In Honour of Ed Broadbent and the Future Left

They do still make lefties like him, in no small part thanks to the man himself.

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Canada has lost a left-wing legend. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Matt Jiggins.

For decades, Ed Broadbent was a giant in Canadian politics. He helped shape politics around the world, too. He died last week, but his legacy and contributions to the country outlive him. On Monday, Prime Minister Trudeau announced Broadbent will receive a state funeral later this month.

In the fall, a new book, Seeking Social Democracy examined Broadbent’s life and times. In its pages, Broadbent and co-authors Luke Savage, Frances Abele, and Jonathan Sas assessed the former New Democratic Party’s leader, his international work, the state and future of Canada, and left politics.

Broadbent’s brand of socialist politics — unabashed, worker- and street-friendly, nonetheless considered and erudite — is a bit out of fashion now. In a review of the book for the Tyee, I explained that Broadbent — who, unlike many contemporary institutional leftists is unafraid to use the world ‘socialist’ — understood class politics and power, and the need to connect the two to advance the cause of the left. He was wary of state socialism and the unfettered free market. He also understood the fundamental paradox, as put it, of the need to advance socialist politics as an act of faith and deep movement building, looking way ahead while not losing sight of what’s in front of you right now.

As Broadbent writes in the book,

To champion a socialist vision in a capitalist world is, in a sense, a strangely paradoxical act of faith: unless you are prepared to lose majorities you will compromise your core beliefs, but to act on the basis of belief or program alone, without regard for the feelings and commitments of the majority in society, does both a profound disservice.

In June, I wrote about a scathing book that dismantles much of the contemporary left. In The Death of the Left, Simon Winlow and Steve Hall argue the socialist left must recommit first, foremost, and above all to class politics. That politics, they suggest, must centre economic issues. It must be worker-friendly. It must be accessible. It must take big swings at big policies. Those who advance it must be unafraid to assert the role of the state in regulating and directing political and economic life.

Thinking about Broadbent and The Death of the Left, I am more convinced than ever that the left must assert its place in domestic and international politics, pursue big ideas, and commit to movement building that looks decades ahead even while it struggles to deal with the day-to-day, month-to-month issues that matter right now. Socialism is inherently a movement, and democratic socialism is inherently wedded to building communities and mobilizing constituencies. It will always be antagonistic to liberalism and conservatism, even if it shares affinities with them from time to time.

Insofar as socialist politics exists against the mainstream, it must change minds and win converts for the long run while its adherents pursue power and policy wins today. Democratic socialism is a dual-track affair and those mixed up in it must not be ashamed of what they’re about, no matter what the mainstream happens to think. Ed Broadbent understood this. He also understood the danger of pooling power, whether within the market or the state. He appreciated that socialism exists for the community and the people within in, not the other way around — and certainly not for the white collar and political class who direct the institutional left.

I’ve written a few times now about the Conservative push to court the working class. I wrote about Pierre Poilievre’s faux-populist pantomime and his looming ‘common sense revolution’. The extent to which the right can and will capture the working class is an indictment of the institutional left in Canada today.

The left ought to be the natural and obvious political home for workers. That’s not to say the left should take workers for granted. Indeed, it’s to say the opposite. The left should be the natural political home of the working class because it ought to be providing an obvious, appealing pro-worker program grounded primarily and above-all in the material needs of workers. If it can’t do that, there’s little point in having a political left. The centre — and, in fact, much of the right — will always be there to tinker with means-testing, incrementalism, and symbolism.

On hearing the news that Ed Broadbent died, my immediate thought was “They don’t make leftists like that anymore.” Later, I caught up with myself. They do still make leftists like Ed — in no small part because Ed made leftists like Ed. His legacy and politics continue to speak to and inspire a generation of socialists who believe in the need for an aggressive left politics grounded in organizing and meeting the material needs of the working class, and coming to people where they are: on the factory floor, behind the service counter, at the wheel of the delivery truck. May that legacy continue to inspire, mobilize, and transform the left.