No. 2

June 30, 2026

Canada Day 2026

Cartel Party Governments Set Canada
on a Nation-Wrecking Path

– Anna Di Carlo –

New Book

• The Evolution of Political Parties in Canada

Introduction

– Pauline Easton –

Resolutions of the Eighth Congress of CPC(M-L)

• For Us, Accountability Begins at Home

• On Party Building

Canada Day 2026

Cartel Party Governments Set Canada on
a Nation-Wrecking Path

– Anna Di Carlo –

Today, as ruling elites become increasingly autocratic, the renewal of the democratic process is essential. For this to be achieved, at a time the antipathy to political parties is running very high, the working class must set the example of what it means to pay attention to the need to be political by appreciating a political party of the working class such as ours. The opportunist phrase "more than a movement, less than a party" has become the resort of many a scoundrel that thinks that rights can be provided with a guarantee without the leading role of the working class as an organized force with an aim, as upheld by the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). Nowadays it is common to have major cartel parties without members. Parties without members cannot be political. They act like contingents of a mafia fighting turf wars. Cartel parties without members are a dangerous development because citizens and residents cannot afford to drop out of the political discourse and striving for political empowerment. It creates a very dangerous situation and it is important for Canadians to make sure it cannot happen.

Various obstacles lie in the path of making sure Canadians participate in political affairs. It is known, for instance, that today many non-government organizations (NGOs), along with many associations said to be apolitical or humanitarian, ensure that the role of the peoples is denigrated. It is commonplace to see people from all walks of life, backgrounds, beliefs, abilities, genders and ages lumped into a category or many descriptive categories. On the basis of these categories, every stereotype imaginable is promoted and people are labelled and criminalized accordingly. The state is the prime promoter of such things at the instigation of powerful supranational interests which have seized control of the state's decision-making power.

The fight between competing factions amongst the ruling class and the need for the working class and people to speak in their own names so as to provide the problems they face with solutions cannot be sorted out by engaging in providing better descriptions of such categories, or joining a category and demanding it be recognized and given its due. What are called the democratic institutions are now devoted to such things. Elections, the democratic process, media and educational institutions are all put at the disposal of such attempts to disinform the polity in this way.

On a day to day basis, more often than not the situation looks very bleak, the problems overwhelming, insurmountable and that we are all alone. It appears as if the situation is hopeless, there is nothing we can do. But far from it, the space we call Canada, the space we call home, or where we live and work, where we procreate and rear the coming generation, where we honour our elders, our children and siblings and where we welcome newcomers belongs to all of us. It is our space. We must take our place in it by using our own voices and speech to change things in favour of those who live, work, procreate, rear the coming generations, honour our elders and welcome newcomers. In this regard, we must base ourselves on a process which helps us determine what is pertinent and what is not. We must base ourselves on our experience that speech refers to our deeds, not words. We must remember that the word politics encompasses all of us together, the affairs of concern to the body politic.

Canadians and Quebeckers, as well as all those who live and work in this country from coast to coast to coast, including our Indigenous Peoples whose birthright and hereditary rights are not negotiable, cannot afford to leave politics to rotten, corrupt cartel parties and a system of party rule taken over by narrow private interests. It is through speaking in their own name and developing their own independent politics that the crisis can be resolved in a manner that favours the working class and people, not the rich.

The current period of vicious neo-liberal anti-social offensive began in the 1980s during the rule of the now deceased Brian Mulroney. At that time, CPC(M-L), on the basis of its analysis of the conditions which were being ushered in, boldly declared that henceforth no force could act in the old way because the conditions had changed. It pinpointed that the working class must constitute itself the nation and lead the striving of the peoples of this country for change by leading them to speak in their own name and vest sovereignty in themselves.

It was an ambitious program in a country imbued with the juridical outlook of a Eurocentric nation-state and its hypocritical standards whereby it tolerates everything except what it does not tolerate, which is usually most of us, our right to conscience, our social, cultural and political being.

Today, it is clear as clear can be that the colonial nation-building project is finished. It was and continues to be based on the precept – the general rule intended to regulate behaviour or thought – that the land was for the taking because it belonged to no one. This project, led by first the British empire-builders who established an Anglo-Canadian state to serve their interests and then by the U.S. imperialists to serve their Cold War anti-communist aims, has led to Canada's systematic integration into the U.S. state, war economy and war machine.

