Ed Broadbent ‘never stopped fighting for people,’ Jagmeet Singh says | Power & Politics

Here to weigh in on The Life and Legacy of Ed Broadbent is Brian top chair of the board of the Broadband Institute and in studio with me is amrath the national director of Canada’s new Democratic party uh I want to thank you both uh for

Joining me um I’m sure it’s a bit a difficult day and some happy memories there I think but but sad day for you and new Democrats yeah it’s very sad it’s a huge loss uh Brian and I both uh knew Ed very well and worked with him

Quite a bit over the years and uh you know he made a massive contribution to the n DP but also a massive contribution to social democracy internationally and a huge contribution to Canada I mean you know he was a champion for human rights for an end to income

Inequality for women’s rights uh for indigenous rights he was you know he founded the Broadband Institute which has done fantastic work on on advancing all of those principles and most recently wrote a book I mean I don’t know if I’m going to be doing that at 88

But that’s an amazing thing to me he and I saw him not that long ago uh Brian was there and um uh you know he he’s he was sharp he was smart he was uh concerned uh about you know he always wanted to know what was going on and always had

His opinions on it and I benefited greatly from his friendship and his leadership Brian topy he sort of had an unusual uh if you look at it it’s an unusual political career a former University Professor who wins a seat in Parliament by beating a federal conservative cabinet minister by just 15

Votes and that goes on to lead a party for nearly 15 years yeah he was uh he was landside Ed there in the first outing um but you know he was a he was um he was a very very good senior political figure and that backgr on his academic served him

Very well at one level he was a very practical politician and he was aiming to win and that’s what I I got to say one of the things that I principally admired about Ed as a political leader was that he was aiming to win he really

Wanted to be in government to do the stuff he believed in and he combined that with being a a committed idealist and a highly principled person and by the way a really nice guy and so he was U was certainly one for the ages um a

Role model I would say in our politics at a time of angry populism EDS the opposite head was what you do when you don’t want to be governed by Angry populists and he sort of fits into that new democrat Pantheon of Tommy Douglas Jack Leighton and Ed Broadbent those would be

The three Titans of your party and your movement when I look at it I mean what do you think Ed brin’s Legacy uh is today I mean as as Brian points out he had a very different approach than what we see in a lot of political conversations today yeah there’s no

Question that we’ve had some incredible leaders in our movement and and he stands he stands there for sure with them um what I found uh very remarkable about him was how incred rly generous he was so you know a lot of times in our movement certainly in our party there

Are a lot of young people who come in who are really committed and really want to do things and really look up to these people like Ed Broadbent and he always had time for them he always he was very very generous with his uh with his opinions with his time with his

Experience and you know I I’ve traveled across the country and uh everywhere I have gone across the country people want to tell me stories about Ed Broadbent and about Jack Leighton I mean there are you know they they they are um uh very very symbolic of the the the the the

Things that the NDP stands for you know and and I think you know Brian is absolutely right it’s you know often people have talked about the NDP as the conscience of Parliament and he was very much of the view that we should not be there to be the conscience of Parliament

That we should be aiming to get elected and to win so that we can do things to help people Brian it looked for a while that that might happen I I I me mentioned this to Brian in our conversation in 1987 Ed Brent was number

One right the NDP had a 134 point lead over the conservatives in the runup to what would be the decisive free trade election of 1988 what what do you think it was about Ed Brin in particular that made the new Democrats so competitive and actually got them to first place in

Public opinion polls for a period of time I remember that campaign very well it was the first campaign I did working working with Ed as a distant uh one of those young people then was just talking about and look at at its route what Ed was up to but basically between 84 and

88 was he had the Insight that there’s no victory for the NDP that doesn’t go through Quebec and so he had a big focus on the province of Quebec and they really liked them and as he went up and up in the province of Quebec the rest of

The country followed because when when the the his poy numbers started coming up courtesy of this support he was earning in French Canada then people in English Canada gave him a look to and so he had found a a strategy that was going to work for his party he was and as you

Say you know 1987 there was a first of all there were some great polls and some serious articles saying he’s got a shot at winning what defeated him was the guy you just had on Brian morone who was also quite good at his CFT who figured out how to reframe the election onto

