The Revolution Party of Canada
Three candidates from the Revolution Party of Canada talk about the "high chaos" that comes with starting a new political party from scratch and what their aims are, beyond being an alternative to the NDP.
Kira Loughlin, Matthieu Labelle-Tassé and Troy Roberts join Host Jessa McLean to also talk about the lessons they learned in the last federal election, their expectations for the next and what exactly sets them apart from the NDP.
Related Episodes:
- Wasted Energy, a discussion with Dimitri Lascaris on his time spent in the Green Party and the fruitlessness of partisan politics.
- Reimagining Politics and Demystifying Communism, with the Atlantic Regional Communists on their efforts to build a new political entity.
More Resources:
- Registering a Political Party – Elections Canada
- VIDEO: Press Conference from Federal Election
- Revolution Party Constitution
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Transcript
Welcome to Blueprints of Disruption. I'm your host, Jessa McLean. Very rarely does a day
Speaker:go by that I'm not faced with the question of what we should do about the NDP. Or rather,
Speaker:what does the left do about electoral politics since the NDP has become an institution run
Speaker:by consultants and hostile to reformists? This discussion started long before the recent
Speaker:downgrading of the party. It's a discussion that frankly has been going on for generations.
Speaker:If you listened to last week's re-upping of an episode with my dad, you would have heard
Speaker:about attempts by the Waffle Party to pull the NDP left and the work the Lewis family did
Speaker:to prevent that. I myself have been part of attempts at reform, or maybe you could call
Speaker:them revolt. Either way, You're not going to find me encouraging people to spend energies
Speaker:there. In fact, quite the opposite. So then the question becomes, if not the NDP, then
Speaker:what? Surely we don't support the liberals or conservatives here. I don't want to get started
Speaker:about the Green Party, but clearly folks are looking for alternatives. And that's exactly
Speaker:what drove our next guest to do what they did. Start their own party. We'll get their origin
Speaker:story. the hurdles they're facing and what they think distinguishes them from the NDP.
Speaker:Their platform, they've kept it pretty focused. It boils down to three main points. Food and
Speaker:shelter as a human right, tax the rich and electoral reform. But the discussion goes well
Speaker:beyond policy points. The three candidates that have joined us from the revolution party are
Speaker:quite candid about the high chaos that comes from starting a political party from scratch.
Speaker:Lots of layers to figure out beyond enlisting volunteers and more candidates. They need to
Speaker:figure out how they're going to prevent things like leadership cults or ensure the elected
Speaker:are held accountable. What about registering with Elections Canada? Hearing the struggles
Speaker:of these infancy stages, but also the determination of the folks navigating it together, provides
Speaker:lessons for all of us. If you're a regular listener, you know this isn't an endorsement of a political
Speaker:party. I can hardly endorse electoral politics at all. But I know the audience includes people
Speaker:like our guests who are equally disappointed with the NDP but don't want to give up on that
Speaker:realm of influence. And I support getting where we're going through many routes. This is why
Speaker:we do what we do here. share stories from people on the ground doing the work, whether that's
Speaker:intervening in elections or building blockades. Our library is full of blueprints of disruption.
Speaker:If you'd like to support our work, there are links in the show notes to become a patron,
Speaker:but sharing our content is also a huge boost. We're also looking to expand our team over
Speaker:here, so If you'd like to contribute to our mission of amplifying and equipping the grassroots,
Speaker:reach out to us on any of our platforms. And now, as promised, the Revolution Party of
Speaker:Canada. All right, we're here. Welcome, everybody. We've got three comrades in the studio with
Speaker:us today. I am Kira Loughlin. I am a candidate for the Revolution Party of Canada in the Parkland
Speaker:Riding of Alberta. I don't look at currently because I just got back from an appointment,
Speaker:but I am usually a hardcore goth girl and I am 100 % proud about that. But yeah, this
Speaker:is my first foray into anything political. I haven't even done city level stuff. So big
Speaker:P political, because like everything we do is political. Yeah, yeah. Big P political. I'm
Speaker:one of those people that gets really annoyed at somebody that says I don't like to talk
Speaker:politics because I'm like, everything is politics. Yeah, I can't see someone who's like never
Speaker:been political joining the Revolution Party. So there had to have been a bit of a kernel
Speaker:there, but I get where you're coming from. definitely was. My name is Mathieu Labeltasse. I'm from
Speaker:the writing of Saint-Michel and Saint-Laurent in Montreal. I started in politics as being
Speaker:a pretty hard right winger. And then after that, by reading and going to university, I
Speaker:became a full on leftist. I tried to join Québec solidaire into a provincial writing,
Speaker:but I decided to move on to the entire federal level now. Interesting. Interesting. You saw
Speaker:my mouth open there when you mentioned you were a hard right winger, but the pipeline of education
Speaker:is real, thankfully. Troy, welcome. Hello, my name is Troy Roberts. I'm the presumptive
Speaker:candidate for the Niagara South Riding in Ontario. I'm a longtime socialist, and I've been searching
Speaker:for a political home for almost as long as I have been one. I haven't really managed to
Speaker:find anything that fits. As soon as I heard about the Revolution Party, I went straight
Speaker:to the website, checked it out, and I was a member minutes later. This place is exactly
Speaker:what I've always been searching for, and I decided to represent it because of that. You guys are
Speaker:real rainbow collection of political background from seemingly none, Kira, let's stop, but
Speaker:you know, none, the right wing to, you know, Solidaire kind of worked her way through the
Speaker:system and Troy, a lot of people can resonate with your not having a political home. I mean,
Speaker:now we'll talk about where you're at now and why that excites you so much, but You know,
Speaker:from a leftist perspective, you folks even say it in the press conference you gave during
Speaker:the federal election. I will link that to the episode. Folks need to watch that as they really
Speaker:go into detail. But you mentioned kind of being the alternative to the NDP for leftists. So
Speaker:everyone's seen the implosion. I mean, we saw it coming before the election, but now it's
Speaker:official. So the discussion naturally goes to what do we do now? And I see some comrades
Speaker:trying to reform the NDP. So maybe they want to save this episode for later. I don't know.
