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A profile of activists in the British Columbia NDP W. D. YOUNG What we know about the shape and colour of our political parties is largely determined by the people at their centre, those who display a level of involvement and commitment that places them in the category of militant or activist. 1 Obviously a party's leaders constitute a major element in determining the party's character or style, but equally important is the core of dedicated activists. It is with this latter group that this paper is concerned, more specifically with the activists in the British Columbia New Democratic Party. Although the NDP is an established and legitimate political party, support for it, particularly in the form of active membership, constitutes an expression of deviance from political and social norms that membership in the other parties does not. (It may be the case that active membership in any party in Canadian politics is abnormal.) Individuals joining a socialist party make a more specific commitment than do individuals who join "non-ideological" parties: they must embrace an ideology which is more specific and which is, in North America certainly, opposed to the prevailing value structure. And in Canada the ideology is a minority one, one which the conventional wisdom finds pernicious. The act of joining such a party presupposes a level of commitment higher than that involved in joining the Liberal party. A high level of activity in the NOP then, clearly sets the member apart from his opposite numbers in the Liberal or Conservative parties. The commitment involved in supporting or joining the NDP produces the consistency of electoral support mentioned elsewhere.2 It would seem to follow that it would facilitate a higher level of activity in party affairs as well. Not only is the individual more likely to pursue the aims expressed in the act of joining the party, but the party itself makes demands on the individual for participation beyond the level of voting or merely taking out a membership. In other words, there are more incentives for higher levels of activity in the NDP than in the Liberal or Conservative parties. The NDP still shows signs of its Journal of Canadian Studies CCF heritage and the notion of engaging in the "daily struggle" has not entirely disappeared . The devotion of a member to the cause needs to be shown as much by works as by professions of faith. The nature of the NDP and the level of participation expected and received from many of its members raises a number of interesting questions in the light of the more established assumptions about political participation .3 For example, are propositions that participation increases with higher socioeconomic status, greater educational achievement , proximity to the "centre of society" and higher class identification 4 valid for a party like the NOP? Are the general assumptions about social satisfaction and political participation valid where deviant or protest parties are concerned? Do viable third parties attract supporters and activists that would otherwise be homeless in a two party system? In the same way that a third party may offer relief from cross pressures, it may also offer an avenue of political engagement not open in the other more established parties. Lipset's study of the CCF in Saskatchewan 5 substantiates the accepted view of the bases of political participation. Activists in the Saskatchewan CCF were drawn from normal community leaders, and from the "upper layer of farmers' and workers' groups." 6 The leaders of the party were community activists and successful farmers, for the most part. But outside the framework of a fairly homogeneous petit bourgeois society, where the farm leaders constitute the centre of society, the proposition seems a trifle weak. In the urban centres of British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario, where NDP strength is as great or greater than in Saskatchewan, can the same be said? In the urban-industrial setting, socialism, even the NOP variety, is an unwelcome doctrine in the conventional view, and is not espoused by those who are community lenders or by those whom one would describe as being at or near the centre of society in the sense used by Milbrath or Lane.7...

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