Issues that were less good for red in the province of Quebec but he never forgot that strategy and it is important to remember that Ed came back after having retired and came back to Parliament to help drack Leon get launched as leader and the strategy that

Ed was pursuing that got him to where you’re talking about he commended to Jack and Jack followed it on the Insight that there’s no victory for the NDP that Doug usn’t go through Quebec and when he got that break through in Quebec he was one step away from being prime minister

And so you know the speak to what I think is fascinating about in Broadbent that he’s a super nice guy yes principled person yes and a very hardheaded practical politician who was aiming to win and that was a uh a combination that he handed on to

Leighton and as we can see it’s it’s the ndp’s road to Victory Brian just to stick with you for a second you said you were one of the young people that an referenc that Ed roband always had time for uh I’m not saying you’re old but

When you were older he also had time for you in the 2011 leadership race he endorsed you he backed you I know that didn’t go the way you were hoping but that must have felt pretty good what did it feel like when Ed bran said this is the guy to lead this

Party that it was a fantastic honor it really was and um you’re right that I didn’t quite get there said um but that was where we moved from you know him being the boss that I worked for to us starting to become friends and so in

That sense um I was still the winner because I picked up a fabulous friend and um you know as an says he was sharp right to the end I I had dinner with him just before Christmas and uh it may surprise an to hear that there was a bottle of wine

There and um we solved um all the world’s problems once again again and you know he was sharp to the end and he’s also followed followed the politics very closely I worked in the Manitoba campaign where where wob canoe was just elected he was one of the first to call

Asking how it was shaping up and he was one of the first to call after we had the election result and he was you know fascinated by the details of aiming to win as he was by the by the principles that were at play and if you let me uh

Just add one more thing you can see that at play for example in what an was talking about earlier in the very big fingerprints that he has on the Canadian Charter of Rights the language and there unequality for women support for First Nations uh treaty rights and the

Acknowledgement of the western in Canada owns its own resources there were many people working on those files but he was a keyw and in that sense there’s a very big at Broadbent Legacy that’s going to last in this country for a very long time and and on that on the Legacy

Question how do you think Ed Broadbent would want to be remembered because everyone’s going to remember him in their own way how do you think he would want people to to view his contribution well I think you know he was a champion for human rights and I think he would

Want people to recognize number one that he was a Social Democrat that he that he was a new democrat through and through that he that he always supported the party and and felt like the party should form government I mean he wanted the NDP to form government before he left planet

Earth and uh he has said he said that um but also that he just he always came through when you like I mean I often refer to it as like you know we would put out the bat signal and he always showed up and did whatever was asked of

Him like when he came back in 2004 and agreed to run in Ottawa center that was huge and he sat in that caucus I was at I was in I was there then he sat in that caucus as a former leader who was there to support the current leader that’s not

Something that everybody can do no you know he was in a caucus with peers supporting a leader that wasn’t him even though he had previously been the leader so he was just really really um sure of his role sure of his positions but always ready to work collectively to get

Things done but you what you touched on there so much of his career is is unusual in a way to be a leader of a party for 14 and2 years to get the shot to run in four national elections that’s unimaginable in modern or contemporary politics that was was Modern but in

Contemporary politics that’s unimaginable something like that would happen yeah totally and and he was you know he like I said he was he was just so generous and so compassionate and so and so smart like the guy was sharp as a whip he was like he had a giant

Intellect and uh yet at the same time was able to talk to people in in ways that didn’t just kind of show off his intellectual prowess but actually got to what people were concerned about and what the solutions could be but Brian it’s interesting when you look back at

Some of his his core principles and compare them to sort of where consensus opinion is now opposing free trade which is something I guess most Canadians now would would broadly support the idea of pulling out of NATO very different positions in a very different time than what we’re in now in 2024

Yep that’s right he was a man of his era and you’ll notice that he wasn’t talking about that stuff currently no um but his core underlying principles never changed from when he was an academic he was passionately committed to equality and talked about it his whole career and

Not just in principle but in outcome and so he you know he’s he stuck to his principles as a Social Democrat for sure and um but he uh you know we’re talking with the two sides of the band here that he one level he’s a highly principled individual but also a very practical

