1 THE POLITICAL FERMENT OF THE late-1960s and early-1970s was global in scope, and New Brunswick was not exempt from the radicalism of the era. The New Brunswick Waffle was a group that represented one of the more prominent and significant manifestations of leftist radicalism in the province during the period, and it served as a catalyst for some of the most dramatic events in the province’s political history. The group was a New Brunswick variation on Canadian, continental, and global political trends of the time and sought to introduce New Left and radical socialist critiques to the specific circumstances of New Brunswick; it also fused the Old Left and New Left in the province for the first time.1 During its short lifespan (1970-71), the NB Waffle also managed to precipitate a split within the New Brunswick New Democratic Party (NDP) that had a host of ripple effects on the province’s leftist community as well as anticipating several trends that would emerge on New Brunswick’s political scene during the 1970s such as increased environmental concerns and skepticism about prevalent economic development schemes. Finally, the group made a small but important contribution to the province’s leftist community via generating awareness about the New Left within the provincial NDP. Until recently, however, the NB Waffle has been neglected as a topic of historical inquiry, as almost all of the previous work on the Waffle has focused on the organization in Ontario with some mention of the Waffle in Saskatchewan.2

2 The NB Waffle had its roots in Fredericton’s small but persistent left-wing community during the 1960s, a community that was centred around but not exclusive to the University of New Brunswick (UNB) campus. The first half of the decade witnessed the slow introduction of the New Left to Fredericton, beginning largely with the peace movement and reflected most significantly in the local chapter of Voice of Women, one of the most prominent VOW locals in Atlantic Canada.3 The mid-1960s also saw a flurry of concern at UNB over such matters as nuclear weapons, racial prejudice (particularly in apartheid South Africa), and the Vietnam War.4

3 What distinguished the New Left philosophies that emerged in many places during the 1950s from the socialism of the Old Left? Members of the New Left can be seen as taking the Old Left’s concerns about oppression, exploitation, and inequality and expanding upon them as these ills were viewed as manifesting themselves in myriad forms – not just in class relations and economics. These broadened notions of oppression helped create an emphasis on racial, gender, sexual, and colonial liberation, which were championed as just as fundamental to the wholesale change of society as economic justice.5 Indeed, many New Leftists placed these new struggles ahead of labour struggles because they doubted the revolutionary potential of workers enjoying post-war affluence.6 New Leftists were also skeptical of both post-war social democracy and Soviet-style communism (the latter discredited by the revelations of Stalinist brutality and imperial actions that had occurred during the 1956 invasion of Hungary).7

4 New Left radicalism at UNB received a boost in 1967 with the arrival of an American physics professor named Norman Strax, who would become a national figure during the 1968-69 academic year in a series of events that became known as "The Strax Affair."8 While Strax was often the central figure in coverage of these events, he was hardly the only figure involved. Strax was simply the most senior member of a loose confederation of radicals known as Canadian Struggle for a Democratic Society (CSDS), formed in late 1967 after he led a contingent of 150 UNB students to Washington, DC, for the March on the Pentagon.9 Inspired by the American Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), CSDS was the most notable manifestation of New Left politics in Fredericton and represented an influx of American New Left ideas into UNB.10 As such, CSDS represented an assortment of radicals united around a mutual but vague anti-capitalist and countercultural ethos. Former CSDS member Dan Weston summed up the ideological moorings of CSDS as follows:Basically we were anti-capitalist. . . . Our objective was to turn on as many people as we could to the questions that we were asking and ask these questions in public about how the system runs and the justifications for this system and its worldwide connections and what this is doing to people in general. . . . We felt that the state was covertly fascist and that it was overtly democratic, at least in terms of its façade, and basically organizing was effective when you could force the state to have to live up to its democratic façade.11

5 As the only major left-wing organization at UNB, CSDS became a magnet for radicals and leftists of many stripes who normally would not associate with each other. And by November 1969 this influx of new members into CSDS produced a political schism within the group – a schism initiated by a small collection of Trotskyists. Trotskyism, a variant of communism that stressed that socialism could only be achieved through the use of armed force by the working class, also emphasized that workers were led by a workers’ party, that the revolution was global in scale, and that the creation of a socialist society could be achieved via an uninterrupted "permanent revolution." This approach enjoyed a rise in popularity on campuses throughout the Western world during the late-1960s.12 UNB was not exempt from this trend.

6 The most prominent Trotskyist within CSDS was a member of the UNB physics department named Eustace Mendis, who entered the organization in the summer of 1969. Originally from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Mendis was an experienced Trotskyist, having been involved with the strong Trotskyist movement in Ceylon as well as the Young Socialist Alliance in Madison, Wisconsin, prior to his arrival in Fredericton. Upon his entry into CSDS, Mendis began to expound Trotskyist ideas within the group and he developed a small but vocal base of support among some CSDS followers. The eclectic composition of CSDS, though, became unsustainable and by mid-November an open split had developed between the Trotskyism and ideological socialism of Mendis and his supporters and the more anarchist and socialist-libertarian views of the group’s original backers who rallied around Strax.13

7 The Mendis camp of CSDS decided in early December 1969 to form a new organization that would be overtly socialist. The new organization was called the New Brunswick Socialists (NBS). The NBS had a stated objective of building "a strong Socialist movement on the [UNB] campus and simultaneously to direct the campus activists into the larger left-wing community" and was regarded by local Trotskyist observers as "a central socialist grouping, containing within it left-liberal, social-democratic, ultra left and even Stalinist tendencies in addition to a solid core moving towards Trotskyism." Indeed, Trotskyists quickly consolidated themselves as the leaders of the group.14

8 While the NBS drew some members away from CSDS, the NBS remained small. Approximately 15 people were initially involved in the organization to varying degrees, with about eight of them being actual members. Despite their small numbers, the NBS quickly established a presence within UNB’s student political scene as 1970 began. Literature tables were set up, potential speakers contacted (including prominent Ontario Waffler Mel Watkins, who was unable to make it to Fredericton), and position papers were written and even published in The Brunswickan, UNB’s student newspaper. The Trotskyist leadership of the NBS (namely Mendis and Terry Hamilton-Smith, a student from Ontario) sought to recast the group along Trotskyist lines. To help achieve this goal, Mendis contacted the League for Socialist Action (LSA) headquarters in Toronto in January 1970.15 The LSA was the most prominent Trotskyist organization in Canada at the time, founded in 1960 as a formal fusion of independent Trotskyist branches in Toronto and Vancouver.16 The LSA’s youth wing was known as the Young Socialists (YS), and Mendis expressed a desire to convert the NBS into a YS local.17

9 The process of transforming the NBS into a YS local, though initially met with resistance on the part of some members, was complete by April 1970. For a few months afterwards the Fredericton Young Socialists (FYS) and NBS co-existed with almost identical membership lists, though by July 1970 the NBS had effectively ceased to exist as an actual organization. Just before that, in the spring of 1970, FYSNBS members had shared a mutual interest in involvement within the NDP. Some members, most notably a young married couple Bill and Maxine Ross, were attracted to the NDP by the release of the socialist and nationalist Waffle manifesto the previous year by prominent left-wing party members in Ontario and the increasing activity of the Waffle in that province.18 The Trotskyists in the FYS, meanwhile, were keen to join the NDP out of a commitment to the LSA policy of "entryism."

10 Entryism was a popular strategy amongst much of the Trotskyist movement in the Western world, and was developed largely as a response to what one observer of Trotskyism, Peter Shipley, called "the problems created by the weakness of Trotskyism and its lack of direct appeal for the working class." The rationale behind entryism was that in the absence of mass support for their cause, Trotskyists should attempt to reach the largest number of working class people as possible by entering into and working within their biggest political party, usually a social democratic party. Through entryism it was hoped that Trotskyists could exert some influence over the political opinions of workers and their political organizations.19 The LSA held to entryist tactics and regarded the NDP as the political party by which the largest number of workers could be reached. Upon the creation of the New Party – the name of the interim organization that replaced the old Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and which soon become the NDP – the LSA rallied around the slogan of "win the New Party to a socialist policy."20

11 The decision on the part of the FYS and NBS to enter the local NDP would initiate the formation of the NB Waffle. This move, however, faced one major obstacle: there was, for all intents and purposes, no NDP organization in Fredericton in the spring of 1970. The local NDP riding association was moribund, having not met in two years and no more than five members.21 If the FYS and NBS were going to become involved in the local NDP, they would have to build it first. They set out to contact the few party members in the federal riding of York-Sunbury, the constituency that encompassed Fredericton and its surrounding communities. The most prominent member of the York-Sunbury NDP was Pat Callaghan, who would become a major figure in the NB Waffle. Callaghan, a Scottish-born small business owner in his early-forties, had immigrated to Canada in 1954 and soon after settled in Fredericton. His politics were nurtured in the staunchly left-wing town of Dumbarton on the western end of greater Glasgow and, as he put it, "I was a socialist all my life."22 Callaghan joined the CCF after arriving in Canada, was among the founding members of the New Brunswick NDP in December 1962, and ran as a federal NDP candidate in 1965 and 1968. It was Callaghan whom the FYS and NBS members approached in late April 1970 expressing an interest in joining the NDP.23

12 As a committed socialist, Callaghan was energized by the young leftists who displayed an interest in the NDP. Such was Callaghan’s enthusiasm that FYS member Carol Hamilton-Smith was pleased to report to an LSA colleague in Toronto that he "seems fairly good: he supports Watkins and feels there are too many right-wing elements in the NDP now." The first NDP meeting in York-Sunbury in two years was held almost immediately after the meeting with Callaghan. Callaghan became president while FYS and NBS members secured the other executive positions. The prospect of forming a Waffle group in New Brunswick was also soon discussed. Non-Trotskyist members made the initial push for forming a local Waffle, but the Trotskyist members soon saw a Waffle group as the perfect vehicle for entryism into the NDP and intended to promote Trotskyist policies within the NB Waffle. With the entire membership of the York-Sunbury NDP largely in agreement, the New Brunswick Waffle was unofficially formed in the spring of 1970.24

13 For the remainder of its existence, it is accurate to divide the NB Waffle into two tendencies. One tendency was Trotskyist – those NB Waffle members who were members of the YS within New Brunswick – while the other tendency can best be described as non-Trotskyist simply by virtue of their lack of allegiance to the LSA or YS. The political differences between the two tendencies were rather minimal; what distinguished them were tactics and the degree to which each side could be swayed or not swayed by an outside ideological force. The Trotskyist tendency was dominant within the FYS local in particular and Terry Hamilton-Smith was its most prominent member, especially following the departure of Eustace Mendis from Fredericton in July 1970.25 The non-Trotskyist tendency was led by Pat Callaghan, the Rosses, and eventually a Scottish UNB student and former UNB student council president Alastair Robertson.26

14 During the summer of 1970 the NB Waffle was not yet a distinct group within the New Brunswick NDP, and the group’s members were preoccupied with building the organizational structure of the party in Fredericton. But they were also doing other things. They sought out of Waffle sympathizers in other parts of the province. Bill Ross informed prominent Ontario Waffler Mel Watkins about the NB Waffle’s formation and authored a small article announcing the group’s founding in the July 1970 edition of The Waffle News entitled "You Remember New Brunswick."27 The FYS segment of the NB Waffle involved themselves in Fredericton’s anti-war and feminist movements and at the local high school.28 And the FYS worked to establish YS locals elsewhere in New Brunswick, which laid the founation for the geographic expansion of the NB Waffle beyond Fredericton. A YS local in Charlotte County, centred around Black’s Harbour and Beaver Harbour, grew out of a small collection of socialists initially interested in the NBS in May 1970.29

15 The increasing and open involvement of the FYS in the NDP attracted the attention of Ross Dowson, the LSA’s national secretary. A veteran of the Canadian Trotskyist movement since the 1930s, Dowson was concerned that the extensive FYS involvement in the NDP would result in their expulsion from the party. Dowson communicated this concern to the FYS in June 1970 in a letter advising them to not intervene in the NDP at either the local or provincial level. Indeed, this was the only communication Dowson had with the FYS prior to the summer of 1971. FYS members regarded Dowson’s fears as misplaced and ignored his warnings.30 The disagreement over the degree of caution to be used in the practice of entryism would come to define relations between the FYS and the LSA leadership.