Speaker:But then there's a lot of people who are just done. They don't want to give up electoral
Speaker:politics, though. And they want to know, you know, more about the Revolution Party, but
Speaker:also, you know, what it took to create something from scratch. That's a big jump to just People
Speaker:seem to be stuck in that reform stage. Some people just leave altogether. I'm kind of
Speaker:drifted away from electoral politics altogether. But then there's you folks, and you've done
Speaker:something about it. So how did the Revolution Party come about? I asked you for your origin
Speaker:story. It was about three years ago when Jamie, he was the bald fellow with a beard in both
Speaker:of the press conferences. Yeah, it was three years ago when he started, he just kind of
Speaker:got the name, he bought the domain and his mom was like, you're crazy. And he was like,
Speaker:whatever. And I think it was only within the last year or so that like they actually started
Speaker:looking for members and they really got people going. I think the origin story of the Revolution
Speaker:Party of Canada is it started in Jamie's room. They all got to start somewhere. Right. They
Speaker:got to start somewhere. least it was in the garage. sounds like so cliche, you do have
Speaker:to start somewhere. But that is what stops people from doing something. I mean, a lot of things
Speaker:do the lack of electoral reform and the struggle of a small upstart party trying to make impact
Speaker:electorally. just the daunting process of rather than stepping into an institution, no matter
Speaker:how marred it is, seems a lot easier than starting from the basement and trying to build
Speaker:from there. But you've grown quite a lot since just Jamie. So quickly. Yeah. I think we're
Speaker:up to about 50 candidates confirmed right now. So these are folks that are just like ready
Speaker:to run in a federal election. Well, whether it be five months from now or four years from
Speaker:now. Yes, they're all ready. Yeah, basically. Really as a party. The stuff that we're working
Speaker:on currently is we're getting our inaugural caucus sorted out. Right now it is high chaos
Speaker:in the party, right? It's very disorganized. It's hard to tell what's going on, but with
Speaker:all of the planning that's going on, we're getting meetings together for the various regions,
Speaker:for various candidates, instead of just all one meeting like we were doing before. Yeah,
Speaker:the inaugural caucus is currently our primary focus and we're... three to six months on that,
Speaker:although I would add another three months on top of that. People tend to underestimate how
Speaker:long a project takes. Indeed. So it's your goal to kind of create a shadow cabinet of sorts?
Speaker:Essentially. So what we're going to be doing is the inaugural caucus is going to be what's
Speaker:responsible for voting on literally everything that we're going to do as a party. Might add
Speaker:some red tape, but we're also making it so that our manifesto and our platform is the absolute,
Speaker:right? It can be changed, obviously, but it will require a majority vote. We're going to
Speaker:be introducing pretty tight term limits for leaders of the party, and we're going to have
Speaker:a triumvirate. What's that? That is when three people are in the lead and they work within
Speaker:or they work with one another to lead the party or entity or of some sort. So we're trying
Speaker:our absolute best to make sure that this is not going to become a one person party. All
Speaker:right. I'm down with like abolishing leadership cult. Have you ever, has anybody here ever
Speaker:experienced this structure before? You know, with three... No, can't say I ...shared leaders?
Speaker:What did you call it again? A triumvirate. I did, but it wasn't three. It was two party.
Speaker:It's a... Three in the green party? No. The Quebec, Quebec Solidaire, they have the male
Speaker:candidates and the female candidates. They support something that's called the parité, which I
Speaker:do not know the word in English. Gender parity. Yeah, gender parity. Yeah. And they want to
Speaker:try to have like equal amount of women candidates as equal amount of male candidates. And they
Speaker:want to have that amount of people inside as candidates. And they want to win that that
Speaker:way. Do folks approach equity that way? Not to that same one to one level, I don't think
Speaker:we are trying to get as much representation for as many different communities as we can,
Speaker:like actively so. But we're not breaking it down to the math. just trying to attract as
Speaker:much diversity as we can. Yeah, I will say I'm a lesbian. I haven't faced any issues within
Speaker:the party. I've not had any of those people that go up to you and say, you're only a lesbian
Speaker:because you haven't been with the right guy. That's a low bar, Kira. It is a low bar, but
Speaker:unfortunately, that is the bar of reality, right? This is just kind of the situation that
Speaker:we're in as people who are part of the 2SLGBTQIA. Oh, and there's also quite a few trans people
Speaker:who have joined as well. And it's been amazing to see that there's been a lot of support for
Speaker:the trans folk in the community. We've seen a lot of women join, honestly. Like, it hasn't
Speaker:really been something that's crossed my mind because it hasn't seemed like we needed it,
Speaker:right? We're a very, very diverse bunch, it feels like. Did you experience the most growth
Speaker:during the federal election or were you a robust team going into it? The most growth we got
Speaker:was right after our initial press conference and Steve Boots made a video on us. We owe
Speaker:a lot to Steve Boots. I joined because of Steve as well. So. Right. There's so many people
Speaker:who have joined because of Steve. Yeah. And both of the videos he's made, we've had a huge
Speaker:influx of people from them. Did all of you run as candidates, like a campaign? We only
Speaker:ran the five, but next time it's going to be quite a lot more than Yeah, but they weren't
Speaker:they weren't seen as the revolutionary party. They were seen as independence. Yeah, the party
Speaker:itself and get registered in time. That is what folks are daunted by though, too, right? So
Speaker:how do I start a new party with Elections Canada? How do I start taking in donations? How do
Speaker:we become an official party down the road? I mean, there are parts of starting a new
Speaker:party that folks are just... It's a very esoteric thing. Yeah, because it's like chicken and
Speaker:the egg as well, right? You really need somebody who can do... put a lot of hours into doing
Speaker:a lot of aspects about partisan politics to, you know, get into an election and be effective.
Speaker:But at the same time, that requires funds and you have to grow before you can even start
Speaker:taking in funds. you know, participating in the election definitely isn't limited to any
Speaker:kind of... party status and we definitely know it's not limited to official party status.
Speaker:I get it. mean, just look at the longest ballot initiative. Yeah. I mean, you still went through
Speaker:the process and probably learned so many lessons from the federal election as a new party.
