60 BIG IDEAS — New Democrats are cramming for three days of policy debates in Hamilton, Ont., the gritty steeltown at the heart of the party's working-class identity — but an electoral dogfight with Liberals and Conservatives outside the city's urban core. Doors open at noon. Delegates will hear from ANDREA HORWATH, a longtime provincial leader who found new digs at Hamilton city hall after facing electoral defeat last year. Also on the agenda: labor leaders BEA BRUSKE and ROBERT COMEAU, as well as British Columbia Premier DAVID EBY. JAGMEET SINGH caps the day with a "caucus showcase." The party's biggest winner of the year, Manitoba Premier-designate WAB KINEW, won't be in the room. He's got other business back home in Winnipeg, working with his transition team on settling into government. In between speeches, delegates will enter their happy place: policy debates that shape the party's next sales pitch to voters, whenever that opportunity comes knocking. (Yes, the betting odds are still on 2025.) — What didn't make the cut: A pair of perennial lightning-rod resolutions on Canada's response to tensions in the Middle East — tricky debates even during peacetime, when nuance is marginally easier to inject into complex public policy conversations — didn't make the list of priority resolutions. — Climbdown: NDP MPP SARAH JAMA's political career hangs in the balance after she urged Israel to "end all occupation of Palestinian lands and end apartheid." Premier DOUG FORD called for her resignation. JOHN FRASER, the interim provincial Liberal leader, called on NDP Leader MARIT STILES to boot Jama out of caucus. Jama, who represents the Hamilton riding where the federal convention is going down, walked back her comments on X on Wednesday afternoon. "I understand the pain that many Jewish and Israeli Canadians, including my own constituents, must be feeling. I apologize," she wrote, reiterating that Israel's "bombardment and siege on civilians in Gaza" is "wrong." Convention organizers are likely relieved at an agenda that sidesteps the conflict. — What did make the cut: Delegates will consider priority resolutions divided into six groupings with headings that appear to have been fed through a euphemism generator: Taking better care of each other; Respect for our planet and workers; Making life more affordable; Indigenous justice and human rights in Canada; Strengthening Canada's institutions and Canada's place in the world; and the party constitution. Here are five policies on the table: → Expand healthcare: “To include all medically necessary healthcare services, including dental, mental health, pharmaceutical, auditory and vision care.” → Create a youth Climate Corps: "To respond to climate impacts and support conservation efforts through new jobs helping restore wetlands, protecting nature and planting the billions of trees that need to be planted in the years ahead." → Create a telecom crown corp: "To increase access to internet and cell phone service at affordable prices across the country." → Listen to the families of missing and murdered Indigenous women: Call on the federal Liberals "to ensure that a search of the Prairie Green Landfill" in Manitoba, where the remains of Indigenous women are thought to be buried, "is undertaken without delay." → Boost foreign aid: "Indexing any increase in defense spending with an increase to Official Development Assistance, in recognition that development assistance is a key component in preventing armed conflict." — How the debate will work: Delegates will mull priority resolutions Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They'll also find time Friday to consider emergency resolutions. A potential issue for that time slot: a grassroots-led resolution on pharmacare. The motion's boosters want the party to threaten to pull the plug on a governing deal with the Liberals if the government doesn't legislate single-payer, universal pharmacare. — Food for thought: The Parliamentary Budget Officer publishes a timely report today: “Cost estimate of a single-payer universal drug plan.” PRONOUN POLLING — If provincial pronoun politics are divisive in parents' group chats, a recent Spark Advocacy survey commissioned by Egale Canada explains why. The nation's parents appear to be split on whether or not teachers should be required to inform them if their children decide to change their gender identity in school. The polling is timely, as provincial premiers push through the controversial policies — and federal politicians are occasionally pulled into the debate. Spark found that 49 percent of parents support a duty to inform, with 51 percent preferring that teachers have discretion "based on individual circumstances." From there, the poll results only grow more complex. Here are six observations from Spark's questions about the debate that has families talking all over Canada. → A clear partisan divide: 67 percent of Conservatives support policy that requires teachers to inform parents. 59 percent of Liberals prefer to give teachers discretion. → The gender divide is real: 56 percent of men support the policy. 58 percent of women support teacher discretion. → The opposite of harm reduction: 34 percent of respondents who believe children are "likely or certain to be harmed" by the policy still support it. → Constitutional override: 31 percent support provinces invoking the notwithstanding clause to override courts that strike down pronoun policies. → Not a priority: 7 percent of parents listed pronoun policies among their top three most urgent issues. It's even lower — 6 percent — for pronoun policy supporters. → The top three for parents: 50 percent prioritize improving healthcare, 49 percent want to see the cost of living addressed, and 44 percent want housing to be more affordable. — A second opinion: Leger published survey results this morning on the same issue. Here are three findings from that one: → 65 percent of those polled were "aware of the ongoing discussion around sexual orientation and gender identity in Canadian schools." → 63 percent support pronoun policies in general, with 45 percent saying parents ought to be informed "even if the child does not feel safe informing their parents." → 59 percent of parents support provinces invoking the notwithstanding clause to override courts that strike down pronoun policies. — Further reading: Leger spoke about the results with the Canadian Press.
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