It has become amply evident that Canada's democratic process is designed to authorize others to speak in our name and that through the system of electing a party government we have no say in any of the decisions which affect our lives. The irony is that it is at the point we cast a ballot to authorize someone else to represent us, i.e. speak in our name, we are disempowered, not empowered as we are led to believe.

In this country, more and more youth are taking up the battle to end their political marginalization by affirming their individual interests, the interests of their own collectives and the general interests of society, on the basis of programs they themselves set and carry out. This is the struggle that opens the path for the progress of society. With this struggle, the youth themselves are on the front lines of the struggle of the working class, women, most vulnerable sections of society and all others for progress.

Renewal of the democratic process is the order of the day and renewal is not a class question. The renewal of the political process favours that class which spearheads it and comes out on top. By leading the work for the renewal of the political process, the working class opens a path for the further development of the society and gives itself a greater role in the advancement of society. It is the struggle not only for democracy, against the erosion of civil rights on all fronts by those who define their so-called reasonable limits, but it is the struggle of this particular turning point of history, to create mass democratic transitional forms which put human beings at the centre of all endeavours to humanize the natural and social environment.

We call on everyone to Make Way for Renewal. Let us together take our place in this historic combat by leaving the Old behind!

Anna Di Carlo is the National Leader of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada.

Note

1. Hardial Bains, Author's Note, A Power to Share, Canadian Renewal Party, Ottawa: 1993

(Based on an article originally published in TML Monthly in May 2024.)

New Book

The Evolution of Political Parties in Canada

As a contribution to the national discussion on the need for political renewal and a modern constitution, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is publishing a book titled The Evolution of Political Parties in Canada – A Review of the Academic Literature by Anna Di Carlo. Anna Di Carlo is National Leader of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, the name under which CPC(M-L) is registered with Elections Canada. A recognized authority on Canada's Constitution and political system, Anna leads the Commission of the Party's Central Committee responsible for the program of the MLPC for the renewal of the political process and a modern constitution. The book can be ordered by writing: publications@cpcml.ca.[1]

On the occasion of Canada Day 2026, the Introduction to the book by Pauline Easton is published below.

Introduction

– Pauline Easton –

This review of academic literature on the evolution of political parties in Canada is published at a time when, in the name of national unity and stability, the Carney Liberal Government has converted the cartel of catch-all political parties into a catch-all cartel party government. Far from uniting the nation or providing stability, power is more alienated than ever from the electorate, while police and military measures, intrigue and factional fighting have become the ways in which the state asserts its authority. The catch-all party government unites the factions in appearance only. Factional fighting in fact intensifies because the private interests the factions represent are fighting each against each and each against all to dominate and control the productive forces.

The review covers the period prior to the formation of what, in the western democracies, are considered modern political parties in the 19th century, up to the current time. It traces their formation within the British parliamentary system which informs the Westminster system inherited by Canada in 1840, when the first parliament of Canada was established at a time oligarchic "elite" parties prevailed. This system which swears allegiance to the King of England was then entrenched in the Constitution 1867 and remains with us to this day.

The review then recounts the replacement of the elite parties with mass parties. Once manhood suffrage was recognized and then the movements of the working people for empowerment gave rise to the recognition of universal suffrage, the elite parties could no longer contain the demand for the recognition of the rights of workers, women, new arrivals and against war. This overwhelmed the elite parties which were not seen to represent the national interest and they had to conform to the demands of the times or die.

Mass parties became extra-parliamentary lobbies whose aim was to put pressure on the parties with seats in the Parliament to adopt the policies which gave rise to the social-welfare state and Pierre Elliot Trudeau's "just society." With time, they became "catch-all" parties which gave rise to the cartel party system and cartel party governments.

A catch-all party, also known as a "big tent" party prioritizes pragmatism over principle, winning elections over adherence to a strict political doctrine. In a catch-all party, powers shifts from the members to a professional, top-tier leadership and technical experts. They are called catch-all because their aim is to catch all the interests in society irrespective of their class composition and on this basis they declare they represent the national interest. For example, in the post-World War II period, if you were Italian, no matter what class you were from, the Liberal Party was going to get you citizenship. So too with Greeks, East Indians and others who make up at least half of Canada's population in the post-war period. Only once Stephen Harper's Conservative Party took over the government in 2006 did that party subsequently manage to incorporate Canadians of East Indian and Asian origin into its ranks so that it too could claim to represent the national interest.