Speaker:What, what really threw you for a loop if anything? For me, it's how ignored by media
Speaker:we are. Yeah. Yeah. Like in both of our press conferences, we didn't get a single question
Speaker:from the media that was present there. we haven't gotten any other media attention besides independent,
Speaker:right? Like on YouTube or on here. It's a hidden card, you know, like it's a hidden card. Like
Speaker:I know that the media will not want to talk to us unless we do something major or unless
Speaker:we grab their attention or unless we grab the attention of everybody. Like when I mean everybody,
Speaker:I mean like everybody. One of the things I was impressed by was by how well some of our
Speaker:candidates did. had one of our candidates get triple digit votes from a party that got,
Speaker:think 111, I believe you said something like that. Uh, but a fair few for somebody that
Speaker:nobody's ever heard of. One of the things that I believe is that when people hear our message
Speaker:and the things we have to say and the reasons that we're saying them and they hear it clearly,
Speaker:I think it's going to be really, really popular. And I feel like that initial result sort of
Speaker:bolsters my opinion there. you have you sat Greg down and have him completely dissect
Speaker:his campaign for you folks to replicate? I remember correctly, Greg didn't really run
Speaker:much of a campaign. think he was mostly grassroots within the Edmonton area. And yeah, he still
Speaker:managed to get triple digits out of that. And yeah, as far as I'm aware, it was fully grassroots
Speaker:on his part. Just door knocking. Yeah, well, I mean, ask him what he was saying to people
Speaker:at the door and how he managed to even have like that many, especially as an independent.
Speaker:So it wasn't even, you know, the word revolution that drew people to check that box, right?
Speaker:They seem to have gone in there with his name in mind to vote an independent. So we have
Speaker:a communist. Well, there's communists all over the place running, but, you know, in Barry.
Speaker:They max out at 100 votes and they have an entire established party. People understand
Speaker:what the name means, even if they don't have any idea who the candidate is. So, you know,
Speaker:there might be secrets there in Gregory's campaign that I would do a postmortem, you know, from
Speaker:as well as the other candidates. But what's going to make the next one different for you
Speaker:folks? You think you'll be registered as a party and be able to run under a banner? Yeah, that's
Speaker:the plan. Right now, what we're telling candidates who are just antsy for things to do is get
Speaker:out there, do the grassroots stuff. We have people participating in the Alberta protests
Speaker:against the separatism referendums. have candidates just meeting together in general, getting to
Speaker:know one another, trying to operate on the same ground. At least that's what's happening
Speaker:here in Edmonton. Generally speaking, we're just encouraging every candidate to be as grassroots
Speaker:as possible. Get the name out there, do anything you can just to first make people less scared
Speaker:of Revolution Party of Canada because it's a name that we have gotten a lot of pushback
Speaker:on so far of a lot of people being like, that's a scary name. You guys are crazy. But I love
Speaker:it. It triggers the lips. I mean. It does. It gets a lot of people a little riled up.
Speaker:that's kind of, there's some of us in the party who really like that. And some of us who are
Speaker:like, oh, we probably shouldn't do that. I'm a big proponent of the name, specifically because
Speaker:of the idea of the scary bit. We have more and more people that are, I mean, look what happened
Speaker:to the NDP, right? More and more people are, they don't want the status quo. They know things
Speaker:are going wrong. They know things are going poorly. They want some kind of change. And
Speaker:a lot of people just don't really know what kind of change to go for. So when we talk about
Speaker:revolution, we're talking about a massive change from the status quo. And again, we've got all
Speaker:these policies and opinions that I think people are really going to like. And I think a lot
Speaker:of people are going to decide that our kind of revolution is what they want. Well, let's
Speaker:test your theory, Troy. You folks ran on a kind of a nice, simple three point. I mean, it's
Speaker:not as cut and dry as three points. They go a little deeper than that. But your platform,
Speaker:your platform was three. major points. You folks each want to run through one. I'm sure you've
Speaker:done the spiel and you know what makes you revolutionary. mean food and water as a human
Speaker:right. That's a big one. There I think a lot of food deserts. I think of small towns that
Speaker:have been gutted by companies moving away and they can't afford food. It's difficult to get
Speaker:food in. I think of up north communities Nunavut, Yukon where you see prices from there, it's
Speaker:like 40 bucks for a watermelon, just because there's no profit to be made from doing it
Speaker:any other way. The idea that food and water should be available to everybody at all times
Speaker:seems very, very basic to me because of the whole staying alive thing. Yeah, an important
Speaker:thing to note as well is that we want to get this codified in the Canadian Charter of Rights
Speaker:so that it cannot be revoked by whatever next party comes after us. Into the Charter? Yeah,
Speaker:the right to specifically to food and water? Yeah, food, water and shelter. You one of the
Speaker:biggest problems with the charter is that it doesn't secure any economic rights, right?
Speaker:Like everything can be trumped or kind of whisked away based on public safety and the
Speaker:lack of funds. We know there isn't a lack of funds, but the governments are allowed to
Speaker:just simply say there are. So. The charter is perhaps not always the tool people wished
Speaker:it could be. But surely I think folks will agree with you on food, shelter, water being
Speaker:secured. One of the ideas I drew from your website that I think folks will find interesting is
Speaker:the idea of nationalizing food banks. Yeah. So that would just be, I think, the start
Speaker:of it because that's not a long-term solution, but the beginning with nationalizing food banks,
Speaker:think is a great idea because so many food banks are so wildly underfunded. lot of folks would
Speaker:suggest perhaps nationalizing grocery chains and the food supply. Yeah. These are kind
Speaker:of baby steps to get us there. Yeah. So the the babyest of baby steps is pretty much
Speaker:if we can get electoral reform through, if we can help push that through with the agreement
Speaker:between liberals and the NDP or whatever ends up happening. Then our next goal is to introduce
Speaker:a wealth flight tax of some kind. in the wild scenario that we all got, we got elected as
Speaker:a majority party, wealth flight tax would be the first thing that we did, followed by taxing
Speaker:the wealthy, which is the other, or one of our other three priorities, which is making
Speaker:them pay their fair share. introducing new tax brackets like a 51 % income tax on people
Speaker:who make over a million dollars a year. That's often the answer there to people like, oh,
Speaker:if you tax the rich, they'll just leave, right? So that's your solution. And then it would
Speaker:also give us the ability to issue warrants for their arrest on Interpol because then
Speaker:they would be evading Canadian taxes and such like that. Where are you focused on policing?
Speaker:So you start with defund the police at a minimum, right? Move a lot of the police budgets into
Speaker:other areas that are better able to handle some of the jobs that the police do now that they're
Speaker:not good at. You don't need a guy with a gun showing up at a medical emergency, for example.
