, approaching and engaging the communities (broadly-defined: geographical, issue-based, interest-based, etc.) to which potential allies already belong...

And communities that potential allies have already formed.

That engagement needs to be genuine. And I mean that in the sense that we should be looking to share vision, values, and goals openly and honestly, seeing each other as equal partners in building a better province.

It needs to not come across as pure political fishing or infiltration. It will take time, real effort, and investment because the goal of those organizing effort is to build substantial and meaningful relationships. That doesn’t just happen. Trust doesn’t just pop up over night.

I think we need to be honest about what we share in common & where we diverge & how we navigate the relationships we’re looking to build in light of those dynamics.

It’s exceedingly rare (& getting more rare) to find a perfect fit w/ any political party, including w/in parties.

People don’t fit into perfectly formed ideological boxes. Neither do most political parties. So we really need to do away w/ that notion of overt conformity & “tribalism” as some folks have mentioned in this larger conversation.

Nor is that necessary in order to work together.

I think if people saw a party that was genuinely & proactively working to build bridges, connections, & relationships founded on trust that acknowledged shared goals & visions, while respecting workable differences & charting manageable paths forward based on such a network...

That would be a tent they could consider contributing to & supporting. And of course that process would inevitable change the party to.

It would be incredibly messy, difficult, & challenging. I lay it out very pretty here, but acknowledge that it would be ugly at times.

That’s fairly unavoidable in all of this. And it’s a really big & daunting project.

But that’s my take on what I think the Party needs to do to build its tent. And that’s what I was trying to contribute to doing between 2015-2019 & in different iterations from 2011-2015.

As I said before, though, that’s just one dude’s opinions on the matter.

So I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts.