At a Zoom meeting after Yves Engler’s candidacy for the Canadian NDP’s leadership was blocked, somebody said: “In a lot of ways, this campaign is about to begin”. This proved to be very true!
Information on Yves’campaign can be found here and here.
The campaign’s core and jewel is its platform meant to build in Canada “a society rooted in justice, equality, and solidarity.”
Yves’ candidacy had been blocked on December 8, 2025. We then gently encouraged Bianca Mugyenyi, an excellent political organizer and writer, to run, warning her however about the enormous effort and pressure it would represent, and on December 31, she submitted her application.
In a press conference, Bianca explained that she decided to apply because of “ideas that matter, ideas about peace, ideas about justice, about democracy, about dignity (…)”.
She stated that “politics is never abstract, that it shapes who is safe, who’s heard, who’s forced to flee.”
Another idea that she enunciated was that “change does not come from waiting patiently.(…) It comes from people being organized, organizing together, moving in the same direction, and insisting on dignity.”
At the same news conference, Jasmine Peardon, the leader of the policy committee that put together the platform, reminded us that the analysis of the platform creators shows that “capitalism destroys humanity and nature for the profit of very few people.”
Jasmine added: ”They tell us that the biggest threats we face are enemies abroad. Yet wildfires destroy our communities, our public health system is collapsing, and Canadians are lining up at food banks for daily meals. Obviously, our real biggest threat is the neglect of people’s basic needs.”
Another interesting point noted by Bianca was that together we have a “tremendous amount of power, (…) especially if [we are] on the right side of history, even with all the propaganda that’s out there.”
Unfortunately, Bianca’s application was rejected on January 28, 2026.
However we still had cards to play. In March, there would be the NDP convention in Winnipeg, when a new NDP president would be elected, and Jasmine Peardon was a perfect candidate. So now, the energy was to be redirected toward Jasmine’s candidacy, promotion of our platform, and event organization.
One of Jasmine’s statements was: “My campaign for president is about (…) restoring meaningful democratic participation for voices that have been sidelined, even silenced.” You can listen to Jasmine here.
Jasmine did not get elected. However, the Capitalism Cannot be Fixed campaign got a certain amount of success as buttons and copies of our platform were acquired by delegates, and somebody felt that “our platform took center stage”.
In spite of the repeated failures, there was no way to stop the campaign for our beloved platform. Yves Engler even stated that our platform has “likely been the most widely read anti-capitalist pamphlet/book in Canada (…)”.
On May 24, 2026, our campaign reached a major step: a day-long conference in Toronto, where a new socialist movement was created.
It is planned to organize a convention to launch this new movement. As Barry Weisleder stated: “A new movement/party is needed (…) to significantly improve the chances of survival for humanity and nature.”
How shall we go on? The exact route is not clear yet , but what’s sure is that we’ll go on.