Speaker:Or somebody having a mental crisis and having like five policemen coming to your place because
Speaker:the person is mentally unstable instead of bringing somebody that can, you know, bring a freaking
Speaker:social worker. When like policemen all they have is a hammer and they treat everything
Speaker:like if it's a nail. Well, you won't get any revolution with a well trained or well funded
Speaker:police force, my friends. Well, they need to be trained differently. With the budget they
Speaker:already have. Yeah, because a lot of progress like the NDP and a lot of progressives will
Speaker:do this. They will. say that it's just kind of different training, that it's not a systemic
Speaker:issue. Like they weren't here to create, like just to protect capital and further marginalize
Speaker:people. Yeah, it's a systemic issue. Troy, you got to start with the first point. There's
Speaker:two more. Save electoral reform for last. We have tax the rich. That's right. How can I
Speaker:forget that one? Yeah. So as I brought up, there was the the wealth flight tax and then introducing
Speaker:a larger income tax. But that's for just the rich, not the super wealthy, right? That's
Speaker:not for Galen Weston Jr. The wealth flight tax is for Galen Weston Jr. So he can't just fuck
Speaker:off to one of his Scottish castles. But in those cases, we want to have a scaling annual
Speaker:wealth tax on billionaires. have on our website, we have a button called Eat the Rich, and
Speaker:it is just a list of every Canadian billionaire. Oh, yeah, the wall of shame. Yeah, the wall
Speaker:of shame. It starts with Elon Musk at the top, Galen Weston Jr. and everybody else. Because
Speaker:Canadian billionaires are incredibly good at being quiet about how rich they are. Right.
Speaker:They're very sneaky little bastards. Yeah, we don't celebrate them in the same way. No, we
Speaker:don't. Right. Like they lay low. I dragons den we have. right or one of those shows has sharks
Speaker:or something I don't know but they've got a show of their own but otherwise yes they have
Speaker:a pretty Gaylen Weston just takes the hits for all of them Elon no one even remembers
Speaker:he's Canadian so I thought that was funny he's kind of the first face just to remind people
Speaker:we can't disown him like I'm like oh those crazy South Africans or Yankees it's like yeah
Speaker:I'm own a little bit of this one because he's got the most money yeah and then We want to
Speaker:also introduce a surtaxes on businesses where CEOs make more than 10 times their lowest paid
Speaker:employee that can scale up to 100%. And that will just hopefully make a big difference in
Speaker:the wealth or the income gap between minimum wage and well, Galen West and fucking junior.
Speaker:Yeah. Matthew, do you want to talk about the last point there? Electoral reform is something
Speaker:you folks talk a lot about. I get it. Yeah. Yeah, because one of the big problems that
Speaker:we have in this country is something that's called strategic voting. I've never heard of
Speaker:that. Oh my God. You never heard of that? Tell me, what is it? It forces Canada in picking
Speaker:two parties that they literally hate. You have literally a bowl of shit and another bowl of
Speaker:shit. Um, and basically it forces people only to choose for two parties because if you don't
Speaker:choose for, uh, one party, you're going to help the other one win. And you get shamed for it
Speaker:too. Yeah. And get shamed as well for it. Like if you say like, yeah, I decide to vote for
Speaker:NDP because I believe in what they stand for. Oh no, you're helping the conservative to win
Speaker:your writing or. Oh I'm going to vote for the Bloc because I'm a French person and I
Speaker:don't like how my government is running in Ottawa and they never attend the needs of Quebec.
Speaker:Oh, you're helping the conservatives win in Quebec. All of that. Look, any type of electoral
Speaker:reform would be good. But apparently the one that we have is proportional voting. So that
Speaker:way anybody can have a Anybody can have a voice. Most of the time, happens is that whoever's
Speaker:in power, let's just say like if it's the liberals, the western part of the the country starts
Speaker:being unhappy or start saying like, they're marginalizing us or they're not listening to
Speaker:us. And if some of the conservative women then Quebec and the Maritimes starts yelling and
Speaker:bickering, saying like, oh, nobody listens to us. Can I just say? Let's normalize not calling
Speaker:Alberta the West. We are not the West. As a lifetime Albertan, we are Midwest at best.
Speaker:Okay. That's too many categories for us. God, the separatism going on in Alberta right now.
Speaker:can't handle it. It's like, can we all just be Turtle Island? Everyone I think can understand,
Speaker:especially, there's already proponents for electoral reform. on the left. think that's a big sticking
Speaker:point for a lot of people. Even liberals wanted it. I mean, it was what Trudeau promised and
Speaker:originally brought him to power. want to know why Trudeau won his first election in Quebec?
Speaker:Like why he was so why Quebec was so red when he when he started running? Why? Because one,
Speaker:he's from a dynasty that was loved by the boomers in Quebec. And secondly, he introduced electoral
Speaker:reform. He said that it was going to be the last election with electoral reform. He won,
Speaker:he had 10 years to do it, he didn't do it. He sat on it and he said like, oh, it's too
Speaker:hard, or the Senate. Look, he was in power and he knew that if he would have done electoral
Speaker:reform, he would have hurt his own party, hurt the conservative, hurt Quebec, hurt all the
Speaker:parties that... had like this big proportional group and help all the other smaller parties.
Speaker:So no matter who's going to be to power, they don't want to kill. They don't want to shoot
Speaker:themselves in the foot. They just don't want to do that. See, I would argue, yes, all that.
Speaker:Yes. But the NDP for the same reason you folks understand how badly you need electoral reform
Speaker:to make a greater impact. Like that must be just so friggin obvious, especially going
Speaker:through a federal election, right? And seeing how hard it is to eat out space there. But
Speaker:the NDP is threatened by parties like you. I mean, you've openly declared yourself as
Speaker:a threat to the NDP, right? So your growth or your ability to get a foothold into the
Speaker:electoral system with electoral reform is a threat. to the NDP, I'm not sure if they had
Speaker:maintained themselves as the only leftist party in an actual leftist party, then yes, like
Speaker:that would help the smaller parties. But the way that they've done it, there's so many
Speaker:people ready to take up this position that you have where you're like, fine, we'll do it
Speaker:ourselves. And under electoral reform, that becomes a lot more promising. So it's why
Speaker:the NDP had never really fully put their shoulders into getting that done. Jagmeet even admitted
Speaker:it was like he tried to get it as part of the supply agreement and you know, but it was
Speaker:like half-hearted. It definitely wasn't a priority. And like this is coming from a party that
Speaker:had already promised it. So you think it would have been an easy sell, but no, nobody ever
Speaker:intended on really doing it. So I understand why that's like a cornerstone. of what you
Speaker:folks are demanding because I mean, it'll help make all this work a little more worthwhile,
Speaker:right? Maybe brighten the prospects. And it's just a more democratic way of doing things
Speaker:as well. Like First Past the Post is inherently anti-democratic and we are very pro-democracy.
