Ed Broadbent, former NDP leader, progressive stalwart, 1936 - 2024
Ottawa – January 11, 2024 – UFCW Canada is saddened by the passing for long-standing NDP leader and visionary, Ed Broadbent. The Broadbent Institute, the Ottawa-based progressive institute he founded, announced his death in a statement today.
“Our country has lost a fierce champion for ordinary Canadians, an intellectual who strongly believed in building a good society.” says the Broadbent Institute, “Ed devoted decades of his life to fighting for justice and equality in Canada and around the world.”
Broadbent led the federal NDP for 14 years from 1975 to 1989, moving the party further to the left and bringing it into the future. He was vice president of the Socialist International from 1979 to 1989 and director of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development from 1990 to 1996. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1982 and in 2001 received the highest civilian honour when he was made Companion of the Order of Canada.
“A steadfast advocate for equal rights, Ed played a pivotal role in enshrining rights and liberties for all peoples in our country's laws and constitution,” says the Broadbent institute. “He was a rare intellectual who could connect the challenges faced by ordinary citizens with the movements and institutions striving for economic democracy.”
In 2023, he co-authored Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality which is the first full-length treatment of Ed’s ideas and remarkable seven-decade engagement in public life. In the postscript, he leaves an enduring vision for the future:
“To be humane, societies must be democratic – and, to be democratic, every person must be afforded the economic and social rights necessary for their individual flourishing. On their own, political and civil freedoms are insufficient in the realization of that goal. I believed in 1968, and I believe today, that political democracy is not enough. In the twenty-first century, the rebuilding of social democracy must be our task. Social democracy alone offers the foundation upon which the lives of people everywhere can be made dignified, just, and exciting.”
His legacy lives on throughout the Canadian progressive movement, especially in Canada’s leading progressive policy organization, the Broadbent Institute. Ed founded the Broadbent institute in 2011 to study the issues of social democracy. Employees at the Broadbent Institute are proud UFCW 1006A members. The work of the institute is guided by his Broadbent Principles for Canadian Social Democracy: all people have equal worth and equal rights – and all benefit from living in an increasingly equal society.
