So here I am in the corridor at the NDP convention. For some reason, the network to which I’m connected doesn’t reach into the main room itself, so this will have to do.

I’ll be updating this post as the day goes on.

Yesterday didn’t start well. I went to one of the ‘Resolution Prioritisation Panels’, which are supposed to decide which of the 600 or so resolutions will actually make it to the floor. I went to the panel that was to decide priorities for the economics resolutions. The first order of business was to complain about – naturally – the order in which the resolutions were going to be discussed. After 45 minutes, they still hadn’t decided on an agenda, so I decided to take a short break. Then I found that I wasn’t allowed back into the room, because I wasn’t a party member. So I went home – to learn that the session to which I was denied access was being broadcast live on CPAC.

I was, however, allowed to watch Stephen Lewis demonstrate yet again why he is – by a wide margin – the best Canadian public speaker in English. I couldn’t help but feel pity for the sign language interpreters: Lewis’ rich vocabulary must have caught them off guard at several points.

Most of the talk so far has involved the resolution to withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan, but I’ve been more preoccupied by the news that Paul Summerville had quit the party:

Economist Paul Summerville, who ran for the NDP in the Toronto riding of St. Paul’s, said he was leaving the party because the leadership would not counter the strong “anti-market rhetoric” from the grassroots.

I’m very disappointed by this news; I thought that the NDP’s recruitment of Summerville was an encouraging development.

11:54 am: One of the reasons for holding a convention here in Quebec City was to try to get some exposure in francophone Quebec. A quick perusal of this morning’s papers suggests that they’ve got their work cut out for them:

Le Devoir: Nothing.

La Presse: A story on page 8.

Le Soleil: A short story on page 12 (with most of the emphasis on the fact that Thomas Mulcair, a Liberal provincial MNA currently residing in the political wilderness, was to address the convention), and a long column by Gilbert Lavoie about what a pain in the neck it is to be a francophone journalist at a NDP convention.

Le Journal de Québec: A wire story on page 18.

12:57: More thoughts about Paul Summerville. I really don’t understand why he jumped at this point. It can’t be his frustration in not having a voice – he appears to have written the 2006 economic platform. Nor do I subscribe to Jeffrey Simpson’s argument that he was frustrated by the tsunami of knuckleheaded resolutions submitted by the grassroots. He must have known about that when he joined the NDP (and if he didn’t, he should have), and he’d already seen that when it came to a choice between going with the grassroots or being sensible, NDP decision-makers were finally choosing to be sensible.

It’s raining hard, which must disappoint the conference organisers. I feel for them. I once managed to snag the top floor of the Hilton – complete with a panoramic view of the Old City – for a conference I organised in October 2002. But instead of rain, we got a fricking blizzard!

The afternoon sessions are on economic issues, so I’ll have something more substantive to say in the next few hours.

4:30: I didn’t want to walk out on Roch Carrier, but I did need a break. I sat through two sessions, and took notes:

Unhappy vestiges of dirigisme in the title of session – “Building the 21^st century economy.” I’d have gone with “Coping with the 21^st century economy.”

Left the fat binder of resolutions in the car. There’s a short summary incorporating amendments being distributed to delegates. “Can I have a copy?” “No”

Constitutional amendment for environmental ‘rights’. First speaker is against: judges don’t have the expertise to be trusted with the final word in these matters. Lots of others arguing that it’s about a ‘fundamental right to exist’. Overwhelmingly adopted. They should have listened to the first speaker.

‘Beyond Kyoto’. Four page resolution. Motion to refer resolution to committee is defeated. Overwhelmingly adopted.

Another multi-page environment-oriented resolution – ‘transition to sustainable economy.’ Overwhelmingly adopted.

Omnibus resolution to solve a long list of economic problems. Union delegate from closed Michelin plant in Kitchener unhappy with job losses in Ontario manufacturing sector. MP from Winnipeg gives lengthy boilerplate speech. Overwhelmingly adopted.

