POLITICS OF THE FUTURE
The Canada I envision leads boldy into the future. It is quite different than the defensive, imitative country we have become.

I picture, first of all, a Canada with a vibrant, humanist, popular culture, liberated from commercialism the first Post Propaganda Society of the electronic age

I picture a Canada of bold and lively economic creativity.

I picture a Canada of democratic mass media.

I picture a Canada with a world leading ecological political economy because, of all countries, I think we have the right imagination for it.

I picture a Canada where people and their communities come before economic devices. To say that really is to say almost everything.

I picture a new kind of society unique, self confident, full of creativity, drawing deep on the Canadian character and on our suppressed spirit of independence.

Most of all, I picture a society that will make real departures truly a society that has a taste for the future.
 

NEW DIRECTIONS

Take charge of economics
Turn the NDP into the natural authority on economic matters – the first crucial step in making ourselves a complete party. Lead the way in mattes of enterprise, technology, the workplace, and finance, and not just be satisfied with the social safety net.

Eliminate the deficit
Do it our way. Seize control of the issue from the Reform party and the Liberary Party. Use cutting the deficit imaginatively to reduce privilege and create a more egalitarian society.

Create the first Post-Propaganda Society of the electronic age
Liberate our media, especially television, from commercial propaganda. Phase out the commercialisation of sports and culture. Leave the outdated, backward-looking American model behind.

Make the media an election issue
Take on media bias and unrepresentative media ownership directly. The media, and not the Reform or Liberal parties, are our chief political opponent; they set the framework within which political debate takes place.

Herschel Hardin

"Wonderfully passionate, sardonic and incisive," one book reviewer called him. "We need more guides like Herschel Hardin who know the territory, speak the language, and who aren't afraid to fight," wrote another. Herschel Hardin is a British Columbia author and lifelong democratic socialist, and those are the qualities he will bring to the New Democratic leadership. Courage. Passion. Wit. Inciveness.

At different times he has been a book writer, playwright, broadcaster, book critic, arts commentator, economic historian, newspaper columnist, public-interest advocate, broadcasting policy specialist, and consultant.

Herschel Hardin is a democratic socialist with deeply-rooted populist, egalitarian convictions. He is someone with a far-reaching background in economic history, enterprise, business, and finance. He is the country’s leading exponent – he sometimes thinks the only exponent – of crown enterprise.

He is a writer and journalist who understands the key role that mass media and culture play in society and politics, and has fought many battles on that score in the past.

Hardin is a committed Canadian nationalist and a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada. He is a longtime environmentalist and civil libertarian. He speaks French. He is an ardent badminton and tennis player.

He lives with his wife, Marguerite, in West Vancouver.

Finally! An Economic Voice for New Democrats


Policy Circulars
Throughout the leadership campaign, Herschel will be presenting separate policy circulars on the following topics:

• Taking charge of economics
• Ecological economics
• Community-centred enterprise
• The deficit! The deficit! Who wants a deficit?
• Fighting waste and excess in the private sector
• The Post-Propaganda Society
• Making media and culture an issue
• One kind of membership
• Public sector: holding heads high
• Beyond globalization