This transformation of political parties into cartels in which members no longer played a role in decision-making goes hand in hand with the restructuring of the state in the second half of the 1980s and early nineties. In this period the cartel party which formed the government usurped the decision-making power by enacting laws which permitted ministers to use prerogative powers in an increasingly unlimited manner, no longer accountable to parliament in any way. This restructuring of the state systematically became the aim of the anti-social offensive which began to take shape with free trade and then attacks on unions and cutbacks to social programs and privatization.

Today, as a culmination of the restructuring of the state, the federal government unapologetically rules in an autocratic manner. From the outset, the system of party government was designed to keep political power in the hands of propertied interests and out of the hands of the working class and people, with the exception of those who joined the cartel for self-serving purposes.

In 1782, Edmund Burke's Economic Reform Bill curbed the powers of the King's personal rule through measures such as prohibiting contractors from sitting in Parliament. Today, nearly 245 years later, government contractors serving narrow supranational private interests not only sit in Parliament but in the government itself whose Ministry is filled with "government contractors."

The rulers and their courtiers and media use their neo-liberal anachronistic ideology to make their dominance seem natural and necessary as they carry out their pay-the-rich and warmongering program in the name of nation-building and stability. While their expectation is that this "false consciousness" obscures the class struggle, it is important to note that the fundamental problem they face cannot be made to go away. Social change occurs through the material, economic changes which are taking place and the inevitable conflict between the proletariat and bourgeoisie to affirm the claims the people are entitled to make on society which are beyond their control.

Our definition of what constitutes the people is very different to the description and name-giving in, for instance, the U.S. Constitution or the Charter of the United Nations, where the preambles begin with "We the people" and "We the peoples," respectively. This is a complex issue. "We the people" is the name given and then where they live. They inhabit the U.S. or one of the nation-states which are members of the UN. These conceptions put the nation-state in the first place, not the people. We know historically, from ancient times, what was given rise to spontaneously in world thought, and what is coming up in resistance today all over the world is that it is the people, as the actual life-form, which is decisive and fundamental and not the state.

In this historical juncture, the old forms of party organization which enforced the relations between individuals, their collectives and the state have passed away and new forms are being brought into being based on mass democratic methods and principles in which the people speak in their own name and act in their own name and their resistance struggles affirm their identity, not the state. Within this situation, the ruling class has reverted to using its positions of power and privilege to rule in an autocratic manner so as to keep the people out of power. Those who occupy positions of privilege and power do not want to analyze the facts or to have the facts analyzed. They are not interested in drawing warranted conclusions. Nonetheless, the real-world material conditions, the ensemble of relations between humans and humans and humans and nature, reveal the need for the people's empowerment. Today's counter-revolution has as its number one target the working class and people.

Despite the reactionary path the ruling classes are taking, and because of it, the general existing sentiment for a new society means that the population is ready to listen to proposals which could assist them to create such a new society. In other words, the constituency for the building of a new society is increasing in scope, encompassing ever greater numbers of people. In terms of classes, it is in the interests of the working class to see such a transformation take place.

The scope of the review of the academic literature on the evolution of political parties is limited primarily to the evolution of the political parties of the bourgeoisie. Other books and pamphlets published by the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) deal with the mass communist party, its aim, the way such a Party is organized, its organizational principles and the mass democratic methods it uses to achieve the required results. Such a party does not depend on passing circumstances. It depends on its aims. The organizational principles of such a party are not dependent on passing circumstances either. Only the tactics and tactical forms of organization can be based on such considerations.

The review is published to assist the younger generations to draw warranted conclusions. For instance, today, a party which acts in the interests of the working class and people, as they fight for the recognition of their just claims on society and to make Canada a Zone for Peace in the world, must lead the people to end class privilege. The cartel parties benefit from the status quo. Their intentions can be seen in their deeds to perpetuate the status quo.

Of course, a communist party has to go even further. It must not only fully join with all who are interested to create a society without class privileges but also organize the working class to lead the society to abolish classes altogether. A communist party would not be worthy of its name if its program did not take into consideration these two aims in the immediate and strategic sense.

Notes

1. The book, published in English and French in magazine format, is 56 pages and sells for $20 plus shipping and handling. The book can be ordered by writing: publications@cpcml.ca.