16 The NB Waffle rejuvenated the NDP in York-Sunbury, and party membership in the riding rose to about 25 by September 1970, making the riding home to the second largest NDP membership base in the province (after Northumberland County, where the party had a small base of labour support). By August 1970 the NB Waffle decided to make its official debut. The NB Waffle was officially launched at the NB NDP convention on 12 September 1970 in Fredericton.31 This debut by the NB Waffle came just as the New Brunswick NDP as a whole was preparing for its debut as a political force in the province. The NB NDP had been founded in 1962, yet financial and organizational difficulties, coupled with weak public support, prevented the party from seriously contesting a provincial election (no candidates were run in 1963 while only three ran in 1967). The party had also been leaderless since 1968.32 In 1970, however, the party felt ready to make a full-fledged effort in the next provincial election, which came that fall.

17 At the same convention where the NB Waffle made its debut, J. Albert Richardson, a 33-year-old woods contractor from the Miramichi, was elected as party leader. The election of a new provincial council saw Wafflers win several important positions in the party, including Pat Callaghan as president and Maxine Ross as executive secretary. The NB Waffle also presented several policy resolutions to the convention that won support, including a call for a $2.00 minimum wage, limits on media ownership, the creation of Crown corporations for the natural resource sector, and a resolution in favour of women’s liberation. A Waffle resolution on industrial democracy, however, received a less enthusiastic response and was referred to the new executive for further study. A resolution supporting the Waffle manifesto was defeated by a vote of 24 to 18, with 10 abstentions.33

18 The NB NDP ran 31 candidates in the 1970 election (there were 58 seats in the province in total), almost all of them in anglophone ridings and primarily in areas where the party had a degree of union or Waffle strength. Richardson campaigned on a moderate socialist platform and confidently predicted that the NDP would win seven or eight seats. The results on election night, 26 October, proved disappointing as the party won only 2.8 per cent of the popular vote and failed to come close to winning any seats.34 In spite of the NDP’s poor electoral showing, though, the party did establish itself as a minor political force in anglophone New Brunswick after the 1970 election.

19 The NB Waffle spent the next few months after the election building itself up in the province and assisting the Waffle elsewhere, namely through helping James Laxer, one of the authors of the Ontario Waffle manifesto, in his campaign for federal NDP leader in early 1971.35 NB Waffle members also became involved in a union-organizing drive at the Connors Brothers sardine plant in Black’s Harbour. By November 1970 the YS local in the Black’s Harbour area had become the nucleus of a local Waffle group, which won control of the Carleton-Charlotte NDP riding association. The NB Waffle was attracting new members to the NDP in the province at a relatively rapid pace, and by February 1971 the two Waffle-dominated ridings had the first and second highest number of party members in New Brunswick. That the building of both the NDP and NB Waffle in these ridings occurred simultaneously indicates that in many parts of New Brunswick the NDP was an empty shell of an organization and the NB Waffle was effectively filling in many of the gaps. Waffle supporters were also identified in Moncton and Saint John, and in early 1971 YS locals were also established in Saint John and Sackville (though the latter was short-lived).36

20 The NB Waffle’s ability to attract new members to the NB NDP offers insights into the nature of the NDP in provinces where the party was weak during the 1960s and the first few years of the 1970s. The NDP and its predecessor the CCF were ideologically rooted parties, and within such parties there is always a tension between those who demand ideological purity at the cost of electoral success and those who advocate ideological flexibility within the larger aim of enacting change through victory. As Robert Hackett suggests in his study of the Ontario Waffle, there is a "general tendency in the CCF/NDP for a ‘movement’ orientation to prevail in regions or periods of scanty electoral success." Hackett adds that this movement-orientation is aided in such regions by two factors: the absence of a strong party apparatus (namely elected NDP politicians, who are often wary of a movement-oriented party) and the absence of a NDP organization that is a contender for power and thus more likely to attract political opportunists with political ambitions that supersede ideological conviction.37

21 New Brunswick in 1971 was just the sort of region and time period to which Hackett refers, and almost all New Democrats in the province could be said to have had a movement vision for the party (although there were significant differences among their visions). Even trade unionist NB Waffle opponents within the party were still committed to idea of a labour movement party. The excitement of long-time party members like Pat Callaghan towards the influx of radicals into the NDP, and the support that certain NB Waffle policies had among the bulk of the party membership, serve as testimony to the general movement-orientation of the NDP in New Brunswick.

22 Though the NB Waffle expanded into other parts of New Brunswick, Fredericton remained the movement’s geographic centre. By early 1971, local Wafflers were becoming a permanent fixture in the city’s activist scene. In February 1971 alone, the group participated in a local pro-choice march and a protest against the American invasion of Laos.38 Fredericton Waffle members were meeting on a regular basis, often at Pat Callaghan’s home. According to Callaghan, these meetings were often accompanied by the drinking of homemade beer and the smoking of marijuana, and he recalled "there was quite a few meetings where you didn’t have to bring any [pot] with ya. All you had to do was inhale."39 Among those new Waffle members who were attending these meetings was the aforementioned Alastair Robertson, who soon became a prominent member of the group.40

23 The growing strength of the NB Waffle did not go unnoticed by moderate party members. The president of the Chatham NDP, Ray LeBreton, commented in an open letter in March 1971 that "it would appear that we have a Waffle movement within our party ranks. This, I feel, we will have to contend with." He also stated that he would "fight tooth and nail against anything that would hinder the party’s chances of electing New Democrat MLAs" and called upon J. Albert Richardson to "take a strong step in coming to grips with the tension that is building up within this party."41 This tension became evident that same month at a policy meeting held on 14 March in Renforth, outside of Saint John.

24 The meeting produced the first open split within the party. A Waffle resolution calling for the removal of marijuana possession from the Narcotics Control Act and for the government-administered sale of the drug was passed by a vote of 20 to 8. A subsequent motion to table the resolution to allow for more debate and discussion was defeated by a similar margin. The meeting’s coordinator, Waffler Gary Zatzman, declared that all resolutions passed at the meeting were to automatically become party policy. J. Albert Richardson, who was unable to attend the meeting due to snow conditions, stated upon hearing this that only resolutions passed at conventions became party policy. The resolution on marijuana possession was later ratified at a council meeting in Fredericton, but the others were not recognized by Richardson and other moderates, who accused Wafflers of manipulating the party’s constitution. The split within the party became public and both Callaghan and Richardson called for each other’s resignation. This division, however, was resolved by the end of March 1971, with both sides concluding that any disagreements were of "a minor nature" – though it was more of a ceasefire than a peace treaty. It had become obvious that a struggle for control of the party had emerged and that it would have to be addressed and settled at the party’s next convention, which was scheduled for late September.42

25 The Trotskyist section of the NB Waffle sought to increase its influence over the rest of the group during the spring of 1971, perhaps in part because the recent conflict within the NDP was initiated by non-Trotskyist members (as most of the Trotskyists had been attending a conference in Halifax on the weekend of the Renforth meeting). They also feared that the non-Trotskyist Wafflers would lose the will to fight for control of the party and thus tried to prepare the NB Waffle for a battle with the moderates over NDP party policy and executive positions at the September convention. The Trotskyists also encouraged the NB Waffle to make a foray into municipal politics by running candidates in the June 1971 civic elections. Nine NDP members, six of whom were YS members, ran for positions in Fredericton and Charlotte County.43

26 These activities on the part of New Brunswick Trotskyists did not go unnoticed by LSA national secretary Ross Dowson. Having already expressed his concerns the previous year to the FYS about the risks of operating too openly, Dowson reiterated these concerns in a letter in July 1971. Dowson was convinced that a "wave of radicalization" was sweeping across Canada, that this was reflected within the NB NDP, and that any expulsion of Trotskyists from the party would "constitute a serious rupture in our work to further radicalize the NDP." Dowson urged the FYS to adopt a more cautious policy of working within the NB Waffle and NB NDP.44 But Dowson’s concerns met with little sympathy in New Brunswick. New Brunswick Trotskyists claimed that they were strong enough to withstand any expulsion attempt. They thought that Dowson did not understand the situation of the left in New Brunswick, which was assessed by Terry Hamilton-Smith as being small enough and radical enough to make "formulations which would be anathema in Ontario" acceptable in the province. Dowson was regarded as trying to force a strategy designed for Trotskyists in Toronto upon Trotskyists in Fredericton, and he was simply ignored.45

27 By late-August 1971, the NB Waffle was preparing for a victory within the NB NDP at the party’s convention (scheduled for the weekend of 25-26 September 1971 in Saint John).46 The group would seek the election of a full slate of Wafflers to all party offices and the passage of their manifesto and platform, which was crafted on the eve of the convention.47 The NB Waffle manifesto, entitled "For a Socialist New Brunswick," presented an uncompromising assault on the political and economic status quo in the province as of 1971. Previous provincial governments were attacked for maintaining low wages, pitiful welfare provisions, and using tax dollars to entice capital to locate in New Brunswick. Corporations, both local and non-local, were accused of exploiting New Brunswick’s labour force and natural resources and of wreaking environmental destruction. Ottawa-inspired regional economic plans were derided as plots intended to promote planned capitalist underdevelopment. The manifesto called for these economic and political wrongs to be remedied by socialism, defined as "the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange under workers’ control, with production for need rather than profit." The NDP was to play a key role in the introduction of socialism by unifying the powerless and exploited with a socialist analysis and program. The manifesto then presented a synopsis of the NB Waffle’s resolutions and a declaration of solidarity with Quebec nationalists and various "national liberation struggles." The manifesto concluded: "We call upon all the oppressed and exploited people of our province to join with us and our sisters and brothers elsewhere in Canada and throughout the world in this struggle for a government of the working class. Its achievement will be a world in which the dominion of the many by the few, that blight of all times past, is ended."48

