Leap Manifesto


The Leap Manifesto is a political manifesto issued by a broad coalition of Canadian authors, artists, national leaders and activists in September 2015, during the Canadian federal election campaign. Initial signatories to the Manifesto include actors Donald Sutherland, Rachel McAdams, Ellen Page, Sarah Polley, and documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis; musicians Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, and Alanis Morissette; and writers William Gibson, Naomi Klein and Michael Ondaatje, along with environmental groups and labour union members including former Canadian Union of Public Employees president Paul Moist. The document calls for a restructuring of the Canadian economy and an end to the use of fossil fuels. A resolution referring the manifesto to local riding associations for discussion was approved by delegates during the 2016 New Democratic Party Convention.

Political involvement

Although those behind the Leap Manifesto identify as non-partisan, they have intentionally presented the manifesto to the NDP at key times. The Leap Manifesto was first presented in September 2015 during the Canadian federal election campaign, when then NDP leader Tom Mulcair was praising the party as moderate. Leap advocates again pressed the NDP to adopt the manifesto principles at the NDP biennial policy convention held in Edmonton in April 2016, following the loss of the 2015 federal election. This has proven to divide members of the NDP, with much controversy surrounding the Leap’s perspective towards pipelines and resource extraction energy projects. In February 2018, on the night before the biennial NDP policy convention, Leap supporters held a conference to once again urge the NDP to embrace and support the manifesto principles. In the convention, the party remained divided regarding adopting the manifesto as party policy.

Criticisms

Former New Democrat and co-founder of The Waffle, James Laxer, described the manifesto as "a document for elites and not the majority of Canadians" due to its focus on divestment from resource extraction rather than addressing wage and wealth inequality.