Resolutions of the Eighth Congress of CPC(M-L)

For Us, Accountability Begins at Home

GIVEN the defeat of the Charlottetown Accord in October 1992 clearly signified that class struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie over who decides the affairs of the society had broken out in all earnest;

GIVEN the disequilibrium in the parliamentary system after the 1993 federal election that to date has not been re-established whereby the party system of governance based on a party-in-power and a party-in-opposition said to represent the will of the people has collapsed and deepened the crisis of representative democracy;

GIVEN the defeat of the Charlottetown Accord and disequilibrium from the 1993 federal election opened a space for change that the working class must occupy;

GIVEN that far from renewing the political process to recognize the people`s right to elect and be elected, the parties in Parliament have engaged in one reform of the electoral law after another to concentrate privilege and power in their own hands, which has led to the further alienation of the people's right to govern themselves;

GIVEN that with these electoral reforms the political parties in Parliament have become appendages of the state and have formed a cartel-party system which brokers deals behind the backs of the people to preserve themselves through minority governments;

GIVEN the tendency of these governments to enshrine monopoly right and embroil Canada in U.S.-led aggression and wars of occupation, annex Canada into a North America of the Monopolies and enact laws that violate individual and collective rights;

RECOGNIZING the general discontent with the entire political process symbolizes that the demands of the people have far surpassed the possibility of their satisfaction through the current political process and that this discontent and demand for change of the political process have become more intense;

RECOGNIZING the demand of the people to exercise control over their lives by participating in governing their society requires that those elected to office represent the people and are directly accountable to them and that this change means a new kind of political party must come into being that strives to empower the electorate and not come to power for its own self- serving interests;

RECOGNIZING that the cartel-party system based on party- domination and party-privilege will continue to obstruct the development of political rights for all and create an ever more dangerous situation with the establishment of a values-based system violating the right to conscience and criminalizing political opinion on the fascist basis of "Canadian values" that must be accepted by all;

RECOGNIZING the need to change the electoral law to guarantee that no inequality based on a person's status in society in terms of wealth or access to levers of political power or influence be allowed to deny any individual's right to participate fully in the political process, set the agenda for the country, and to elect and be elected;

RECOGNIZING the essential flaw in the Canada Elections Act is that it enables political parties to exercise those rights, which by universal standards of human rights, are the entitlement of all members of the polity, and that the elimination of this domination and privilege of a political elite and business parties is crucial to the democratic renewal of the political process;

RECOGNIZING the fact that the cartel-party politicians will never legislate themselves out of existence thereby requiring all those who have an interest in democratic renewal to join together and constitute themselves a force as worker politicians who champion democratic renewal;

RECOGNIZING the election of this or that party and "coalition politics" blocks society's path to progress since political parties or coalitions formed to come to power themselves conciliate with the anachronistic democratic institutions whose aim is to deprive the people of power;

RECOGNIZING that the first step of democratic renewal is for workers to lead the way by creating their own mechanisms of political change, establishing their own agenda, and selecting candidates to fight for their agenda from amongst their peers – that the line and slogans Accountability Begins at Home! Empower the People! No Election Without Selection! Fund the Process Not the Parties! Become Worker Politicians – Build Renewal Committees! Elect an Anti-War Government! present in the most simplified and concrete way the first steps that need to be taken by all at this time and that workers and their allies organized as worker politicians is the most effective opposition and force for democratic renewal;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE 8TH CONGRESS:

1. Put the full weight of the Party behind its program:

For Us Accountability Begins at Home
Empower the People!
No Election Without Selection!
Fund the Process Not the Parties!
Become a Worker Politician – Build Renewal Committees!
Elect an Anti-War Government!

2. Put the full weight of the Party behind the building of renewal committees:

1) established from the ranks of peers within places of work, educational institutions, neighbourhoods and amongst seniors;

2) conducting their work based on practical politics and non-partisan mass political mobilization to unite the people in action for democratic renewal;

3. Provide the following mandate to the national leader of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada:

1) be responsible for the profile of the MLPC as a party of Canadian renewal;

2) represent the MLPC during and between elections at all official functions;

3) be a resource person available to speak at the request of national, regional and local organizations;

4) establish a public relations office of the National Leader to deal with media and inquiries from the public;

5) issue communiqués of the MLPC on a regular basis;

6) educate the members of the MLPC and the public on the Canada Elections Act, theories of governance and related issues;

7) endorse all MLPC candidates during a federal election;

8) make sure the MLPC is at all times in conformity with the Elections Act.