Similar resolution from same people who wrote the previous one. Overwhelmingly adopted without discussion. I detect a pattern here.

Cut subsidies to oil companies. Again adopted almost unanimously

‘National water strategy’. “Water is a public resource” Original text had ‘public good’ – presumably someone, somewhere knows the distinction and pointed out the error. Adopted.

Support for manufacturing sector. Windsor MP gives a speech. Youngish speaker notes that no-one can ‘sustain low exchange rate’, and had just passed an anti-subsidy resolution – asks to vote against. I hope this is a sign of the NDP’s future. Cultural stuff tacked on as well. Passed, but measurable opposition.

And we’re out of time. Now I see why getting your resolution to the floor is such a big deal – everything gets adopted. Resolutions that don’t make it to the floor go to Federal Council. I wonder what that means.

‘Working families’ session

Child care. ‘Publicly provided’, not ‘publicly funded’. Many complimentary references to the Quebec model, although Quebec delegate uneasy about federal intrusion into provincial jurisdiction. Olivia Chow gives a speech.

Employment insurance. Yvon Godin chews up the scenery in French, and gets a standing ovation from a crowd that is mainly composed of unilingual anglophones. Chair asks speakers to consider the eardrums of the simultaneous translators.

Post-secondary education. Another Quebec delegate reminds us that provincial fields of competence should be respected.

Health care. Another MP giving a long, loud campaign-style speech. Most ordinary delegates can make their points briefly, clearly and calmly – why do MPs think that they’re entitled to extra time?

Child and family poverty. Another MP speech, and then a call for the vote.

Protecting private pension plans. Delegate tells story of steelworkers who lost their pensions after systematic underfunding.

Charter of rights for seniors. Another MP is first speaker (surprise), and doesn’t appear to be shy about using up the little time that’s left for this session.

National pharmacare. First speaker says will bankrupt public healthcare system unless pharmacy industry nationalised. Doctor speaks in favour.

Roch Carrier comes on, and I take a break.

I’m somewhat bemused by this experience. The NDP has a reputation of being composed of fiercely disputative members, so I wasn’t expecting the plenary session to be a rubber stamp.

It’s probably to be expected that the economy session was dominated by environmental issues – the NDP knows where its comparative advantage lies.

Which (again!) leads me back to the Paul Summerville defection. The membership pretty much abandoned the field in areas of economic policy outside environmental issues, so he would have had – again! – a pretty free hand in drafting the economics section on the next election platform.

11:00am, Sunday morning. I suppose every convention attracts its lunatic fringe. In this case it’s the Lyndon Larouche people hanging around just outside the doors. But they’ve been enterprising – I just stopped by my office, and they’d slipped their bumph under the door.

I also saw that the NDP’s hopes of getting a front-page story in the French press tomorrow morning are doomed – the Rouge et Or football team are hosting their arch-rivals from the Université de Montréal.

Off to watch the emergency resolutions.

1:30 Jack Layton just finished his speech. It would appear that the NDP has decided that this is their chance to aim for an actual victory in the next election. Part of this strategy involves not making bold claims – I lost count of the number of times he used the word ‘prudent’. He was completely silent on economic policy, which is probably a good thing when talking to NDP faithful.

I’ll spend some time thinking about this weekend and add a summary later today.

9:00 Last update. My original focus was on whether or not the change in NDP economic policy that we saw in the last election would be confirmed or rejected by the general membership. There were two causes for concern: the defection of Paul Summerville and the tone of the grassroots’ resolutions. Who was left to argue in favour of reality-based economic policy?

In the end, the question was finessed: there were no substantive discussions or positions on economic policy. I suspect that this was a result of a certain amount of procedural dexterity on the part of the NDP leadership – they didn’t want to retreat from their new positions, but they also knew that they were unlikely to get much support for it from the floor.

Layton’s emphasis on prudence and an explicit rejection of bold eye-catching policies likely means that the NDP will more or less adopt the status quo in the economics section of their next election platform. Happily for them (and us), the status quo looks pretty good.