Politician who wanted to win and that means that he evolved with his times which is what you need to do when you want to win particularly when you want the kind of long run that you were just talking about which as you say is highly

Unusual if you want to a long run like that then you need to respond to new facts yes you have to evolve if you’re going to last in politics uh or be completely strident and just get elected by a very narrow Coalition but you know

Brian top I guess the same question I I I put to an H how do you think Ed Broadbent will want people to remember him and assess his legacy and view his contribution to Canadian politics and public life I think what he will want to be

Remembered by is first of all what I just talked about that equality should be at the center of our politics and that we should not be satisfied with the way things are now he was not satisfied with the way things are now he wanted to change them and secondly that there’s a

Route to getting that change without resorting to angry populism through elective politics and through parliaments and so he was a deeply committed Democrat as youve been saying in in reviewing his career you know he spent a big chunk of time talking about democracy and that was because he was

Passionate about it and so he believed that you could do big things through Democratic elections and I think that’s that is uh that’s what we should all retain and when uh we said earlier today what he would really want us to do is carry on his work that’s the work that

He would want carried on and you mentioned that whenever you fired up the bat signal he he would respond and that was the case in 2008 when him and and Jean cren sort of came together to help orchestrate this attempted Coalition between the NDP the the Liberals and the block um what was

It about him that I mean look he said that didn’t go too well and it was probably the wrong approach and I think that that’s kind of the way it was born out but like what was it about Ed Broadbent that that that made you want him for something this delicate and this

Potentially controversial well for one thing he was a very skilled negotiator MH uh he he saw he saw the goal and he and he knew how to get there he had great relationships across uh across different parties as as we’re seeing today but we’ve seen all along and he

Was uh he was very um he wasn’t rigid in his politics you know he knew how to he knew how to maneuver and so and and plus he had that kind of historic um uh significance in the party that that was very very important and you know like

Brian and I were were both there during that and he was all of those things but also a lot of fun like there were some very very fun moments during that and uh he was very fun and he was very very funny and um you know he he was he just

He but we asked him to show up he showed up it was freezing cold you might remember um and and and we you know kind of buckled down and just did the work you know and and he was you know not a young man at that time either and uh and

And he just kind of you know he did he did the hard he didn’t just do the kind of you know standing in front of cameras kind of stuff he did the hard work in the back room making sure that it was something that we could do that that we

Could actually get done I could just add to that it’s also worth remembering that Ed joined that that steering committee in partnership with Alan blatney yes and there’s two things about that that I think are interesting to bring out and the first is that the key thing in my

View that they both contributed was that they were universally trusted in the party right and so at a time when the dra was trying to do something really big which was to kick a minority Tory government out of office and the have the majority that was in Parliament

Govern um that the party trusted them trusted you know but many Archy was the best NDP Premier that we ever had and one of the best federal leaders that we ever had so he was enormously trusted another piece of the puzzle was that during the constitutional battles uh I

Broad that Allan blatney had some big fights some really big fights on the details of uh particularly of the resource uh Clauses and you know frankly in hindsight is a little hard sometimes to figure out what they were fighting about but they did and so as a footnote

Um those two worked very amicably together on that project um and they were most formidable people to report to as we were working through that and they kind of um rekindled own friendship that had gone through a bit of a a hard pass during the Constitutional Wars no you

Make a good point there about being trusted and in that case it wouldn’t just be within your own party but by the other parties and that’s something that Brian morone even said in the interview with me earlier that he’s a man of dignity and a man of honesty uh I want

To thank you both uh for joining me and speaking about your friend Brian Topp and and McGrath uh I’m sorry for your loss but I’m grateful of your time thank you so much thank you prime minister Justin Trudeau has tweeted out his indolences following the passing of Ed Broadbent Trudeau said

Canada is better off because of Ed broadbent’s selfless service an advocate for equality and Champion for justice his commitment to helping others never wavered he leaves behind an incredible Legacy one that will no doubt continue to inspire people across the country to the Broadband family to his friends and