Speaker:It's funny. Jamie says the same thing over and over and it's that he wishes the NDP would
Speaker:steal our entire platform. I run on that, right? It's not that we as the revolution party of
Speaker:Canada want to win. It's that we want our policies to win. want what we stand for to be what
Speaker:gets put through what makes lives of Canadians better. Right. And if the fucking financier
Speaker:ghouls behind the NDP have to fall for that, then yeah, absolutely. You know, maybe they
Speaker:shouldn't be so set in their ways and thinking that, we have to keep moving towards the center
Speaker:instead of further left like everybody wants. Well, I mean, if you can demonstrate success
Speaker:or any other leftist institutions start to demonstrate success with a different strategy,
Speaker:perhaps. I think a lot of them are just so wealthy in the institution that they've created
Speaker:and the mechanisms now there are so anti-democratic that it's almost impossible for them to reform
Speaker:themselves so that even if they did say you guys have great ideas and you're right it's
Speaker:selling right like look at that look you're gaining traction i'll do this marketing plan
Speaker:too right like because they don't actually believe like i'll it just it sells it keeps us relevant
Speaker:that that's enough for us they're so poisoned in the way that they operate now that it's
Speaker:really not healthy so how do you folks internally differ I don't know if any of you have been
Speaker:inside the NDP to know how it might be different, but Troy says, you know, we believe in democracy
Speaker:or, know, that is what we're about. How else does that manifest inside your party? Well,
Speaker:we don't charge a membership fee. That's the biggest one. We do not charge a membership
Speaker:fee for either regular members or candidates. There is no fees. Another big one is that we
Speaker:will not be accepting donations at the federal limit. which I believe is $1,100 per person.
Speaker:I mean, the talks that we've been having, we're thinking about like maybe $100 per person.
Speaker:And even that is like, everybody's a little, ooh, that's a little high. We're trying to
Speaker:get money out of the equation as much as possible. We understand that we're going to need money
Speaker:to run. We fully understand that, but we don't want it to be the reason that we run, right?
Speaker:We want the reason that we run to be making Canada better, making the lives of fellow Canadians
Speaker:better. And, you know, hopefully being a bastion that the rest of the world looks to and goes,
Speaker:hey, they did socialism and it's working. The other thing that I think of is you see in the
Speaker:news, I'm seeing articles right now about how the NDP leadership is trying to like fix it
Speaker:their way to get the candidate that they want to be leader as opposed to actually going to
Speaker:the party. Everything we do is going to the party. There is no upper echelon of control.
Speaker:Everything comes down to a vote like. all the policies, all the candidates are going to be
Speaker:primaries. If there's more than one candidate, the leadership is going to be voted on just
Speaker:right down at membership level. There isn't going to be any sort of centralized from the
Speaker:top control. We're from the bottom up every time. Well, that is surely different than the
Speaker:NDP who are highly centralized. Yeah. And also the NDP, you know, like they're doing their,
Speaker:their, little leadership race right now. And I saw what you had to do and like the amount
Speaker:of money. I don't think I have that amount of money. You're supposed to raise that amount
Speaker:of money. It's a test of... It's to keep poor folks out. It's to keep grassroots candidates
Speaker:out. But they'll tell you it's to test your prowess as a leader and part of politics to
Speaker:them. most of the major, like all the major parties, is your ability to raise funds. So
Speaker:surely these points set you apart in that regard. You talk about, you know, being happy, or at
Speaker:least That's what Jamie said, but you folks nodded along there that if the NDP would just
Speaker:take or, you know, help the ruling liberals took your platform. All right. Like let's just
Speaker:take our fucking platform. Sure. Sure. How do you help folks get there? So what I mean
Speaker:is where will your energy go between elections to make space or progress on things like the
Speaker:three key points that you folks drove home there. You know, can start with electoral reform
Speaker:or any of them. Like some of them are really kind of, radical ideas, they're revolutionary
Speaker:ideas. They're not like things we haven't heard, but really right now there's no space for it
Speaker:and you're not gonna be a majority party, right? And like that was one of the flaws I think
Speaker:of the NDP's campaign at the beginning. They kind of shifted, but you know, we knew the
Speaker:NDP wouldn't rule. and he kept speaking like that and I'll be honest your website reads
Speaker:like that I would change it. The way you say we will do this we will do that like that's
Speaker:so far off for you to be able to you know implement these policies. You need to explain to people
Speaker:how you're going to get there without majority power. Right we needed to hear from the NDP
Speaker:like here's how I'll behave with 24 seats. Unfortunately, in reality, he should have been
Speaker:like, hey, even if you give us a dozen seats, here's what we can do with it. Here's what
Speaker:we're going to do with your donations and your energy to make sure that the liberals don't
Speaker:do X, Y, and Z. A lot of it is defense too at this point. And they don't mobilize people
Speaker:to this end. So they don't get, we don't get any closer to electoral reform because They
Speaker:don't do anything beyond say it on the floor. So what can you folks do even if you're not
Speaker:on the floor, but you are taking the energy of folks, right? They still want to get to
Speaker:that spot. How are you going to do that? I would think that especially at the beginning when
Speaker:we're small, keeping the message out there, you talk about talking about it on the floor.
Speaker:That's one thing, but talking about it in the community as well. The more that message gets
Speaker:spread and the more people are talking about it, the more pressure that puts on even a majority
Speaker:government and the more people are. protesting against things that they understand because
Speaker:they've heard what we said or they're in the streets because they're fired up about something
Speaker:that we said. There needs to be a bunch of us talking that all the time everywhere we can,
Speaker:even if we don't have any power. Yeah, and in fewer words, we want to shift the Overton window
Speaker:over towards the left where it's okay and expected to talk about these things where, the government
Speaker:empowered the minority or majority will feel the pressure from people just talking about,
Speaker:actually, I really do want a universal basic income. Why the hell does Galen Weston Jr.