28 The manifesto was augmented by seven policy resolutions that articulated in greater detail the recommendations of the manifesto in addition to other concerns. The economic resolutions were aimed at creating a fusion of state-directed socialism with workers’ control and industrial democracy. The nationalization or bringing into common ownership of essentially the entire economy was advocated and, in all cases, was to be done without compensation.49 Co-operatives were also celebrated for their "anti-capitalist, socially-oriented nature."50 This blending of top-down socialism with grassroots collectivism was also present in the group’s resolution on housing, which called for a massive program of public housing along with the encouragement of housing co-operatives and the democratic control of housing projects.51

29 The resolution on trade unions and the organization of labour was certainly reflective of its Trotskyist author. It emphasized trade unions as a major vehicle for working class political action and called for the leadership of unions by a socialist party as well as "the formation within unions of a militant, politically-conscious and socialist leadership" and the affiliation of trade unions and their members with the NDP along with the unconditional support of the party for all strikes.52 While the resolution on women’s rights also had a Trotskyist author, its content had broad left-wing appeal. It promoted equal pay for equal work and an end to sex-based pay discrimination, the provision of maternity leave with full pay, 24-hour childcare centres, and free abortion on demand.53 The planks contained within the women’s rights resolution were actually accepted by most party members, part of a larger trend within the NDP at the time in which the party became the political vehicle of much of the feminist movement.54 One Waffle opponent recalled that the group’s abortion stance was the NB Waffle policy most embraced by the party following the group’s demise.55

30 The resolution on cultural affairs called for government support of artists, the "elimination of all private profit-making and entrepreneurial exploitation" of artists, common ownership of cultural enterprises and institutions, and an end to all censorship.56 It was in the resolution on education, though, where the left-libertarian and counter-cultural influences in the NB Waffle were most evident. The resolution on education advocated the abolition of compulsory education "except for the requirement that children complete, at some time between the ages of five and ten years, a program of appropriate length, not to exceed three years, suitably designed to develop basic language and mathematical skills." The elimination of all forms of grading, streaming, and competitive evaluation in educational institutions was also demanded.57

31 The content of the NB Waffle manifesto set it ideologically apart from the Ontario Waffle in some significant ways. The Ontario Waffle manifesto, officially entitled "For an Independent and Socialist Canada," called for major state ownership and planning in the economy; thus, while it clearly sat on the left of the Canadian political spectrum, it could hardly be described as Marxist or revolutionary. Moreover, apart from its tirades against the American empire and acknowledgement of political changes in Quebec, it was primarily an economic document focused on foreign ownership of the Canadian economy and its implications for Canadian sovereignty. The Ontario manifesto’s call for worker participation in the workplace was a common practice in Western Europe, and the blending of Canadian political and economic independence was a major theme in traditional Canadian conservatism of the Tory sort; the Ontario Waffle was merely giving this conservative tradition a socialist reorientation. Indeed, some of the concerns raised by the Ontario Waffle, particularly in regards to foreign ownership, became widely accepted concerns among a cross-section of Canadians during the 1970s and even made their way in a muted form into some of the economic policies of Pierre Trudeau.58 While the manifesto cannot be dismissed as mere rhetoric, and while it did advance a plan for a democratic socialist Canada, it paled in comparison to "For a Socialist New Brunswick" – both in terms of the latter’s scope and its extreme positions. Moderate New Brunswick New Democrats who thought they would be contending with an NB Waffle manifesto similar to the one introduced in Ontario would be surprised.

32 As the convention approached, however, the Trotskyist wing of the group was thrown into confusion. On 1 September 1971 the Central Executive Council (CEC) of the YS, based in Toronto, suspended "from all rights of membership but not from any of the obligations of membership," the members of the Fredericton and Halifax YS locals, with an investigation by a YS-established commission to follow. The most serious charge against the FYS was that the nature of the local’s work within the NDP went against LSA/YS policy.59 Upon hearing news of its’ members suspension, FYS officials were not sure whether working within the NDP constituted a "right" that was to be abandoned or an "obligation" that was supposed to be continued. The FYS sought clarification on the matter in a letter sent to the CEC on 22 September 1971, the urgency of the matter intensified by the approaching convention.60 Uncertain as to what to do, the FYS began to withdraw from involvement in the NB Waffle. Non-Trotskyist Wafflers resented this move, and one Waffler described the FYS’s actions as "coitus interruptus."61 Still uncertain of their role in regards to the NDP, a few YS members attended the NB NDP convention in Saint John.62

33 All of the leading figures within the non-Trotskyist wing of the NB Waffle were among the 89 delegates who attended the NB NDP convention.63 On the morning of 25 September, four Waffle resolutions were voted on first, with mixed reactions from the delegates. The resolution on labour and workers’ organization was referred back to the party’s committee. The resolution on education was narrowly defeated, while the resolutions on housing and women’s rights were passed by wide margins. After a lunch break and votes on a few non-Waffle resolutions, there was the vote on the NB Waffle manifesto itself. The manifesto was passed by a vote of 41-40, with four abstentions.64

34 Both Wafflers and non-Wafflers expressed shock following the vote. Alastair Robertson admitted to members of the media present that he was "surprised" and that they "didn’t expect the support that [they] got."65 NB Waffle opponents were also caught completely off-guard by the Waffle manifesto victory. Barrie Hould, a railway union organizer from Moncton, recalled that while everyone knew that the NB Waffle would make a showing at the convention, they expected that the group would be nothing more than a mild irritant. As he stated: "We felt that everything was secure and that we were going to be able to do our thing and this group would have a voice and the rest of it but they would never reach the point at which they could organize and throw a convention. So ‘whoops’– it happened."66

35 For NB Waffle opponents, the passage of the manifesto transgressed the limits of social democracy. Moncton and District Labour Council President David Webster claimed that the manifesto "crossed the line" between socialism and communism while J. Albert Richardson denounced the manifesto as "totalitarian" and maintained that it would be revoked. Those who opposed the NB Waffle manifesto expressed their dissatisfaction further with their feet. Nine labour delegates immediately walked out of the convention and others soon joined them, and the convention was soon denied enough delegates for quorum. With the convention in shambles, an NB NDP provincial council meeting was hastily organized that included those delegates who originally walked out.67 It was agreed that the convention should be postponed and continued in Fredericton on 16 October.68 With the NB NDP convention postponed, both sides left determined to secure a final victory within the party.

36 Anti-Waffle forces sought assistance from the federal NDP, which was informed of what happened in New Brunswick by the convention’s guest speaker, Saskatchewan New Democrat Member of Parliament A.P. Gleave.69 A petition signed by 28 anti-Waffle party members expressing their grievances was sent to the federal party within a week of the Saint John convention.70 Federal NDP secretary Clifford Scotton became entangled in the split within the NB NDP when he attended an anti-Waffle meeting in Moncton on 3 October with about 30 other party members. Scotton scolded trade unionists in attendance for failing to prevent the Waffle victory and expressed concern over what sort of repercussions the events in New Brunswick might have on the NDP’s performance in the Ontario election, which was to be held in mid-October.71 The impact of the NB NDP split on NDP prospects elsewhere in Canada appeared to be the federal NDP’s primary concern, as the NB NDP was urged to wait until after the Ontario election and a federal by-election in Saskatchewan before resolving the dispute.72

37 Scotton offered to act as a mediator between the two sides of the NB NDP split, and suggested that the 16 October convention be suspended so that the federal NDP executive could hear submissions from all parties involved in the dispute.73 Non-Wafflers were comfortable with this proposition, but Wafflers felt otherwise. Pat Callaghan, now party leader according to the Wafflers, defiantly declared that the NB NDP convention would continue on 16 October as planned and that "provincial matters should be referred to [the] provincial president, not [the] federal secretary."74 Upon hearing Callaghan’s response, the non-Waffle members of the party executive decided on 10 October in Moncton that the scheduled 16 October meeting would be converted from a convention into a provincial council meeting. Callaghan rejected this move and held that any decisions reached at this meeting would be illegal.75 The split within the NB NDP deepened, with both sides agreeing that a meeting would be held on 16 October while disagreeing over what type of meeting it would be.

38 Maintaining that the meeting scheduled for 16 October would be a continuation of the NB NDP convention, non-Trotskyist Wafflers were making preparations to complete their victory within the party at this meeting. The NB Waffle recruited into the NDP people in the Fredericton area who were supportive of their aims in the hopes of winning over the meeting with raw numbers.76 Pat Callaghan also announced that he would run for the party leadership at the meeting as well.77 The Trotskyist wing of the NB Waffle, meanwhile, was still uncertain as to how to deal with the emerging split within the party. The FYS disagreed with LSA national secretary Ross Dowson’s fear that the NB Waffle would precipitate a split within the NB NDP and thus ruin the party as a vehicle for Trotskyist influence.78 Dowson communicated with the local in the week after the Saint John convention yet offered little in the way of concrete advice on how to proceed. The FYS decided to err on the side of caution and cease all involvement in the NDP.79

39 From early October onward the NB Waffle ceased to function as a united entity. The group was effectively split into Trotskyist and non-Trotskyist factions. The split was based almost entirely upon the willingness of each faction to continue or cease the intensifying battle with the moderate wing of the NB NDP as well as the federal party leadership. Moreover, the Trotskyist influence within the NB Waffle had completely evaporated. The non-Trotskyist wing of the group was frustrated by what they saw as the Trotskyist’s bending to LSA/YS dictates to the detriment of the NB Waffle. When Dowson instructed the FYS to intervene in the NB Waffle on 11 October (in the hopes of steering it away from a battle with the rest of the NB NDP), the animosity between the two camps within the group became open warfare. The non-Trotskyist wing of the NB Waffle suggested that the FYS members either break ranks with the LSA/YS or face reprisals. This threat was made clear on 15 October at a Waffle meeting in Fredericton, where the main item of business was the removal of Terry Hamilton-Smith as the York-Sunbury constituency representative on the provincial council. The rationale for this move was to prevent Hamilton-Smith from intervening against the NB Waffle at the provincial council meeting scheduled for the next day.80

40 The NB NDP meeting of 16 October in Fredericton (held at the University of New Brunswick’s Carleton Hall) went ahead as planned, though it became a series of meetings. The first meeting, held in the morning, was an ad hoc provincial council meeting called by Pat Callaghan himself, which was attended by about 10 members and only recognized as legitimate by Waffle members. All those in attendance adjourned the meeting to participate in what they saw as the continuation of the convention, which was scheduled for the afternoon.81 Following this brief ad hoc gathering, though, the non-Waffle wing of the party held a provincial council meeting that they recognized as legitimate, with about 45 party members in attendance (including some Wafflers – presumably as observers). A motion was voted on and passed at this council meeting that called for a special party convention to be held in Chatham on 27 November, the vote tally being twenty-nine in favour, ten against, and two abstentions. The purpose of the special convention would be to settle the dispute sparked at the Saint John convention. With a special convention scheduled, the meeting adjourned.82