To all of the Canadians who are mourning the passing of this Visionary leader I’m keeping you in my thoughts and I’m sending you my deepest condolences NDP leader jug meet Singh called Ed Broadbent a mentor and a friend Singh says Broadbent was a lifelong champion of our movement and

Our party and that he was always generous with his time jug me Singh joins us now from Kingston Mr Mr Singh thanks for joining us thanks for having me your statement touched on Ed Brent’s generosity with his time we’ve heard the same thing from an McGrath from Brian top how was Ed

Broadbent generous to you as a leader of the democratic party well uh he was someone I called right when I became leader I asked him for advice advice and since that first call when I asked him for advice he never said no to me I I asked him for so

Many different things he campaigned with me in 2019 we walked the land Landsdown farmers market in Ottawa together we uh spent lots of time together chatting about the future of the party and and decisions so I asked his advice on the agreement and he was there for me and

Encouraged me we uh were just together a couple months ago at the progress the progress Institute that he started the Broadband Institute dinner in Toronto um there’s a picture circulating of of us all together when we listen to President Biden in Parliament where my wife my my

Daughter and and Ed were all together we’ve had lots of really special moments but most importantly he was very actively a mentor to me helping me through getting uh my feet on the ground as a new leader and navigating Federal politics and just always there for me

Would always answer my my call and not just answer my call but answer whatever help I needed if I needed to meet up if I needed him to come in and meet with my team he he always said yes you say you reached out to him for advice when you

First became leader what’s the best piece of advice he gave you about the role that you were taking on well one of the things he said to me and he repeated this many times when we would chat was that sometimes do Democrats have this debate H can we stay

Consistent with their values or should we try to focus on winning and he made it really clear that we need to do both that it’s not either or it’s a both we need to be consistent with our values and we need to be in a position to make

Life better for working people and that was something that he really emphasized and it was a big part of his legacy he contributed to the movement to say he wasn’t trying to be the conscious of parliament he wanted to be the next prime minister and that was a vision

That I I really took to heart and then when we we were able to bring in something like the national Dental Care Program he said this is exactly why we’re new Democrats to force government uh to bring in things and we can’t bring them in ourselves but to force the

Change not to just raise concerns but to bring in material changes to people’s lives like ensuring that people can get their teeth looked after saving the money and improving their health this is why we became new Democrats so he was really encouraging and supportive but also really pushed this idea that we

Need to fight to be in a position to make life better for people you you said that you reached out to him uh to discuss the the supply and confidence agreement uh that you have with with the the federal liberals right now that is expected to run until the election in

2025 he was a little bit critical of it though in one of the last interviews he did with rosemary Barton saying he felt it was for too long it it went on for too long and and maybe limited a bit of your leverage did he ever speak about

That with you uh you know when you were considering this or when you were seeking his advice on that what what did he ADV advise you on on on this agreement we actually chatted right after that interview and and he made it really clear he said listen I want you

To know I believe in everything you’re doing my major concern is how do we make these liberals do what they say they’re going to do and two how do you get the credit and I and I chuckled because that is something that Ed always kept in his

Mind he didn’t just want us to be able to make a difference for people now he also wanted us to be elected in the future to continue to make a difference in people’s lives so he was really concerned about how get that credit and he knew that liberals would Backtrack on

Things so he wanted to make sure that we had ways to force them to deliver so I appreciate that advice uh but like I said he was very proud that we were able to use our power to make some big changes in people’s lives and he he made

That really clear to me I wonder Mr Singh how would you assess Ed broadbent’s Legacy uh not not just for the new Democratic party he’s clearly in that Jack Leighton Ed Broadbent Tommy Douglas sort of sort of Stratosphere uh for the new Democrats but for Canadian politics and for the country at Large

Well I would put it to you this way whenever we would be at events I would always find him in the crowd if I knew he was there and say folks Ed bronen is in the crowd today and he is who I want

To be when I grow up and I said that and every time I said it Ed would laugh as if it was the first time I said that joke uh he was very generous with his humor as well as with his time and the reason why I said that is the reason why

He is so special is that he never stopped fighting he was a elected official he was a leader of a party that then another leader Jack Leen asked him to run again and he did it and then when he retired from polit from political life he didn’t stop giving back he