Speaker:have more money than anyone could ever spend in their single lifetime or even generations
Speaker:of their family, right? I'm struggling to buy bread in the morning. I need a universal basic
Speaker:income. But right now, that's not what people are talking about. The Overton window has shifted
Speaker:further to the right than we really want it to be. The ideas are also out there, right?
Speaker:So I imagine all of you, well, we've got Alberta, Niagara region here in Ontario, Montreal. So,
Speaker:you know, fair vote Canada. not, I don't want to shade anyone working for them. I mean,
Speaker:they're there, they're doing their thing. They're going for electoral reform. That's an example.
Speaker:But I mean, some of the other issues that you folks talk about, and that you support. they're
Speaker:being championed by people too already, right? Probably somewhere in your community. Are
Speaker:you planning on working with them or amplifying their work or is there ways, you know, when
Speaker:you say, I didn't kind of press you on it earlier, you used the term like be as grassroots as
Speaker:possible. You're talking to a whole lot of like activists and organizers who know exactly
Speaker:what it means to kind of work in their communities. What exactly is that going to kind of look
Speaker:like from a party perspective? Right? So again, we'll kind of hate to compare you constantly,
Speaker:but the parties generally operate with writing associations. Traditionally, those writing
Speaker:associations just prepare for the next election. They might have some fundraisers here and there,
Speaker:maybe a town hall to push the party messaging, right? Like if they're pushing on education.
Speaker:They'll have education town halls and do what you're saying, kind of pull people in, have
Speaker:them hear what they have to say, and hopefully that will draw them into the fold even further.
Speaker:Do you have plans to kind of replicate that or, you know, the flip side I think is working
Speaker:with organizations that are already doing the work that these ideas will naturally percolate
Speaker:from? Yeah, so we are very intent on working with organizations. With everything that Jamie
Speaker:has been doing as interim leader, he has been wildly busy and hard to get a hold of recently,
Speaker:but I think he's been working with a lot of local communities across Ontario to just
Speaker:get things going to show that, hey, we support this, we're a political party, we're going
Speaker:to be an official political party, we support you and we want to see you go forward. In
Speaker:my case, like I'm in a very deep blue riding. The moment it existed, became blue and it
Speaker:has never been anything else. And I'm in Alberta, which itself is incredibly deep blue. I don't
Speaker:think I'm going to win a seat from the Parkland riding, but at the very least I can talk to
Speaker:people in my little city of Spruce Grove and say, hey, things can be better. We don't have
Speaker:to just vote blue because they're the team that you play for, right? It's not a hockey game
Speaker:anymore. Politics has never been a hockey game. Let's stop treating it like it is. We need
Speaker:these things and we need them now, or we need them to be fought for. So in my case, my work
Speaker:as a candidate between elections is very much going to be getting my name out there. Even
Speaker:if it's potentially dangerous to me in some aspect or another, it feels like I have a moral
Speaker:obligation to stand up for the revolution party where nobody else would. I'll say too with
Speaker:the coalition building with all the other groups out there that are doing this work, we've already
Speaker:reached out to a bunch of them. We're planning to reach out to as many as we can. And one
Speaker:of the things that we have as well is we're seeking power to actually influence change
Speaker:from within the government. Whereas they're more just about getting the message out. I
Speaker:know I just talked about the importance of getting the message out, especially when we're new,
Speaker:if we have any power, but it's a good mix. I belong to other organizations that were just
Speaker:about like trying to spread awareness and trying to endorse candidates, things like that. And
Speaker:I got frustrated because it didn't feel like there was any attempt to actually gain power
Speaker:to effect change. And that's one of the things we're trying to do here eventually. you think
Speaker:great change will come through the ballot box? I don't think it's impossible. I talked about
Speaker:an upwards loop not that long ago. I think that could be the way it goes. I'm not a wizard
Speaker:or anything, but it's possible. If people really feel like they're getting behind what we're
Speaker:trying to push for, we could see success in the ballot box, right? But before then we have
Speaker:to put, we really have to put the heat under the pants of the NDP before they are completely
Speaker:dissolved, for example, or we have to talk to Bloch-Quebec-Oise because, you know, they're
Speaker:the next highest seats. We have to do everything that we can to affect change. in the ways
Speaker:that we are able to, which currently is not federally. And I think that is something that
Speaker:we have to accept is that we don't currently have the power to make federal change, but
Speaker:we can run municipal candidates or we can run provincial candidates. That's mainly down to
Speaker:individuals more than the party right now. Until after our inaugural caucus, we're not
Speaker:planning on anything relating to like organizations or any provincial party organizations. Sorry.
Speaker:We're primarily focused on the federal party right now, but once the inaugural caucus is
Speaker:set up and we're off to the races with the federal, we might start thinking about provincial presences.
Speaker:Don't stretch yourselves too thin, folks. I do that too often. Where could you use the
Speaker:most help? I want to say getting yourself registered as a party. Like there's probably bureaucratic.
Speaker:items that y'all need to take care of, but are there, are you doing a good job of drawing
Speaker:resources from all these folks that have found you, whether through boots or because of the
Speaker:campaigns that were run during this last federal election? Where are you putting these people
Speaker:and where do you still need help? I'm going to say that as of yet, we're not doing it well.
Speaker:We need to have 90 % of the the country covered. So we need more candidates. We're doing good.
Speaker:Like we have 50, around 50, we're getting close to 50. The volunteers are also going to be
Speaker:a big help because they're going to help those candidates knock on doors, getting those
Speaker:grassroots, getting that word out, getting that message out. I think those are the two
Speaker:most impactful help that we can get. Matthew kind of gave like a kind of broad overview
Speaker:of like the the things you need most is candidates and volunteers. But there are a lot of things
Speaker:to do, right? Social media to run meetings, you're building a caucus, so there's administrative
Speaker:things that have happened. Do you have a lot of these positions filled or are you still
Speaker:looking to grow that core? I know you're not centralized, but you need people to take responsibility
Speaker:to organize folks across the country like that, right? So we're, we're looking, we're looking
Speaker:for people for doing that. We're looking for the people on the back end. We're looking for
Speaker:that, for, for that core, uh, somebody for social media. We have candidates that have
Speaker:position like that, but candidates also have to run their campaigns. They also have to get
Speaker:their message out there. So They can't always do that job. Like I think even one of our candidates
Speaker:is the one that's going to put our website in French eventually when that gets done. Yeah.