41 The NB Waffle, however, regarded this meeting as invalid, and proceeded with what they asserted was the continuation of the NB NDP convention – in the same room as the previous provincial council meeting. The resumed convention was essentially a large Waffle meeting, attended by 74 people, which reflected the recent recruitment drive by Fredericton Wafflers.83 The meeting featured a heated exchange between several Waffle members and Peggy Prowse, a Nova Scotian member of the federal NDP executive, during which she attacked the "Communist Party" members who were infiltrating the NB NDP. The meeting concluded with Pat Callaghan being elected as party leader with 63 votes compared to two votes for J. Albert Richardson (who was nominated in absentia). Alastair Robertson was acclaimed as party president.84 As a result of the events of 16 October, the NB NDP was completely split, with both Richardson and Callaghan claiming to be party leader and possessing rival party executives. Both the non-Waffle wing of the NB NDP and the federal NDP declared that the reconvened convention had no validity.85 The non-Waffle wing requested that the federal NDP do what it could to assist them at their next federal council meeting, which was scheduled for 12-14 November in Ottawa, and the federal NDP agreed to do so.86

42 As the NB NDP split apart, so too did the NB Waffle. The FYS was effectively cut out of the group, and Terry Hamilton-Smith told the LSA/YS leadership that their decision to suspend the FYS represented "the single largest setback" to the work of the Trotskyist movement in New Brunswick. The FYS viewed the LSA/YS leadership as having acted in such a manner as to nullify the progress that the local had made within the NB NDP during the previous year and a half. In a letter to the Political Committee of the LSA, Hamilton-Smith stated:The only effects of the application of this line have been to pluck us out of the leadership of the Waffle, to undercut our work in the Waffle, to diminish our influence in the N.B. labour and student movements and to alienate a number of contacts from us who are potential recruits to the LSA/LSO or YS/LJS. With our diminished influence we can predict that the application of this line will have a totally insignificant effect on the present struggle in the NDP except to render our own role ineffective. As long as this particular line remains in force we will be crippled in New Brunswick.87

43 The position of the FYS was clear: the LSA/YS leadership was taking an approach towards the NDP that was killing the Trotskyist movement in New Brunswick. According to the FYS, the Trotskyist leadership itself aborted an impending victory.88 It was obvious to many in the FYS, and indeed in the LSA/YS elsewhere in Canada, that the veteran leadership of the movement was more interested in preventing an expulsion of Trotskyists from the NDP than they were in forwarding a more radical program for the party.89

44 Fears of a wholesale expulsion of Trotskyists from the NDP were exacerbated at the 12-14 November NDP federal council meeting. Five NB NDP members made the trip to Ottawa to be at the meeting: Pat Callaghan, Alastair Robertson, and Ronald Lees represented the pro-Waffle side while J. Albert Richardson and John Boyle represented the anti-Waffle side.90 Prominent members of the NDP in attendance were not sympathetic to the NB Waffle. Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis blamed the NB Waffle for generating bad press that had contributed to the party’s disappointing showing in the recent Ontario election.91 Federal NDP leader David Lewis launched a passionate attack upon the NB Waffle manifesto, stating that it "may be Maoist, or Trots or simply old-fashioned Communism, but whatever it is, it isn’t New Democratic."92 Following Lewis’s tirade, the following motion was passed by the federal council by a vote of thirty-nine to five, with three abstentions: "That until such time as the New Brunswick NDP can produce evidence satisfactory to the federal NDP officers, that they have conducted a proper convention, that we do not have a New Brunswick NDP."93 With the passage of this motion, the NB NDP was suspended until the special convention scheduled for 27 November in Chatham.

45 The non-Trotskyist wing of the NB Waffle was outraged at the decision made by the NDP’s federal council. Pat Callaghan claimed that the party’s constitution had been violated, as it provided for fully autonomous provincial sections. He did not keep his displeasure with the federal NDP secret either, telling the provincial media that it was up to the people of New Brunswick "to decide whether to accept or reject our policies, not David Lewis or the union brass of Ontario." Callaghan was not optimistic about the NB Waffle’s future within the NB NDP, as he expected the non-Waffle forces to muster enough strength at the Chatham special convention to overwhelm the group. Sensing that the end of the NB Waffle’s position within the NB NDP was near, non-Trotskyist Wafflers considered the alternatives. Some members entertained the possibility of forming a separate party, and Callaghan talked about reviving the CCF in New Brunswick. The future of the NB Waffle would be decided at a meeting scheduled by group members for 21 November in Fredericton.94

46 The Trotskyist wing of the NB Waffle, meanwhile, was trying its best (and failing) to convince the members of the NB Waffle to recognize the authority of the NDP federal council, to remain within the NB NDP "at all costs," and to attend the 27 November special convention. In response to the Trotskyists’ insistence that peace be made with the moderates within the party, an active "Trot-baiting" campaign, by which those in sympathy with these aims were sought out and exposed, was launched by non-Trotskyist Wafflers following the NB NDP suspension. Having been so instrumental in creating the NB Waffle, the Trotskyists of the FYS now felt as though they had created a monster that they could no longer control. The FYS prepared to force a split of the NB Waffle at the 21 November meeting. Their plan was to then form a new NB Waffle that would attempt to remain within the NB NDP. The new Waffle would adopt the Ontario Waffle manifesto with a modified labour resolution, and would attend the Chatham special convention in the hope of making amends with the rest of the NB NDP and thus avoid an expulsion.95

47 When the NB Waffle met on 21 November in Fredericton to determine its future, the demoralization of the group was evident in the fact that just over 30 people were in attendance, less than half the number who attended the 16 October meeting. Following an exchange of views concerning what to do as a group, the FYS presented a motion that called for recognition of the federal council’s authority and its decisions as well as for Waffle members to attend the special convention. The motion passed by a vote of 17 to 14.96 The FYS had managed to gain control over the remains of the NB Waffle while the non-Trotskyist Wafflers accepted the vote and retreated from the group.

48 There were 17 Wafflers, including 6 Trotskyist members, among the delegates at the NB NDP special convention in Chatham on 27 November. None of the prominent non-Trotskyist Wafflers such as Pat Callaghan attended. The primary aim of the Trotskyists in attendance was to avoid the expulsion of any Waffle supporters, an aim that compelled Trotskyist members to cut deals with non-Waffle members. J. Albert Richardson was acclaimed as party leader and the newly elected provincial council featured no Trotskyist members and only two Waffle supporters. Former Ontario NDP leader Donald MacDonald, now a member of the NDP federal council, observed the convention for the federal NDP and declared the gathering to be valid. At an executive meeting held immediately after the convention, it was decided that the leading NB Waffle members ought to be expelled. Seven names were put forward, including Pat Callaghan, Alastair Robertson, and Bill Ross. MacDonald suggested that the matter be handled "like we do it in Ontario" by simply allowing the membership of those in question to expire and not be renewed. With the adoption of this move, the split within the NB NDP came to an end.97

49 The month after the Chatham special convention witnessed the complete unraveling of the NB Waffle. The two Waffle-dominated riding associations (York-Sunbury and Carleton-Charlotte) were in shambles.98 The prominent non-Trotskyist members of the group largely removed themselves from political activity. Pat Callaghan, having denounced the Chatham special convention as "a sham and a fiasco," resigned as president of the York-Sunbury NDP in February 1972 and considered leaving the NDP to join the newly formed Parti Acadien.99 Alastair Robertson withdrew entirely from the NDP and, as a student from Scotland, would soon be leaving New Brunswick anyway. Two Wafflers, Jay Baxter and Gary Zatzman, formed a small "revolutionary" group in Fredericton, but it attracted limited support. The FYS, meanwhile, were never able to put their plans for the truncated NB Waffle into action. The battle between the LSA/YS leadership and the FYS had all but obliterated the Trotskyist movement in New Brunswick. By the end of 1971, only the Fredericton local of the YS remained in the province and it had no more than nine members.100 Any mention of the NB Waffle at FYS meetings ceased by mid-December, as the local became preoccupied with work at Fredericton High School and appealing the censure of the local.101 By the beginning of 1972, the NB Waffle was dead.

50 Following its brief and caustic life, the NB Waffle left a varied mark upon the NB NDP. The most obvious change initiated within the NB NDP by the NB Waffle was in the shift in terms of composition of the party. The end of the NB Waffle reduced Fredericton and Charlotte County as major bases of NDP activity and shifted geographic control of the party to Moncton, Sackville, Saint John, and Miramichi. This geographic shift within the party was aided in part by the movement of many trade unionists into the NB NDP, very few of whom lived in areas of Waffle strength. The bulk of New Brunswick’s labour movement had little interest in the NDP prior to the 1970s, but the dispute with the NB Waffle prompted many trade unionists to take a more active role in the party – in part to prevent a similar radical takeover in the future. The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) pressured the New Brunswick Federation of Labour (NBFL) to participate more actively in the NB NDP, and the CLC sent a staff person to organize support for the party in the heavily unionized Bathurst area. The party executive elected at the Chatham special convention included more trade unionists than ever before, and there was a slight movement of NBFL officials into the party and an increase in the number of NDP-affiliated locals in the province.102 Simply put, the NB Waffle contributed to further rooting the provincial labour movement in the NB NDP by scaring its senior leadership into more active support for the party.

51 The NB Waffle had mixed results when it came to the role of the New Left in the NB NDP. The New Left in New Brunswick had little use for the NDP prior to the NB Waffle. The NB Waffle sought to make the NDP a relevant political vehicle for New Left radicals and encouraged many anglophone New Leftists in New Brunswick to pay attention to the party for the first time. The chaotic events of late 1971, however, eradicated the notion of the NB NDP as a useful political vehicle among many New Leftists for some time.

52 The NB Waffle did, however, force the NB NDP to become more aware of and acknowledge the existence of the New Left and its concerns, namely feminism, the environment, and the negative impacts of societal institutionalization. Prior to the NB Waffle, the NB NDP was rather oblivious to New Left concerns or analysis, and the group gave the party a crash course in New Left radicalism. The popularity of NB Waffle policies on such matters as women’s’ liberation, as demonstrated by the wide support that certain resolutions received at the Saint John convention, suggest that the group was capable of influencing a cross-section of the established NB NDP membership in some areas. While New Left radicals may have been disappointed by the outcome of the NB Waffle episode, the group may have paved the way for more moderate New Leftists to find a permanent political home in the party as the 1970s progressed. Non-economic concerns championed by the NB Waffle, namely women’s issues103 and environmentalism, became centrepieces of NB NDP policy after John LaBossiere, a teacher from Kent County, replaced Richardson as party leader in 1976.104

53 The impact of the NB Waffle on the Canadian Trotskyist movement was more immediate and severe than on the NB NDP. The nascent Trotskyist movement in New Brunswick was fully discredited by the actions of the LSA leadership in the fall of 1971, and the YS had disappeared from the province by the end of 1972.105 Fallout from the manner in which Ross Dowson and the LSA leadership handled the NB Waffle victory extended beyond New Brunswick, as the NB Waffle episode became a reference point for Canadian Trotskyists who were skeptical of the LSA’s entryist strategy towards the NDP. Debate about the LSA actions towards the NB Waffle emerged in Ontario in particular in 1972 and 1973 as the Trotskyist movement suffered further setbacks in their interventions within the NDP in general and the Waffle in particular.106