4. Mandate the executive of the MLPC to consolidate the National Office of the MLPC, renovate the website of the MLPC, conduct membership campaigns and go all out to participate in federal elections with the aim of electing an effective workers' opposition and anti-war government.

On Party Building

Recognizing that the thesis put forward in the Report on the Work of the Central Committee Laying the Foundations of the Mass Communist Party – Leninist Organizational Principles is the work to establish the Party's mass membership, strengthen inner Party life and professionalize the work of Party-building so as to raise the organizational leadership of the Party to the level of its political program and slogans;

Recognizing that to transform CPC(M-L) into a mass communist party is essential at this time:

The 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)

1) Adopts the Report on the Work of the Central Committee Laying the Foundations of the Mass Communist Party – Leninist Organizational Principles

2) Entrusts the 8th Central Committee with the following work:

1. Pay attention to the quality of CPC(M-L) members;

2. Strengthen the Party by ensuring all organizational work is put on a sound ideological and political basis;

3. Make certain the organizational leadership is equal to the task of ensuring the realization of the political slogans and decisions of the Party.

3) Mandates the Central Committee to achieve the following tasks:

1. An extensive review of all the measures taken to consolidate inner Party life since 1970 in general and 1985 in particular. This review must put the full weight of the Party behind the May 7th Branch of the Central Committee so that it can do the work necessary to educate the Party organizations at every level. This review should be carried out as an extensive criticism and self- criticism and exposure of the defects in the work to consolidate inner Party life. Its aim is to provide the guide to action required to ensure the Party organizations at all levels are constitutionally sound revolutionary instruments of the Party and working class.

2. Ensure that at all levels of the Party's organization, the methods of mass ideological mobilization and mass political mobilization are applied whereby problems of organization are rendered ideologically and politically based on the Party's thinking and outlook in opposition to the traditional bourgeois style of making behaviour the issue.

3. While rectifying and consolidating inner Party life, activities must be carried out in the sole context of mobilizing workers and their allies to take up the program of the Party in the form of concrete slogans and practical politics that organize them to carry out the work at their level.

4. Make certain Party members lead by example based on the guidelines – Collective Work, Individual Responsibility and Learning Together, Working as a Collective, Taking Up Social Responsibility.

5. Verify that the Party's basic organizations pay first rate attention to professionalizing their inner Party life based on agendas set by the membership and by attending to their constant work and to the recruitment and training of new cadre.

6. Ensure all executive committees, secretariats and secretaries are accountable to their membership and the Central Committee to whom they must render accounts and accept its verdict on their work. Only work that has been duly authorized and contributes to realizing the Party's plan of action for the period can be carried out.

7. Confirm that at all times the Party's guidelines are implemented regarding openly discussing ideological and political affairs while maintaining strict discipline and secrecy on organizational matters.

8. Enhance the work of checking up on the fulfilment of decisions. The Party's Control Commission must also fully play its role of making sure that decisions and practice at all levels are consistent with the Party's general line.

9. After due process, administrative measures must be taken to remove recalcitrant elements from the Party ranks. Persuasion should be used where applicable when a person has become non-revolutionary or demoralized. When warranted by the circumstances, disciplinary measures including warning, serious warning, suspension and expulsion must be considered. In cases where the individual or organization refuses to sort out differences within the Party and goes public, an expulsion must also be made public.

10. Based on the measures outlined in this resolution, the constitution of CPC(M-L) must be modernized. The CC is entrusted to draft a constitution and put it forward for adoption by a simple majority of all members after it has been fully discussed within the Party and approved in its entirety.

These measures are aimed at putting everything in place to achieve the transformation of the Party into a mass communist party. By raising the organizational work of the Party to the level of the political leadership required by society at this time, and establishing the Party's mass membership according to sound inner-party life, the work to transform the party into a mass communist party is sure to make great headway.

Unless we go all out under all conditions and circumstances to ensure the decisions of the Party are implemented, time will be squandered and we will fail in our duty to prepare the class for the coming revolutionary storms.

All Out to Transform CPC(M-L) into a Mass Communist Party!