Speaker:And he's a candidate by the way, like my one is a candidate. Um, even I'm helping him with
Speaker:the French version and, and, and, and yeah, like we, we need volunteers to be in that
Speaker:backend and to fill out those roles. So the candidate can actually just. think on running,
Speaker:getting the message out there and knocking on doors and getting those grassroots support.
Speaker:Yeah, like in my case, I'm a member of both our marketing and social media teams where
Speaker:we're currently waiting for the messaging team to kind of get themselves together because
Speaker:we're very intrinsically connected with the messaging of the party. We don't want to be
Speaker:releasing videos where one of us is just like. You know what? I actually don't like universal
Speaker:basic income all that much, but here's why the party likes it. We have to make sure that we're
Speaker:very consistent in that. And right now, to be a hundred percent honest, we are a chaotic
Speaker:mess. Like right after the election happened, we kind of, we saw a huge influx of people
Speaker:that we just were not ready to take on at that time. And since then we have been a hundred
Speaker:percent focused on organization because we are so disorganized. is kind of wild. So we have
Speaker:teams coming together for a party organization. We have teams coming together for the shadow
Speaker:cabinet. We have teams coming together for the inaugural caucus, for social media, stuff like
Speaker:that. We're getting there, but it's a slow process, right? We're trying to make sure that everybody
Speaker:is okay with what we're doing because we're not a one person party. We're not built from
Speaker:the top down. We're built from the bottom up. So we got to make sure everybody standing at
Speaker:the bottom or sitting at the bottom is okay holding everybody else up. We've all been
Speaker:there as organizers, right? Where there's been these moments where everything that we've done
Speaker:is doing what it's supposed to do, but we still weren't ready for it. You like you peek, you
Speaker:get a lot of engagement, you stir a lot of people's interest, and then how you capture and hold
Speaker:that interest, it's hard to onboard people effectively. So that was part of my question.
Speaker:like all these skill sets that you need to run a party in whatever way that you're gonna
Speaker:do, they're gonna come from all of these people that saw you through a boots video or saw one
Speaker:of your candidates and they're gonna have this secret superpower that you didn't even know
Speaker:you needed. But you do, you know, like someone who knows how to get signs and frozen ground,
Speaker:you know, it's just like a silly example, but. You know, in your core group, there'll be
Speaker:so many skill sets, video editing and all these things. So yeah, get your shit together people
Speaker:because yeah, you've got a lot of excited people that, you know, want to put their energy here
Speaker:and you could do really great things as long as you kind of are able to multiply that
Speaker:power, right? Like a volunteer isn't a volunteer until they have a task, right? Yeah. As a
Speaker:D &D DM, the way that I'm looking at it is currently we're building the paddock that we're
Speaker:going to herd all the cats into. We're in this political time where the liberals are going
Speaker:to do everything the conservatives wanted to do anyway, except for maybe attack trans health
Speaker:care and a few other social items. So I think we're far off from another election, federal
Speaker:election. So you folks have breathing space to create your caucus. the paddock, all the
Speaker:infrastructure you're going to need. May I suggest you talk to people who have been in
Speaker:the thick of it, like Matthew, Matthew with the Solidair, Quebec Solidair, and folks who've
Speaker:gone through the wringer with the NDP and find out where the pitfalls are as you start to
Speaker:really solidify that core. Yeah, there's, there's quite a few of us who are like really hoping.
Speaker:that with the NDP currently imploding, we're going to start seeing some NDP candidates just
Speaker:kind of, you know, quietly shuffle over. So, oh, some candidates, yeah. You know, you got
Speaker:some MPs who lost their seat. I think a lot of them are hanging out in the wings to see
Speaker:how this leadership thing takes place. you do, what you do have out there are people who
Speaker:have run these little mini infrastructures, even though they're kind of colonial structures
Speaker:and they're not all that healthy. That are just done like entire writing associations
Speaker:have walked away, know the people in that run them I've just walked away from the NDP entirely.
Speaker:They've been treasurer. They've been social media managers They've run campaigns. They
Speaker:you know me clipboards I have you know, like I have all kind I have everything you need
Speaker:over in that little corner to run a fucking political campaign including a bunch of buttons
Speaker:with my name on it, know what I thought I never want to see again, so you These people will
Speaker:come and help you build but they need to know you are different from the NDP So yeah, like
Speaker:I love you named a few things democratically that make you stand out Policy wise I think
Speaker:it was kind of obvious to folks I mean deep down the NDP would advocate for some of these
Speaker:things It is deep in the policy book and and and members hearts But to get somebody to say
Speaker:it on camera is another thing. mean, before we started recording, we were talking about
Speaker:their refusal to say like sex work is work when someone tries to shame them for having an OnlyFans
Speaker:model on their bus and doing promos for them. So they're a long way away and you folks
Speaker:are definitely distinguishing yourself. You know, like throwing somebody under the bus
Speaker:with the NDP did that was horrible. And our party is never going to do that. Yeah. Well,
Speaker:you might, but you got to have mechanisms in place to be able to hold people accountable.
Speaker:It's like just like our politics where, you know, it's like four years, cross your fingers,
Speaker:maybe sign a petition or two or whatnot, but otherwise no recourse. That is another problem
Speaker:within the NDP that no one is answerable to the members. really to make those decisions.