54 One of the first tirades about the LSA leadership’s treatment of the NB Waffle and the province’s Trotskyists, for instance, was penned by Walter Davis, a member of the Toronto West local, in November 1972. He accused the LSA Political Committee of practicing a failed line towards the NDP that "led to a debacle that has set back the left in [New Brunswick] for years to come." He concluded: "The tailism of the leadership caused the LSA to miss important opportunities for adding to the forces of Trotskyism in Canada. How many times will this be the case? The 1971 repression of the New Brunswick Waffle was led by the united forces of [David] Lewis-[Mel] Watkins-Dowson. The first two stand historically convicted of crimes against the revolution. The last must answer to the future."107

55 Davis was joined by another Toronto West local member, Bret Smiley, for a co-written assault on the entryist policy of the LSA. They argued that the LSA’s policy towards the NDP was "criminal" as it made the Trotskyist movement vulnerable to absorption by reformist social democrats.108 Don Van Wart, a member of the FYS, took the mounting criticisms of the LSA’s policy of entryism towards the NDP a step further, suggesting that it was not about "winning the NDP to socialism" at all, but solely about seeking shelter within the NDP. Van Wart implied that the stated aims of entryism were a sham and stated "the LSA/LSO policy is one of political liquidation into the NDP in exchange for minor areas of organizational control (i.e., Left Caucus) and security (i.e., not being expelled). The actual content of ‘Win the NDP to socialism’ is the loss of the LSA to social democracy."109

56 The Canadian Trotskyist movement had always had those who doubted the value of entryism – who worried that it would reduce Trotskyists to paying lip service to revolution while living in constant fear of offending social democratic forces. The NB Waffle episode offered a real-life case study for opponents of entryism to which they could now point. The events provoked by the NB Waffle thus caused an intensification of the debate around entryism within the LSA, the ultimate impact of which was to discredit Dowson and other veteran LSA leaders among many Canadian Trotskyists and thus contribute to the fracturing of the LSA itself in 1973.110

57 The NB Waffle reflected the unique role of the NDP in Canadian leftist and radical politics during this era. For such a radical organization to become actively and eagerly involved in the machinery of a political party, and in many cases having to construct that very machinery, is something that certainly separates the Canadian New Left from its American counterpart. There was a parliamentary socialist tradition in Canada, represented in the CCF and NDP, that made party politics a more attractive option for Canadian radical leftists. As Myrna Kostash puts it, the Canadian New Left "was not, thanks to the social democratic tradition, sentenced like the Americans to rootless improvisations of radicalism."111 The NDP ended up providing a common forum where various generations of leftists gathered. This was particularly the case in provinces like New Brunswick, where the NDP was weak and thus lacked a professional institutional apparatus – as it had elsewhere in Canada – that may have dissuaded more extreme radicals from joining the party. This combination of a Canadian parliamentary left tradition and the weakness of the primary left party (the NDP) in New Brunswick greatly helped to determine both the path chosen by the NB Waffle and its ultimate fate.

58 Although it can be said to have been less than a success, the NB Waffle’s efforts at least made possible the idea that the NDP could become a bridge between the Old Left and the New Left in anglophone New Brunswick. The NB Waffle attempted, albeit in a rather hasty and unsophisticated manner, to marry the NB NDP to the growing social and radical ferment emerging in New Brunswick during the late-1960s and early-1970s, and in doing so paved the way for the broadening of the NB NDP’s left-wing base by the late-1970s (albeit not as far to the left as the NB Waffle would have preferred).

59 The NB Waffle was part of the larger continental and global political ferment of that era, and it represented an attempt to develop a New Brunswick-specific variation on existing radical movements, analyses, and strategies. While their prescriptions for the province were generic ultra-left fare, the group still sought to understand the particular nature of the problems facing New Brunswick. The introduction of the NB Waffle manifesto, for instance, denounced explicit features of capitalism in early-1970s New Brunswick, rather than offering a more standard radical attack more suited to the problems of an industrial and highly urbanized economy. This fact is one of the major differences between the manifestos of the New Brunswick Waffle and the Ontario Waffle.

60 The Ontario Waffle, on the pretense of speaking for all of Canada, was really addressing the problems facing the industrial and urban economy of southern Ontario – an economy that was intimately tied to the American industrial economy and one that still operated as the central pivot of the pan-Canadian economy. New Brunswick’s economy, on the other hand, was still dominated by agriculture and resource extraction and processing, and it had little heavy industry. It was also an economy that was in a hinterland relationship with the central Canadian metropolis. Therefore, it would have made little sense for a New Brunswick-based group to adopt wholesale the Ontario Waffle manifesto as a mission statement that was relevant to the province. Indeed, the tailoring of the Ontario Waffle manifesto to suit the reality of hinterland regions was a common theme within the movement across Canada. As Robert Hackett observes, everywhere outside of southern Ontario the Waffle’s focus on "Canada Firstism," or Canadian nationalism, was mediated by regional/hinterland concerns.112 The NB Waffle, therefore, represented a partial "New Brunswickization" of the radical left during the period. The NB Waffle also provided a radical socialist and New Left critique of New Brunswick that anticipated the growing skepticism towards the status quo, particularly in terms of regional economic development policy, that emerged in the Maritimes during the 1970s.113

61 The story of the NB Waffle adds much towards our understanding of New Brunswick’s political history and culture. The group places anglophone New Brunswick within a larger stream of the leftist radicalism of the late-1960s and early-1970s yet also reveals the degree to which there was a unique New Brunswick variation on this radicalism. The group marks a shift in New Brunswick’s larger leftist community, in which the Old Left-dominated NDP came into contact with the New Left and in which the extra-parliamentary left was brought closer to formal party politics. The group inadvertently contributed to debates within both the NDP and the Canadian Trotskyist movement – debates that reflected a mix of ideological, tactical, and regional tensions. Finally, the story of the NB Waffle demonstrates that there is still much to be gained in our understanding of New Brunswick’s political history from a deeper and more thorough examination of the province’s leftist community.

1 The emergence of a New Left that differentiated itself from the Old Left in the late-1950s was provoked by several factors, many of which were tied to the Cold War and post-war economic boom. One was the end of communism, or at least its Soviet variety, as a legitimate model for which Western leftists to strive. This development was confirmed in 1956 by the twin events of the crushing of the Hungarian revolt by Red Army tanks and the revelations of Stalinist brutality. Another factor was disillusionment among more radical leftists with post-1945 social democracy, who regarded it as a sell-out to bureaucratic capitalism. The New Left was also distinguished by a return to mass political action that was not confined to the ballot box, exemplified in the emergence of activist groups such as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Finally, the New Left defined itself vis-à-vis the Old Left by placing other forms of oppression, such as racism and sexism, on an equal footing with economic exploitation and elevating the combating of such oppression to the status of the class struggle. Indeed, the New Left distinguished itself from the Old Left in that it often displayed little faith in the working class as the midwife of revolution, as the New Left tended to doubt the revolutionary potential of a comfortable working class experiencing post-war affluence. See Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century (London: Abacus, 1994), 447; Ian McKay, Rebels, Reds, Radicals: Rethinking Canada’s Left History (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2005), 183-4; Bryan D. Palmer, The Making of E.P. Thompson: Marxism, Humanism, and History (Toronto: New Hogtown Press, 1981), 55; and James L. Wood, New Left Ideology: Its Dimensions and Development (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1975), 15.

2 This article is a condensed version of the author’s master’s thesis entitled "‘For a Socialist New Brunswick’: The New Brunswick Waffle, 1967-1972," University of New Brunswick, 2008. The author wishes to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the University of New Brunswick for their generous financial support of this research. The only published references to the New Brunswick Waffle prior to this thesis are limited. There is a brief mention of the NB Waffle in Desmond Morton’s book on the NDP entitled The New Democrats, 1961-1986: The Politics of Change (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, 1986). The reference does not even mention the term "Waffle," but instead refers to the group simply as a "coterie of Fredericton revolutionaries" (123). A slightly more elaborate treatment of the NB Waffle is in Richard Wilbur’s chapter on the New Brunswick NDP in Our Canada, ed. Leo Heaps (Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1991), 150-9. The NB Waffle takeover of the New Brunswick NDP is also mentioned in Ben Isitt’s 2008 University of New Brunswick doctoral dissertation entitled "Tug-of-War: The Working Class and Political Change in British Columbia, 1948-1972." Among the more significant works on the Waffle in Ontario are John Bullen, "The Ontario Waffle and the Struggle for an Independent Socialist Canada: Conflict within the NDP," Canadian Historical Review 64, no. 2 (1983): 188-215 and Robert Hackett, "Pie in the Sky: A History of the Ontario Waffle," Canadian Dimension 15, no. 1/2 (October-November 1980): 1-72. A collection of three essays published in the Autumn 1990 issue of Studies in Political Economy (vol. 33) also offer a good summary of the historical impact of the Ontario Waffle. The most extensive study of the Saskatchewan Waffle is Peter Borch, "The Rise and Decline of the Saskatchewan Waffle, 1966-1973" (master’s thesis, University of Regina, 2005).

3 Christine Ball, "The History of the Voice of Women/La Voix de Femmes – The Early Years" (PhD diss., University of Toronto, 1994), 368.

4 "Panel Outcome: No Nuclear Arms," The Brunswickan (Fredericton), 21 November 1961; "Panel Outcome: The Bomb? Definitely NOT," The Brunswickan, 17 January 1962; "The Inside: Rhodesia," supplement in The Brunswickan, 25 November 1965; "Americans In Vietnam," The Brunswickan, 4 November 1965; "Freedom Singers Here Monday," The Brunswickan, 14 January 1966; "Racial Prejudice," The Brunswickan, 13 October 1966; "SUPA Men Coming to UNB," The Brunswickan, 2 March 1967; "SUPA Sways UNB," The Brunswickan, 9 March 1967.

5 Ian McKay, Rebels, Reds, Radicals, 183-4.

6 Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes, 447.

7 James L. Wood, New Left Ideology, 15; McKay, Rebels, Reds, Radicals, 183.

8 The Strax Affair is easily the most well-known example of radical political activity at UNB during the 1960s. Peter C. Kent has written on the historical context and impact of the Strax Affair. See his "The Local, National, and International Contexts of UNB’s Strax Affair," The Officers’ Quarterly 23, no. 2 (Autumn and Winter 2005-06): 24-34 and his "Conflicting Conceptions of Rights in UNB’s Strax Affair," University of New Brunswick Law Journal/Revue de Droit de l’Université du Nouveau-Brunswick 44 (1995): 87-91. For contemporaneous accounts of the Strax Affair, see John Braddock, "The Strax Affair: University of New Brunswick," in Student Power and the Canadian Campus, ed. Tim Reid and Julyan Reid (Toronto: Peter Martin Associates Limited, 1969), 115-25 and Richard Wilbur, "Go Away . . . (The Strax Affair)," Canadian Dimension 6, no. 8 (April-May 1970): 9-10, 54.

9 Braddock, "The Strax Affair," 118. One CSDS member, Dan Weston, recalled that the group replaced the word "students" with "struggle" because they were determined to demonstrate that "there were more than just students involved." See Dan Weston, interview by author, Fredericton, NB, 24 May 2007, tape recording and transcript in author’s possession. See also "Washington Report," The Brunswickan, 26 October 1967 as well as Wilbur, "Go Away . . . (The Strax Affair)," 9. The UNB students who participated in the March on the Pentagon formed the largest Canadian contingent at that protest.

