NDP Demo

New Democrats believe that Canada has the potential to be a beacon of a healthy democracy and an effective advocate for peace abroad. That means that we should be pushing to strengthen our democratic institutions and play a stronger role in de-escalation of conflict overseas. How do we find more ways to protect our democracy at home and do our part to create peace abroad? How can we best put forward these values to the public and connect with voters? Relevant ideas for this theme include fair and equitable trade, preventing foreign interference, and accepting more asylum seekers.

This Convention, we are trying something new. Utilizing new technology in grassroots democracy and consensus-focused consultation, we want to begin a discussion about what’s at the heart of being a New Democrat. This discussion is the first step in a conversation about our next election platform.

Democracy and citizen engagement are core New Democrat values. Those values form the basis of our work together and fuel our commitment to learn more about what connects us. In a time of increasing polarization, new forms of citizen engagement that prioritize consensus building among a large group of individuals with unique lived experiences is especially important.

Many members have expressed an interest in broader and more in-depth consultation on policy development and platform. This Convention, we take the first step towards that goal.

A conversation will be open on this page during each of the five policy blocks. Each conversation will last 70 minutes during the times below, from the end of the panel until the end of the resolution debate period.

Fri, Oct 13

2:40pm – 4:15pm – Making Life More Affordable

Sat, Oct 14

9:05am – 10:40am – Respect for our Planet and Workers

4:15pm – 5:50pm – Canada’s Institutions & Canada’s Place in the World

Sun, Oct 15

9:15am – 10:50am – Indigenous Justice & Human Rights in Canada

11:15am – 12:50pm – Taking Better Care of Each Other

This page is where you can join the democratic conversation with other delegates.

To participate, vote on the comments from other delegates above. If you feel something is missing, add your own ideas for others to vote on!

You can return to this same page to discuss each policy block at the times in the schedule above.

This page uses Polis: a tool for harnessing collective intelligence via democratic dialogue.

As you vote on comments, Polis will automatically show you in an “Opinion Group”. These groups only show people who vote similarly as a way to visualize where we all agree and disagree. Then, Polis uses consensus algorithms to find and elevate comments that attract support from all opinion groups. In this way, Polis helps us all collectively find the best ideas and identify key disagreements for further discussion.

Polis doesn’t know what comments say, so it can only help us to think together through dialogue. That means your contributions will drive this collective intelligence, and the more you participate, the better the results will be!

For this convention, we’re using Polis to help delegates talk and think together, and the results will help shape the NDP’s next election platform. Note that some comments from “NDP” were seed comments meant to get the discussion going, and may or may not represent the NDP’s positions.

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This page uses Polis: a tool for harnessing collective intelligence via democratic dialogue.

Polis uses consensus algorithms to find and elevate comments that attract support from all opinion groups. In this way, Polis helps us all collectively find the best ideas and help the conversation reach mutual agreement.

Polis doesn’t know what comments say, and it never writes, edits, or removes comments. It can only help us to think together through dialogue. That means your contributions will drive this collective intelligence, and the more you participate, the better the results will be.

The basic rules for this conversation are:

1. Be respectful
2. Stay on the topic of the current policy block
3. Don’t spam or post duplicate comments
4. Don’t post personal information

This tool allows delegates to decide which comments are the most important. Meaning your comments will get much broader support (and be seen by more people) if you practice good democratic etiquette. That means:

Focus on writing a few good comments. This platform favours quality over quantity, meaning one great comment will be much more impactful than many average comments. If your ideas have already appeared in the conversation, it’s enough to just vote “Agree”.

Speak to the crowd. There are no direct replies, meaning comments are addressed to everyone. So you should write as if you were speaking to a large crowd in a public place.

Use clear and simple language. Not everyone knows every detail about every topic, so write comments that everyone can understand.

Keep an open mind. Dialogue is only productive when we make a sincere effort to hear each other out and consider other perspectives.

Assume the best of others. People will be more receptive to your ideas when they see that you trust their motives and understand their perspective.

Give your reasons for your ideas. Everyone thinks they have good reasons for their beliefs. Instead of criticizing their position, they’ll be more likely to be persuaded if you give them better reasons for a new position.

Appeal to shared values. Democratic dialogue is about arriving at decisions that everyone can accept, even if they don’t fully agree. So your ideas will get much more support if you adapt to opposing views and base arguments on values everyone shares.