[I drafted this letter, in consultation with the comrades of the Toronto Young New Democrats, a youth club of the leftist NDP. We submitted it to our national youth convention, which took place in Vancouver in 2011 and to which I was a delegate, hoping we could get their support. But it failed to pass there.]
Dear Brigette DePape,
This meeting of the New Democratic Youth of Canada sends its best greetings to you.
Your protest on the floor of the Senate, this anachronistic symbol of non-democratic entities still existing in our country, was a point of inspiration and happiness for thousands across Canada.
If we were joyous by the message that you aired that day, “Stop Harper”, we were even more excited to read your subsequent statements. There is a lot that we agree on.
For example “that politics should not be left to the politicians, and that democracy is not just about marking a ballot every few years.”;
That “Our views are not represented by our political system.”;
That “the ending of injustices or the winning of human rights are never gifts from rulers or from parliaments, but the fruit of struggle and of people power in the streets.”
The corporate media started a vicious attack on you which we condemn. Your crime in their eyes seems to be disrupting a “solemn” tradition of the Throne Speech which they claim to be part of our democracy. We don’t understand how can a speech by the representative of the Queen of England given in the hall where a group of non-elected parasites on our society sit be called “Democratic”. There is a reason that our leader, Jack Layton, has consistently stood for the abolition of the Senate. This “tradition” needed to be broken!
In your statements, you’ve named specific policies of this government that will ruin the life for Canadians: spending billions on fighter jets we don’t need, polluting the environment we want protected, degrading a health-care system we want improved and cutting social programs and public sector jobs we value.
We are happy to tell you that you are not alone in your opposition to these policies. It was exactly the same sentiment that led millions of Canadians to cast a vote for our party, the NDP, in the recent Federal Elections. These are all policies the NDP has always fought against!
We share your determination to fight these policies with the same will with which the revolutionary people of Middle East fought and overthrew their autocratic governments.
Therefore we, Young New Democrats from across this country gathering at our annual convention in Vancouver, would like to extend a warm invitation for you to join our Party, the New Democratic Party of Canada, the only vehicle truly able to confront these policies and defeat the Harper government.
Hand in hand with the Canadian labor movement and youth like you across this country, we can beat back the Tory attack and build a better country and future for ourselves and the coming generations.
With Solidarity,
Delegates and participants at New Democratic Youth of Canada Convention [The letter was not accepted by NDYC’s 2011 Convention as explained above]