10 A colleague of Strax at UNB, economics professor John Earl (who was also the first president of the New Brunswick NDP) commented that Strax’s American roots and focus meant "he was really fighting the U.S. administration [from] Canada." See John Earl, interview by author, Fredericton, NB, 11 May 2007, tape recording and transcript in author’s possession.

11 Dan Weston, interview by author, 24 May 2007.

12 Peter Shipley, "Trotskyism: ‘Entryism’ and Permanent Revolution," Conflict Studies 81 (March 1977): 1-3; Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes, 445; Nick Cohen, What’s Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way (London: Fourth Estate, 2007), 87.

13 "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Eustace Mendis to Joe Young, 4 January 1970, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-8, LAC. The Strax camp accused the Mendis camp of attempting to turn CSDS meetings into ideological struggles and of trying to recast the group along Trotskyist lines; see Dan Weston interview by author, 24 May 2007. The two camps also conflicted over whether decision-making procedures within the group would be majority or consensus-based and the degree to which individual members could defy majority-agreed-upon decisions. See Terence Hamilton-Smith, "Decision-Making in Wonderland," 7-13 December 1969, in "E3-1969," Ross Dowson fonds, R10995, vol. 54, file 10, LAC.

14 "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC; Eustace Mendis to Jacquie Henderson, 13 March 1970, in "YS/LJS Fredericton – Correspondence and minutes, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-8, LAC; and Terry Hamilton-Smith, "New Brunswick Socialists," 3 January 1970, in "New Brunswick, 1970," William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, Revolutionary Marxist Group fonds, box 4, file 37, McMaster University.

15 Terry Hamilton-Smith, "Decision-Making in Wonderland," 7-13 December 1969, in "E3-1969," Dowson fonds, vol. 54, file 10, LAC; "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC; letters between Terry Hamilton-Smith and Mel Watkins, 9 January 1970, 16 January 1970, 22 January 1970, 2 February 1970, Bill Ross private collection; Eustace Mendis to Joe Young, 4 January 1970, in "YS/LJS Fredericton – Correspondence and Minutes, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-8, LAC. An NBS-written article entitled "Poverty, Poverty Everywhere" appeared in the 23 January 1970 issue of The Brunswickan. Terry Hamilton-Smith would become the leader of the Fredericton local of the Young Socialists. He is referred to as "leader of the Fredericton Y.S." in the Atlantic Regional Socialist Conference agenda, 13-14 March 1971, York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 6/2, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB). He and his wife Carol were recent converts to Trotskyism, as he indicated in a letter that he wrote to a prominent member of the League for Socialist Action (LSA) in Toronto in April 1970 commenting that "Our own [political] development has been so rapid (six months ago we were innocent New Left!)." See Terry Hamilton-Smith to Jacquie Henderson, 9 April 1970, in "YS/LJS Fredericton – Correspondence and Minutes, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-8, LAC.

16 "Building the Revolutionary Party in Canada," submitted by the Political Committee of the LSA/LSO, LSA/LSO Internal Discussion Bulletin 1970 7 (August 1970): 9, in "A1-1970 (#7)," Dowson fonds, vol. 1, file 47, LAC.

17 Eustace Mendis to Joe Young, 4 January 1970, in "YS/LJS Fredericton – Correspondence and Minutes, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-8, LAC.

18 "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC; Carol Hamilton-Smith to Harry Kopyto, 4 May 1970, in "E3-1970," Dowson fonds, vol. 54, file 16, LAC; Bill Ross and Maxine Ross, interview by author, Fredericton, NB, 14 December 2006, tape recording and transcript in author’s possession.

19 Peter Shipley, "Trotskyism: ‘Entryism’ and Permanent Revolution," 9.

20 "Found League for Socialist Action," June 1961, LSA/LSO Internal Discussion Bulletin 1970 2 (July 1970), in "A1-1970 (#2)," Dowson fonds, vol. 1, file 42, LAC.

21 "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC.

22 Pat Callaghan, interview by author, Fredericton, NB, 17 December 2006, tape recording and transcript in author’s possession. Pat Callaghan passed away on 5 January 2009 at the age of 81.

23 "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC.

24 Carol Hamilton-Smith to Harry Kopyto, 4 May 1970, in "E3-1970," Dowson fonds, vol. 54, file 16, LAC; "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC; Terry Hamilton-Smith to Anne MacDonald, 19 January 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

25 "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC.

26 Robertson served as UNB’s Student Representative Council president between November 1968 and February 1969. See "Robertson quits, calls administration deceitful," The Brunswickan, 21 February 1969.

27 "You Remember New Brunswick," Waffle News (July 1970), CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 446, file 18, LAC.

28 "The Trotskyist Movement in Fredericton: Results and Prospects," passed by the Fredericton YS on 2 September 1970, to be presented at 8 September 1970 YS/LJS plenum, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC.

29 Carol Hamilton-Smith to Harry Kopyto, 9 May 1970, in "E3-1970", Dowson fonds, vol. 54, file 16, LAC.

30 Terry Hamilton-Smith to the Political Committee of the LSA/LSO, 25 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

31 Terry Hamilton-Smith to Regina Modlich, 23 September 1970, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC; Terry Hamilton-Smith to Ross Dowson, 9 August 1970, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC; Fredericton Young Socialists NDP Fraction Report, 13 August 1970, in "YS/LJS – Fredericton – Reports and Correspondence, n.d., 1970," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 78, file 78-10, LAC.

32 "Two-Party Race Likely For N.B.," The Telegraph-Journal (Saint John, NB), 28 March 1963; "North Shore NDP Fields 3 Candidates," The Telegraph-Journal, 15 September 1967; "Party Endorses Candidates," The Telegraph-Journal, 3 October 1967; "NDP Leader Resigns," The Telegraph-Journal, 13 March 1968; "Newcastle Area Man Leads NDP," The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton, NB), 14 September 1970. The emergence and growth of the NDP was stymied by two key factors. The first was the progressive and even social democratic slant of the Liberal Party under Louis J. Robichaud, premier from 1960 to 1970, which siphoned off many potential and actual CCF and NDP supporters. For instance, four former CCF members, including a former president of the provincial party, ran under the Liberal banner in the 1960 provincial election. See Gad Horowitz, Canadian Labour in Politics (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968), 231. Throughout the 1960s, according to party observer Richard Wilbur, the Robichaud Liberals "stole much of the NDP initiative and they assumed the reform mantle." See Wilbur, "New Brunswick," in Heaps, Our Canada, 155-6. The second factor was the strategy practiced by the bulk of the province’s labour movement, which was largely disinterested in supporting their own party. Labour leaders instead adopted a bargaining approach to politics, working with and within the mainstream parties to achieve their aims. See Robert Garland, "The Misfortunes of the Labour-NDP Alliance in Atlantic Canada," Social Science Monograph Series 4, (1981): 47-8. This philosophy was reflected in 1961 when the NBFL rejected affiliation with the NDP, making it the only labour federation in Canada to do so (although the federation publicly expressed support for the political aims of the NDP). Most rank-and-file union members tended to agree with their leaders, at least if their votes are any indicator: 89 per cent of union households in New Brunswick voted for either the Liberals (56 per cent) or Progressive Conservatives (33 per cent) in the 1962 federal election. See Horowitz, Canadian Labour in Politics, 42, 230. The NB NDP was not oblivious to the challenges they faced in attracting labour support. The party’s first president, John Earl, commented that "we tried to get union people involved, but they took the attitude, the view that they’d be better off to support one of the traditional parties and would likely get something from them than from a splinter party." See John Earl, interview by author, 11 May 2007.

33 "Newcastle Area Man Leads NDP," The Daily Gleaner, 14 September 1970; "Silverwood Man To NDP Position," The Daily Gleaner, 14 September 1970; "Industrial Democracy Bid Referred For Study By NDP," The Daily Gleaner, 14 September 1970; "NDP making serious bid in N.B. election," Labor Challenge, 5 October 1970.

34 "Richardson: Seven Or Eight Seats?" The Evening Times-Globe (Saint John, NB), 24 October 1970; "Keep Your Own Election Score Monday Night," The Daily Gleaner, 24 October 1970; "Vote Comparison," The Daily Gleaner, 27 October 1970; "Lost Deposits Tell NDP Tale," The Daily Gleaner, 28 October 1970. The 1970 election was the last in which New Brunswick used multi-member ridings. Only two NDP candidates ran in ridings that could be regarded as francophone (one in Gloucester and one in Restigouche). The party did, however, contest all five seats in Northumberland, all seven in greater Saint John, and all three in Moncton, all areas where the bulk of the party union support resided. The NDP also ran candidates in all nine ridings that made up the greater Fredericton area, reflecting the Waffle base of the party there. Three out of four seats in Westmorland (home to the NDP base at Mount Allison University in Sackville) were also contested. J. Albert Richardson blamed the October Crisis, which occurred during the campaign, for the party’s poor showing. The federal NDP’s stance against the implementation of the War Measures Act, according to Richardson, gave people "the impression the NDP favored the FLQ. It just killed us." See "Lost Deposits Tell NDP Tale," The Daily Gleaner, 28 October 1970. Richardson himself supported the War Measures Act, a position that caused some tension between him and Waffle members during the campaign, many of whom protested against the act in Fredericton. See Wilbur, "New Brunswick," in Heaps, Our Canada, 156 and "City Students, Tutors Protest," The Daily Gleaner, 20 October 1970.

35 The NB Waffle sent several pro-Waffle delegates to the federal NDP leadership convention in 1971; see "Attendance of Delegates – N.D.P. Federal Convention – 1971" in the private collection of Bill Ross. Bill Ross donated $110 to Laxer’s campaign, the thirteenth single largest donation to the campaign; see "James Laxer – NDP Federal Leadership Campaign Statement of Donations and Expenditures," in "Waffle-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 137, file 137-11, LAC.

36 Terry Hamilton-Smith to Regina Modlich, 23 September 1970, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC; Maxine Ross to John F. Kinsel, 12 December 1970, 20 February 1971, private collection of Bill Ross; "Contact socialists in your area," Labor Challenge, 12 April 1971. The NDP had a total of 240 members in New Brunswick on 12 December 1970, of which 48 were in York-Sunbury and 35 in Carleton-Charlotte. By 20 February 1971, NDP membership was 292, of which 77 were in York-Sunbury and 46 in Carleton-Charlotte. The share of total NDP members in these two ridings thus rose from 34.6 per cent to 42.1 per cent during this period. It is also worth noting that NDP membership declined in J. Albert Richardson’s home riding of Northumberland-Miramichi from 42 to 29 during the same period, and there were zero members in the largely francophone ridings of Gloucester, Madawaska-Victoria, and Restigouche in December 1970 and only three members in Gloucester in February 1971. The Sackville YS local is listed in issues of Labor Challenge, the LSA/YS paper, dating from 15 February 1971 until 26 April 1971.

37 Hackett, "Pie in the Sky," 37.

38 Terry Hamilton-Smith to Joe Young, 21 February 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC; "New Brunswick Groups March For Abortion," The Brunswickan, 19 February 1971.