Speaker:someone does make a bad decision, a bad call on the campaign. You can't go to the party
Speaker:for everything on the fly, right? There, some people will make bad decisions as leaders,
Speaker:as people in key positions. It's how you folks deal with those mistakes that is going to set
Speaker:you apart as well. Because even the Communist Party of Canada had issues. It's probably why,
Speaker:you know, Kira even had this kind of disclaimer on her experience as a lesbian within the
Speaker:group, right? Because there's there's been institutions where shit happens that is a
Speaker:microcosm of the greater society. And the circle that exists around partisan politics
Speaker:closes ranks and don't deal with it. And these aren't healthy places for people like us. We're
Speaker:already considering a system in which the members can in adequate circumstances, just remove
Speaker:a candidate from the party. Not necessarily as a member, just get them out. Get them off
Speaker:of the spotlight, get them out of candidacy and put somebody else in who will do a better
Speaker:job of it. It's so necessary. You said it yourself, things are going to happen. The big question
Speaker:that I've always asked is when things happen, what do you do about it? It's a zero tolerance
Speaker:thing where if somebody is openly against one of our policies or policies that members have
Speaker:voted on because we've also been completely open to members introducing policies. We didn't
Speaker:actually have anything relating to disability until somebody came in and was like, hey, you
Speaker:guys really need to focus a lot on disability. And everybody was like, oh, yeah, actually
Speaker:we do. I'm the one that pushed that. And like people have been individually coming in. have
Speaker:a channel on our server where people can suggest policy. We've gotten so many really good policy
Speaker:suggestions that we're going to be looking at during the inaugural caucus. There's all these
Speaker:things that we can do. There are ideas that people have already, right? That I'm never
Speaker:going to have, that Troy is never going to have, that Mathieu is never going to have, but we're
Speaker:always trying to be open to those ideas. Yeah. Like, like, like if I ever do a town hall,
Speaker:I'm going to ask two people, so what are your grievance right now? Like, Where's your pain?
Speaker:How can I help you? Because even if I win my writing, I'm still going to have those down
Speaker:holes and I'm still going to see like, I'm still going to want to see my candidates. Not my
Speaker:candidate, but the constituents. I'm not going to do like, oh, I won this writing and I know
Speaker:that I'm safe into it. I'm just going to disappear and not appear into any debate or anything
Speaker:like that. I'm just going to disappear and... at Ottawa and say goodbye, say or no. I cannot
Speaker:imagine willingly doing that while also getting paid $180,000 a year. Right. When you become
Speaker:an MP and you have an income like that, you should be doing everything in your power to
Speaker:talk to your constituents, right? Because they voted you in. You have to keep up to date on
Speaker:what they want from you. Right. You can't just be like, hey, my assistant is handling all
Speaker:of my emails. I occasionally see one or two. I'm mostly disconnected because I work in Ottawa.
Speaker:What are the things that I got from the Atlantic regional communists who are on a similar path
Speaker:as you folks, but less interested in electoral victories or even electoral work at the moment?
Speaker:But one of the things that I admired about how they were going to build, you know, the
Speaker:antithesis of what they had experienced so far. was like what you say, you know, should I
Speaker:become an MP to be held accountable to be in constant contact? That's how they structured
Speaker:their party within to write. anyone holding the treasurer position or all these other kind
Speaker:of key roles, I know you don't want to be centralized, but again, there's going to be key roles that
Speaker:need to be filled. They'll have to make decisions sometimes without the party, but creating
Speaker:mechanisms where they were constantly constantly having to answer to the larger mass, right?
Speaker:The larger, the membership. So volunteers, candidates, all on equal footing at that point and being
Speaker:able to ask hard questions of the decisions that had been made, right? But it's one thing
Speaker:to have it as a mantra, you say out loud, you know, this is how we're going to be and we're
Speaker:not or not going to be, but it's finding what the actual mechanisms are, what that structure
Speaker:looks like, what those meetings end up unfolding like to make sure that it remains democratic,
Speaker:that it remains linear or decentralized even, right? So it'd be interesting. I would like
Speaker:to check in with you folks perhaps a year from now. Uh, and see the hiccups that you'll
Speaker:end up having to go through, how you manage them and you know, what, how much closer
Speaker:you folks are to realizing, you know, ideal outcomes there. By then we'll have had our,
Speaker:con our initial, um, uh, inaugural, inaugural caucus. Caucus. We'll have a lot of things
Speaker:more sorted out by then. We'll have a lot more of the organization in place. Touching in again.
Speaker:great. we will have a real group of leaders, not just interns. Well, you know, you talk
Speaker:about term limits too. So rotation, rotation. Remember, the Greeks used to pull lots, right?
Speaker:So it's like, Troy, you are the treasurer this year. And, you know, like it's there's all
Speaker:sorts of ways you can structure yourself to make it fair and equitable and whatnot. It's
Speaker:quite the adventure to start from scratch. Right. And you're going to be wrong. You're going
Speaker:to do something you wish you hadn't. and you'll learn from it but what a roller coaster it's
Speaker:going to be building a party like this I hope you know the audience here is your target audience
Speaker:so in terms of getting your word out I may not have the reach of boots right because he's
Speaker:done a lot for you folks that that is great to hear I hope you've kind of told him that
Speaker:I'm sure you have but Yeah, we'll get you some a little bit of reach too. And in the show
Speaker:notes, folks can see how they can get in touch with the party and volunteer or just start
Speaker:to find out more about them. Any parting words, folks? We'll just we'll start with Kira. God,
Speaker:I hope we get something. You know, I hope that something comes of this, because as Troy
Speaker:said much earlier on in the show, there have been so many examples of somebody or a party
Speaker:trying to be left and just not doing well enough, right? We need something. That's why I want
Speaker:people to steal the damn platform. Just give us something. Give me anything. Yeah. I'll
Speaker:do my best, friend. I'll do my best, comrade. Matthew. Me? Join the revolution. Come and
Speaker:speak to us. We're not a close party. We take criticism from everybody. Even if it hurts
Speaker:us. We even took criticism from a Steve Boots video, like in the comments, basically. And
Speaker:I also heard also some right wingers actually criticizing us. And some of them were valid.
Speaker:no, mean, like, seriously, sometimes just hearing how what people have to say actually helps
Speaker:and we're going to take criticism where it is. And we're going to adjust. Gotta figure it
Speaker:out somehow. We're new at this. Thank you, folks, for joining us and sharing that brutal honesty
Speaker:too I love from from Kira that it was just like it's High chaos. I wrote it down on my
Speaker:notes there and I know that feeling. I absolutely know that feeling. It is. I'm getting a buzz
Speaker:from it over here. I can, I know what you guys are going through. I wish you a world of luck.
Speaker:I will be checking in with you. I find this very intriguing and I'm sure the audience did
Speaker:as well. So thank you very much. That is a wrap on another episode of Blueprints of Disruption.
Speaker:Thank you for joining us. Blueprints of Disruption is an independent production operated cooperatively.
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