The Waffle

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Wing of Canada's New Democratic Party

title: "The Waffle" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["political-parties-established-in-1969", "political-movements-in-canada", "socialist-parties-in-canada", "political-party-factions-in-canada", "history-of-the-new-democratic-party-(canada)", "democratic-socialism", "left-wing-nationalist-parties", "1969-establishments-in-canada", "1974-disestablishments-in-canada", "political-parties-disestablished-in-1974"] description: "Wing of Canada's New Democratic Party" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waffle" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Wing of Canada's New Democratic Party ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox political party"]

Field	Value
leader	Mel Watkins
and James Laxer
foundation	1969
dissolved	1974
split	New Democratic Party of Canada (1972)
country	Canada
ideology	Democratic socialism
Quebec sovereigntism
Left-wing nationalism
newspaper	Waffle News
name	The Waffle
Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada
::

The Waffle (officially known as the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada after 1972) was a wing of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little electoral success before it permanently disbanded in the mid-1970s. It was generally a New Left youth movement and espoused solidarity with the Quebec sovereignty movement.

Formation

The group formed in 1969. Its leaders were university professors Mel Watkins and James Laxer. It issued a Manifesto for an Independent Socialist Canada and, with support in the NDP caucus and membership, worked to push the party leftward. The Waffle supported the nationalization of Canadian industries to take them out of the hands of American interests. The group was endorsed by the New Democratic Youth. The Waffle manifesto stated, "A socialist society must be one in which there is democratic control of all institutions, which have a major effect on men's lives and where there is equal opportunity for creative non-exploitative self-development. It is now time to go beyond the welfare state." According to the manifesto, "The New Democratic Party must provide leadership in the struggle to extend working men's influence into every area of industrial decision-making.... By bringing men together primarily as buyers and sellers of each other, by enshrining profitability and material gain in place of humanity and spiritual growth, capitalism has always been inherently alienating. Today, sheer size combined with modern technology further exaggerates man's sense of insignificance and impotence. A socialist transformation of society will return to man his sense of humanity, to replace his sense of being a commodity. But a socialist democracy implies man's control of his immediate environment as well, and in any strategy for building socialism, community democracy is as vital as the struggle for electoral success."

Origins of the Waffle name

The name was meant ironically; one story, quoted in historian Desmond Morton's book The New Democrats, has the name originating during the drafting of the group's manifesto when, at one point, Ed Broadbent said "that if they had to choose between waffling to the left and waffling to the right, they waffle to the left." "The Waffle Manifesto" was the published headline of Jean Howarth's editorial piece in The Globe and Mail on September 6, 1969. | last = Howarth | first = Jean | title = The Waffle Manifesto | newspaper = The Globe and Mail | location = Toronto | page = 6 | date = 1969-09-06

Another possible origin for the name comes from a film-clip excerpt from a CBC documentary on the NDP, taken during a meeting of the group some months prior to the October 1969 NDP Winnipeg convention. | title = Waffle meeting 1969 | work = CBC News | publisher = YouTube | year = 1969 | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTTWRhXjOJo | format = video | doi = | access-date = 2009-12-05}} According to the film excerpt, the Waffle term appears to have originated with Jim Laxer when he stated, "in terms of the proposed manifesto, that if it doesn't talk about nationalization of key industries, it becomes a 'waffle document.'" The term "waffle" was picked up by subsequent speakers in the discussion.

1971 Ottawa leadership convention

Main article: 1971 New Democratic Party leadership election

The 1971 NDP leadership convention was a battleground between the party establishment and the Waffle. About 2,000 people, out of the NDP's approximately 90,000 membership, were members of the Waffle in 1971. The Waffle tried to get as many of their supporters onto the party's governing bodies, but were rebuked by the large bloc of rank-and-file union voters at the convention.{{Cite news | last = Goldblatt | first = Murray | title = Block of union delegates aids establishment to fend off Waffle drive for party offices | newspaper = The Globe and Mail | location = Toronto | page = 10 | date = 1971-04-24 Carol Gudmundson — of the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Waffle — ran unsuccessfully for the party presidency. She was up against former Ontario NDP leader Donald C. MacDonald and lost to him during the April 23rd vote. University of Toronto professor Mel Watkins lost his vice-president position, but managed to get elected to the party's federal council. The campaign for leader of the NDP pitted David Lewis against James Laxer. Through the strong support of the labour unions, Lewis succeeded in defeating Laxer on the fourth round of voting on April 24.{{Cite news | last = Bain | first = George | title = A tough row to hoe | newspaper = The Globe and Mail | location = Toronto | page = 6 | date = 1971-04-26 Laxer won approximately 37 percent of the final ballot vote, and established that the Waffle had some strength in the party and were no longer a small fringe group.

The Waffle's demise in Ontario

During the leadership convention, the Waffle was described in the press as a "party within a party." One of the last hurrahs for the Waffle came during the October 1971 Ontario provincial election. The Waffle's Ontario chairman, Steve Penner, was Ontario NDP candidate for MPP from the Dovercourt riding.{{Cite news | last = Toronto Bureau | title = 121 candidates trying for 35 Metro and area jobs | newspaper = The Toronto Star | location = Toronto | page = 10 | date = 1971-10-19 | last = Toronto Bureau | title = Radical Waffler fails by just 55 votes | newspaper = The Toronto Star | location = Toronto | page = 13 | language = | date = 1971-10-22

Lewis remained hostile; in 1972, he described the Waffle as "an encumbrance around my neck".{{Cite news | last = Hoy | first = Claire | title = Waffle decides to defy NDP order to disband | newspaper = The Toronto Star | location = Toronto | pages = 01, 03 | date = 1972-06-26

Independent party: end of the road

Some members of the Waffle remained New Democrats; however, Laxer and Watkins accepted Lewis's ultimatum and quit the NDP in 1972. They continued the Waffle under the name the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada, but it was still commonly referred to as the Waffle. The group existed until the Canadian federal election in 1974, when it unsuccessfully ran candidates for Parliament in the federal election. Laxer ran in the York West electoral district in Toronto, placing fourth in a field of seven with 673 votes and only 1.26 percent of the popular vote.

Effect on NDP youth movement

The dispute over the Waffle led to the disbanding of the Ontario NDP's youth wing in 1972, which was not revived until 1988. The federal NDP also disbanded the New Brunswick NDP for a period in late 1971 after a local Waffle group gained control of it.

Legacy

References and notes

References

{{cite book | last = Avakumovic | first = Ivan | title = Socialism in Canada : a study of the CCF-NDP in federal and provincial politics | publisher = McClelland and Stewart | year = 1978 | location = Toronto | isbn = 077100978X | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/socialismincanad00ivan
{{cite book | last = Morton | first = Desmond | authorlink =Desmond Morton (historian) | title = The New Democrats: 1961-1986 | edition= 3 | publisher = Copp Clark Pitman Ltd | year = 1986 | location = Toronto | isbn = 0-7730-4618-6 }}
{{cite book | last = Smith | first = Cameron | title = Unfinished Journey: The Lewis Family | publisher = Summerhill Press | year = 1989 | location = Toronto | isbn = 0-929091-04-3 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/unfinishedjourne00smit

References

[https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/1900-v1-n1-llt06143/1078650ar/ Labour and the Waffle – Unions Confront Canadian Left Nationalism in the New Democratic Party]
Morton (1986), p. 92.
Smith (1989), p. 579.
Avakumovic, pp. 231, 237
"History of Federal Ridings Since 1867: York West". Queen's Printer for Canada.
(25 June 2012). "On the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of the Waffle". rabble.ca.

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