39 Pat Callaghan, interview by author, 17 December 2006.

40 The earliest evidence that could be located of Robertson’s involvement in the NB Waffle was from 1971. See York-Sunbury NDP meeting, "Minutes," 24 January 1971, York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 1/2, PANB.

41 Ray LeBreton, "New Democrats, Let’s Find Ourselves," The New Democrat (March 1971): 19, York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 2/2, PANB.

42 "Narcotics Control Act Amendments Urged By NDP," The Telegraph-Journal, 15 March 1971; "NDP Leader Says Party Split," The Telegraph-Journal, 24 March 1971; "Differences In NDP Patched Up," The Telegraph-Journal, 27 March 1971. Bill Ross wrote to Pat Callaghan on 4 April 1971 that he could not "in good conscience hold an executive position in a party in which a majority of members are not interested in anything other than a social club or debating society." Maxine Ross wrote to Pat Callaghan on 3 April 1971 that she was "not willing to donate anymore [time] to a party which is clearly not interested in building socialism." Both letters are in Bill Ross’s private collection. There is mention of preparations for the September 1971 NB NDP convention in Saint John in a letter from Gary Zatzman to Maxine Ross, 5 April 1971, Bill Ross private collection. The ceasefire between the Waffle and moderates was short-lived, as it spread into the Saint John riding association in early April. On 6 April 1971, Eldon Richardson, a longtime party member and unionist, was ejected from the riding association executive by Waffle members. This news was in the same letter by Zatzman mentioned above, although it was written as an attachment to the main letter (which accounts for the discrepancy between the date of the letter and the date of the events mentioned).

43 "Atlantic Organizer," 13 April 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC; Terry Hamilton-Smith to Richard Ramsey, 1 March 1971, York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 6/2, PANB; "FYS NDP Fraction Report," 5 May 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC; "Fredericton NDP in mayoralty bid," Labor Challenge, 7 June 1971; "NDP gains in N.B. civic elections," Labor Challenge, 5 July 1971. FYS member Ron Gaudet ran to be the mayor of Fredericton, winning 6.5 per cent of the vote.

44 Ross Dowson to the Fredericton and Halifax YS locals, 11 July 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972", Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

45 Terry Hamilton-Smith to the LSA/LSO Political Committee, 25 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

46 "NDP Report," passed by the Fredericton YS executive 28 September 1971, to be introduced to the Fredericton YS 2 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

47 "Waffle News," 25 August 1971, York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 6/1, PANB. Pat Callaghan and Alastair Robertson authored the bulk of the resolutions and the manifesto. The initials "PSC" and "AHR" appear at the end of several resolutions and the manifesto, indicating that Callaghan and Robertson were the authors. The pair co-wrote the resolutions on "Housing & Environmental Planning," "Common Ownership & Workers’ Control," and "Education," while Robertson was the sole author of the resolutions on "Co-operatives" and "Cultural Affairs." FYS member Ron Gaudet wrote the resolution on "Women’s Rights" while FYS leader Terry Hamilton-Smith wrote the resolution on "Trade Unions and Labour Organization." See "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB and "NDP Report," passed by the Fredericton YS executive 28 September 1971, to be introduced to the Fredericton YS 2 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

48 "For A Socialist New Brunswick," in "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB.

49 "Resolution on Common Ownership & Workers’ Control," in "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB.

50 "Resolution on Co-operatives," in "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB.

51 "Resolution on Housing & Environmental Planning," in "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB.

52 "Resolution on Trade Unions and Labour Organization," in "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB.

53 "Resolution on Women’s Rights," in "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB.

54 For accounts of the increasing role of the feminist movement within the NDP during the late-1960s and the 1970s, see Varda Burstyn, "The Waffle and the Women’s Movement," Studies in Political Economy 33 (Autumn 1990): 175-84 and Rosemary Brown, Being Brown: A Very Public Life (Toronto: Random House, 1989).

55 Barrie Hould, interview by author, Moncton, NB, 21 May 2007, tape recording and transcript in author’s possession.

56 "Resolution on Cultural Affairs," in "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB.

57 "Resolution on Education," in "Waffle Resolutions," York-Sunbury NDP Collection, MC1089, box 2759, file 3/3, PANB.

58 John Bullen points to the creation of the Committee for an Independent Canada in 1970, the Canada Development Corporation in 1971, the Foreign Investment Review Agency in 1973 and the National Energy Program in 1980 as policies introduced by the Trudeau Liberals that were influenced by the Waffle. See John Bullen, "The Ontario Waffle and the Struggle for an Independent Socialist Canada," 215.

59 "Report on the Suspension and Censure of Members of the Halifax and Fredericton Locals of the YS/LJS," prepared by the Central Executive Committee of the YS/LJS, in "B2-1971," Dowson fonds, vol. 20, file 1, LAC. Among the other charges levied against the FYS were that the local was producing two different sets of minutes with the intent of misleading the CEC, that the FYS held a "mini-conference" with the Halifax YS in July 1971 without informing the CEC, and that the FYS failed to pay their share of the costs associated with a YS conference in Waterloo, Ontario, during the summer of 1971.

60 "NDP Report," passed by the Fredericton YS executive 28 September 1971, to be introduced to the Fredericton YS 2 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

61 Terry Hamilton-Smith to the LSA/LSO Political Committee, 25 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

62 "NDP Report," passed by the Fredericton YS executive 28 September 1971, to be introduced to the Fredericton YS 2 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

63 John Boyle to Cliff Scotton, 29 September 1971, "NB: Provincial Convention, 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC.

64 "NDP Report," passed by the Fredericton YS executive 28 September 1971, to be introduced to the Fredericton YS 2 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

65 "Waffle Manifesto Wins One-Vote Majority," The Telegraph-Journal, 27 September 1971. Pat Callaghan reckoned that there were numerous closet Waffle supporters at the convention, recalling that "there was a left-wing, you know, who would support the Waffle but they would never join us as a Waffle member of the NDP." See Pat Callaghan, interview by author, 17 December 2006.

66 Barrie Hould, interview by author, 21 May 2007.

67 "A Responsible Attitude," The Moncton Times & Transcript, 28 September 1971; "NDP Passes Waffle Manifesto," The Daily Gleaner, 27 September 1971; "Waffle Manifesto Wins One-Vote Majority," The Telegraph-Journal, 27 September 1971; "Split in New Brunswick NDP," Labor Challenge, 8 November 1971. It should be noted that J. Albert Richardson was not present at the time of the vote on the Waffle manifesto. At the suggestion of Pat Callaghan, Richardson had left the convention to pick up the guest speaker (Saskatchewan NDP MP A.P. Gleave) at the local airport. See Pat Callaghan, interview by author, 17 December 2006.

68 "NDP Report", passed by the Fredericton YS executive 28 September 1971, to be introduced to the Fredericton YS 2 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

69 "Report from A.P. Gleave to David Lewis, "NDP New Brunswick 1971-1974," 27 September 1971, David Lewis fonds, vol. 76, file 22-19, LAC.

70 The petition claimed that the convention was invalid because the convention call was not issued to all members, that the resolution committee was not summoned, and that the passage of the NB Waffle manifesto defied the rules of the convention, namely that some of the policy resolutions contained within the manifesto had already been defeated earlier as separate resolutions. See "Petition from members of the NB NDP to the NDP Federal Council," received 3 October 1971, in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC). Among the 28 signatories of the petition were party leader J. Albert Richardson, the provincial secretary, two vice-presidents, two federal council members, five candidates, five members of the provincial council, and New Brunswick Federation of Labour president Paul LePage. All signatories except for Richardson and LePage listed their home federal riding next to their names. A tally of the home ridings of the signatories reveals the geographic divide between Waffle and non-Waffle forces. Thirteen of the signatories were from Moncton, seven from Saint John-Lancaster, four from Westmorland-Kent, and two each from Northumberland-Miramichi and Fundy-Royal. There were no signatories from the Waffle-dominated ridings of York-Sunbury and Carleton-Charlotte. See "Re: New Brunswick New Democratic Party," "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC. The charge of irregularities concerning the Saint John convention was a deliberate strategy on the part of Waffle opponents. As Waffle opponent Barrie Hould recalled, "Our concern was with what happened to the party, you know, the [Waffle] policies. It wouldn’t have been the party that a lot of us had joined . . . so that was the first concern. Secondly, how do we do something about it? Well ok, then you get technical, and we raised the technical points . . . so we pulled every rabbit from out of the hat, you know." See Barrie Hould, interview by author, 21 May 2007.

71 Minutes of non-Waffle NDP meeting, 3 October 1971, NBFL files, box 109, PANB.

72 "Re: New Brunswick New Democratic Party," in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC. The events in New Brunswick managed to find their way into the Ontario election campaign. Soon after the NB Waffle victory, Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis was asked by a Toronto Star reporter what he thought about the NB Waffle manifesto. Obviously annoyed, Lewis responded by saying "Maybe it’s something in the air in New Brunswick that gives us this special bent" and "Thank God we don’t have an NDP member of the legislature in New Brunswick if that’s what the Waffles are suggesting. I can’t see it ever taking hold in Ontario." See "Lewis Rejects NDP Action," The Telegraph-Journal, 29 September 1971.

73 "Re: New Brunswick New Democratic Party," in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC; C.A. Scotton to J.A. Richardson, P. Callaghan, and Mrs. C. Leonard, telegram, 3 October 1971, in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC.

74 Pat Callaghan to Clifford Scotton, telegram, 4 October 1971, in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC.

75 "Re: New Brunswick New Democratic Party," in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC and "Memorandum from the President of the Party to All Provincial Council Members," 11 October 1971, in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 14, LAC.

76 "NDP Report," passed by the Fredericton YS executive 28 September 1971, to be introduced to the Fredericton YS 2 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

77 "Will The Provincial NDP Convention Be Continued?," The Telegraph-Journal, 14 October 1971.

78 On 28 September, Terry Hamilton-Smith phoned Ross Dowson to discuss what had happened in Saint John. While the FYS understood that they were in trouble with the leadership of the LSA/YS, Hamilton-Smith told Dowson that the NB Waffle victory offered a golden opportunity to secure influence within the NDP in the province and requested that the FYS be allowed to actively intervene in the party again. Dowson was not impressed by Hamilton-Smith’s plea. Dowson thought that the NB Waffle manifesto and platform was largely unrepresentative of the interests of Trotskyists. Dowson sent a letter to the FYS on 3 October in which he stated the he expected the local to follow the "declared and defined line of the movement" towards the NDP, yet this statement was not elaborated on. See Ross Dowson to the Fredericton YS, 3 October 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC.

79 Terry Hamilton-Smith to the LSA/LSO Political Committee, 25 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

80 Terry Hamilton-Smith to the LSA/LSO Political Committee, 25 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC and "Walkout breaks up N.B. NDP convention," Labor Challenge, 11 October 1971. These developments only exacerbated the existing woes facing the FYS, which was subjected to a disciplinary hearing in October 1971 by a Toronto-based member of the LSA’s Central Executive concerning the reasons for the local’s suspension. See Al Cappe to the Fredericton YS, 23 October 1971, in "Fredericton Inquiry, n.d., 1971-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 75, file 75-10, LAC. The suspension of the FYS was lifted on 22 October 1971 and replaced by the censure of those who were responsible for acts of "gross disloyalty." See Central Executive Committee of the YS/LJS, "Report on the Suspension and Censure of Members of the Halifax and Fredericton locals of the YS/LJS," in "B2-1971," Dowson fonds, vol. 20, file 1, LAC.

