Conventioneering: Day 3 (Substance)

I arrived late, and missed nothing - the first session was dedicated to passing feel-good resolutions promising do-gooder solutions to all the world's problems, payable once the NDP took power. Most passed uncontested (the only controversial ones, related to Israel-Palestine, had been banished to the end of the list, the convention equivalent of the land of wind and ghosts, whence they would never reach the convention floor).

Then a funny thing happened - the debate got interesting. The second session was about internal party affairs. Normally, given the homogeneity of PC-thinking among NDP delegates, the hipster socialist caucus can do little damage - they complain that resolutions don't go far enough, the forward paranoid conspiracy theories, they overreact. This time, it was different - the ballot resolution forbade any merger talks with the Liberals. For the hipster socialists, this was an opportunity to be leftier-than-though, and stick it to the moderates and the pragmatists, insisting on a vow of political chastity. They were all there in line to speak - beardo, dreadlock dude, keffiyeh guy, all insisting on purity of essence. They received fitful applause, and booed the speakers for the other side, twice getting reprimanded by the chair. Also, this was when the crowd showed some ugly, with the term Liberal getting tossed around like a slur.

It ended up being the only close vote of the convention, which required a real stand-up-and-be-counted resolution as volunteers passed through the crowd to tally up the delegates on either side of the issue. The resolution was defeated by an approximately 60/40 margin, wide enough so that the yes side didn't insist on a paper ballot.

Then they dodged the other big, soul-of-the-party resolution, about dropping "socialist" from the party constitution. It got referred back to committee.

Then Jack Layton gave a speech and we all got to go home.