81 "Split in New Brunswick NDP," Labor Challenge, 8 November 1971.

82 Minutes of "New Brunswick New Democratic Party Provincial Council Meeting, October [?] 1971," in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 14, LAC; "Re: New Brunswick New Democratic Party," in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC; "Crisis Within NDP Party May Reach Peak Saturday," The Moncton Times & Transcript, 14 October 1971.

83 "Re: New Brunswick New Democratic Party," in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC.

84 Terry Hamilton-Smith to the LSA/LSO Political Committee, 25 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

85 "NDP Now Has Two Leaders," The Telegraph-Journal, 18 October 1971; "‘No Validity’ Under NDP Constitution," The Telegraph-Journal, 18 October 1971.

86 "Re: New Brunswick New Democratic Party," in "NB: Provincial Convention 1971," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 455, file 13, LAC.

87 Terry Hamilton-Smith to the LSA/LSO Political Committee, 25 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Container 13, Canadian Trotskyist fonds, LAC.

88 Terry Hamilton-Smith to the LSA/LSO Political Committee, 25 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

89 Opposition to the LSA/YS leadership’s handling of the NB Waffle situation in New Brunswick was not confined to the province. As early as the beginning of November, a self-declared revolutionist from Toronto wrote to the Trotskyist paper Labor Challenge criticizing the LSA/YS’s view of the situation in New Brunswick. See "Reader says we’re wrong on the NDP," Labor Challenge, 8 November 1971. Trotskyists across Canada would express dissatisfaction with the LSA/YS policy towards the NDP over the next few years.

90 "New Democratic Party: Minutes of Federal Council Meeting, 12-14 November 1971 – Ottawa," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 367, book 9 (1 of 2), file 367-4, LAC. Among the prominent NDP members in attendance were federal NDP leader David Lewis, Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis, former NDP leader Tommy Douglas, former CCF leader M.J. Coldwell, and Waffle leaders James Laxer and Mel Watkins (neither of whom had made any major statements about the NB Waffle up to this point).

91 Ronald Lees, interview by author through correspondence, 1 November 2007, in author’s possession.

92 "NB party unifies," NDP Ottawa Report, 1 December 1971, Bill Ross private collection.

93 "New Democratic Party: Minutes of Federal Council Meeting, 12-14 November 1971 – Ottawa," CCF-NDP fonds, vol. 367, book 9 (1 of 2), file 367-4, LAC.

94 "Claims NDP Constitution ‘Violated,’" The Telegraph-Journal, 15 November 1971; "CCF To Be Revived In Province?" The Daily Gleaner, 15 November 1971; "NDP Waffle Members To Form Own Party?" The Telegraph-Journal, 19 November 1971. The NB Waffle’s isolation was compounded further by comments made by Mel Watkins soon after the federal council meeting. Watkins publicly stated that the NB Waffle was not associated with his own Waffle organization. See "NDP Splinter Group Not Part Of Waffle?" The Evening Times-Globe, 20 November 1971. One can infer what Watkins thought about the NB Waffle from comments he made the following year at a lecture he delivered in Fredericton. In response to a question forwarded by Pat Callaghan himself about the then-defunct NB Waffle, Watkins said that the NB Waffle manifesto was "a totally unacceptable thing" and that it "lay beyond the pale of social democracy." He added that the NB Waffle should not have proposed its policies under the Waffle name and that the Waffle would be "irresponsible" if it casually accepted left-wingers who wished to use the movement’s title. It was evident that Watkins regarded the NB Waffle manifesto as far too radical and that their policies risked damaging the nationwide Waffle cause by association. See "N.B. Leftist Plan ‘Was Unacceptable’," The Telegraph-Journal, 5 April 1972.

95 Terry Hamilton-Smith to Ross Dowson, 17 November 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

96 "NDP Waffle To Stay Within Provincial Body," The Daily Gleaner, 22 November 1971.

97 Ray LeBreton, an anti-Waffle party member, planned to introduce a motion seeking to expel the Wafflers from the party. News of this motion compelled the Trotskyist members to make alliances with some non-Waffle members to halt such a move, including a deal with LeBreton himself whereby he would drop his call for expulsions in exchange for NB Waffle support for his candidacy for provincial council. See "NDP Report," Fredericton YS, 4 December 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC. According to The Telegraph-Journal, there were 72 delegates in total at the special convention. See "Province’s NDP Mends Its Differences," The Telegraph-Journal, 29 November 1971.

98 "NDP Report," Fredericton YS, 4 December 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC.

99 "NDP Meeting A ‘Sham, Fiasco’," The Telegraph-Journal, 1 December 1971; "Callaghan Quits As President Of York-Sunbury NDP," The Daily Gleaner, 22 February 1972.

100 "NDP Report," Fredericton YS, 4 December 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC. Minutes of FYS meetings held during December 1971 all listed between four and nine people in attendance. The final listing of the Black’s Harbour/Beaver Harbour YS local was in the 8 November 1971 issue of Labor Challenge while the last listing of the Saint John YS local was in the 20 December 1971 issue of Labor Challenge.

101 Minutes of FYS local, 18 December 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC.

102 "NDP Report," Fredericton YS, 4 December 1971, in "YS/LJS Local-Fredericton-Miscellaneous, n.d., 1970-1971," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 74, file 74-24, LAC. It should be noted that the NB Waffle did attract the support of a few rank-and-file union members. They were scattered throughout New Brunswick, with supporters in Saint John, Moncton, Bathurst, and Charlotte County. Among them were Adolphe Bernier, a steelworker who organized a strike against Brunswick Mines in 1968 and was subsequently fired by NBFL President Paul LePage, and Yvonne Cavanaugh and Eugene Dugas, who organized the Canadian Food and Allied Workers Union (CFAWU) local in Black’s Harbour. See "NDP Report," passed by the Fredericton YS executive 28 September 1971, to be introduced to the Fredericton YS 2 October 1971, in "Fredericton Branch – Minutes and Correspondence, n.d., 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC as well as Terry Hamilton-Smith to Ross Dowson, 29 September 1971, in "Fredericton Branch-Minutes and Correspondence, n.d. 1970-1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 13, file 13-19, LAC.

103 NB Waffle opponent Barrie Hould, upon reflection, regarded the group’s abortion policy as the plank that gained the most currency within the NB NDP as the 1970s progressed. See Barrie Hould, interview by author, 21 May 2007. For evidence of the emerging importance of women’s issues in the NB NDP platform during the 1970s, see the NB NDP 1978 election platform, "A New Choice for New Brunswick: Programme ’78, New Brunswick New Democratic Party," New Democratic Party files, pamphlet files, New Brunswick Legislative Library.

104 "Former N.B. NDP leader John LaBossiere dies at age 70," The Moncton Times & Transcript, 13 January 2006. During his four-year tenure as party leader, LaBossiere attracted new members and publicity for the NB NDP in part through opposing aerial spraying and the construction of the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, much to the consternation of labour leaders who felt that such stances put too many jobs at risk. See Wilbur, "New Brunswick," in Heaps, Our Canada, 157.

105 The truncated FYS slowly bled to death during 1972 as some local members left Fredericton to pursue more promising Trotskyist activity in Montreal and Toronto while other members (including Terry Hamilton-Smith) left the movement altogether. See Don Tapscott to the Fredericton YS, 10 June 1972, in "Fredericton-Correspondence and Minutes, n.d. 1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 75, file 75-11, LAC and Terry Hamilton-Smith to Ross Dowson, 3 July 1972, in "Fredericton-Correspondence and Minutes, n.d. 1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 75, file 75-11, LAC. Regular meetings of the FYS ceased in June 1972 and there was no activity within the local once autumn arrived. See Ron Gaudet to "Comrade Trew," 7 November 1972, in "Fredericton-Correspondence and Minutes, n.d. 1972," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 75, file 75-11, LAC. There is no evidence of correspondence between the FYS and the LSA/YS headquarters after November 1972, implying that the local had faded out by then.

106 Marv Gandall, "Our Liquidation into the Ontario Waffle: The Lessons to Learn from it," LSA/LSO Discussion Bulletin 1972-73, 44 (9 April 1973): 1-2, in "Discussion Bulletins – Nos. 41-58, 1973," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 162, file 162-3, LAC.

107 Walter Davis, "A Case Study of the LSA NDP Line in Practice: The New Brunswick Fiasco," 15 November 1972, LSA/LSO Discussion Bulletin 1972, 26 (January 1973), in "Discussion Bulletins – Nos. 21-30, 1972-1973," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 162, file 162-1, LAC.

108 Walter Davis and Bret Smiley, "Social Democracy and the LSA," LSA/LSO Discussion Bulletin, 29 (February 1973), in "Discussion Bulletins – Nos. 21-30, 1972-1973," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 162, file 162-1, LAC.

109 Don Van Wart, "The Double Demagogy of ‘Winning the NDP to Socialism’," LSA/LSO Discussion Bulletin, 26 (January 1973), in "Discussion Bulletins – Nos. 21-30, 1972-1973," Canadian Trotskyist fonds, container 162, file 162-1, LAC.

110 The Socialist History Project website (http://www.socialisthistory.ca) has proven to be a valuable resource for recounting the debates within and eventual fracturing of the Canadian Trotskyist movement during the early-1970s. Those who opposed Dowson’s policy on entryism in the NDP formed themselves into the Revolutionary Communist Tendency in the spring of 1973 following a complete split of the LSA at the group’s convention. Dowson and his supporters formed the Labour Party Tendency (LPT) and attacked the "sectarianism" towards the NDP of other Canadian Trotskyists. In 1974 the LPT was renamed as Forward and was focused around Dowson. The LSA also split on the question of Canadian nationalism, which cut along the following lines: Dowson headed a group that maintained that Canadian nationalism was a progressive anti-capitalist force while a new group calling itself the Revolutionary Marxist Group (RMG) asserted otherwise. The RMG was a fusion of a collection of revolutionaries at the University of Toronto calling themselves the Old Mole and a section of the Ontario Waffle that was opposed to the nationalism of the Waffle’s Watkins-Laxer leadership called Red Circle. When Canada’s various Trotskyist groups reunited in 1977, Dowson was not included in the process.

111 Myrna Kostash, Long Way from Home: The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada (Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1980), 255.

112 Hackett, "Pie in the Sky," 30.

113 The 1970s would witness increased criticism of federal economic development programs and government subsidies to capital in the region, along with heightened concern over the environmental consequences of established economic practices. See John Reid, "The 1970s: Sharpening the Sceptical Edge," in The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation, ed. E.R. Forbes and D.A. Muise (Toronto & Fredericton: University of Toronto Press & Acadiensis Press, 1993), 460-504.