Founded a progressive Institute which is now a powerful voice for working people again and that is a part of who he is his legacy is he never stopped he never stopped fighting for people even while retired even having started an Institute he was a big mentor to me as the eighth

Leader of the new Democratic party so he never stopped caring about people about the movement and that’s a big part of why he is someone that I’ll always remember I I am sad today that he has passed but I am so honored to have known

Him and to have had the the privilege of receiving his guidance and wisdom and uh someone that I can look up to as how one should live their life to constantly and always find a way to give back to build a better future Federal NDP leader jug

Meet Singh thank you so much for joining us today we appreciate the time sir thank you well long time new democrat party leader e Robin has died he was 87 years old Bob Ray Canada’s ambassador to the UN previously served as an npmp there’s a young Bob Ray there from 1978 to 1982

When Ed Broadbent was the leader of the federal NDP and Bob Ray joins me now in the studio I I saw you giggling and smiling when you saw a picture well looking I have that picture I’m going to put it up uh today on my account but and

And it brings back a lot of memories um uh Ed was a was I supported Ed at the convention in 1975 when I was a when I was a law student and uh and ran for him when 1978 in Broadview and then was reelected many times um it it uh it’s

For me it’s a a moment that brings back many many memories of uh of a really wonderful guy he he he was he was unusually I mean I guess he he was unusually thoughtful he was a very intelligent guy uh you know he started he started out as a political science

Professor at York University when he was first elected uh but he he never he never left who he was where he came from what he really believed in he was a very committed Social Democrat uh or Democratic Socialist people argue about the terms um he believed in in in solidarity

Intensely but the thing that he believed in more than anything else else in in his whole life was decency he wanted people to be treated decently he was a decent guy he he treated people fairly um I worked with him as a colleague he was my

Leader he was my mentor in many ways I mean we went through a lot of discussions around the decisions that I had to make in becoming Premier and um and my my when I decided to leave the federal caucus in 1982 it was a it was a

Tough moment for me and and for I think for him too he was he was a remarkable man and uh uh when I think of him I think of the era that we all that we went through at that time which is if I may say so quite different from the era

That we’re in at the moment so it’s uh it’s a it’s a sad moment for me I was I was shocked when I got the news what was it you spent about four years in his caucus uh when he was leader and then you were of course the provincial leader

And there’s an overlap there between your careers what was he like as a leader what was it like to be in his caucus uh well first of all the caucus was very rambunctious we had a we had a young caucus I know that people who are

Watching this now will say who is this guy talking about you know how could he have been part of a young anything but uh we had a whole bunch of people who were in their late 20s and early 30s uh who were uh newly elected and it was a

Transition period and Ed was the successor to uh you know David Lewis and Tommy Douglas and the woodsworth and you know that whole tradition and uh it I think was taken aback by you know people like Jim Fulton and uh Bill Blakey and uh and me and others who were you know

Very forthright engaged but the thing is we went through a hell of a time because we we went through the whole period of constitutional change we went through the minority government of Mr Clark which eventually Was Defeated right and then we went through the repatriation of the Constitution where we played a crit

The NDP played a critical role uh and uh Ed was a was a wonderful leader he was collegial he was consultative uh he listened a lot and he tried to forge consensus even though it was not always possible or always easy um and and he was he was extremely

Fair-minded um he didn’t he didn’t like disciplining people and it’s hard to do as a party leader anyway we just talked to J meing about the the supply and confidence agreement that he has with Justin Trudeau’s liberals yes I think it was it 1980 when Pierre Elliot Trudeau approached at broadbend about a

Coalition government yes and he turned it down I mean without being without actually talking to anybody okay I was to say were you asked about that you know was it the right choice no he just came in and said said I’ve decided not and he because he thought it through he

Said I reached the no he said he asked me on the spot I said no I don’t think that’s going to work because these things only work when you with the power of numbers if you have leverage then you’re in a position but the Liberals

Had a majority and uh I think Mr Trudeau wanted us in because he wanted Western representation yes aatu in BC seats at the time to to deal with the the challenge that he was facing that he knew he’d be facing on the Constitution um no actually it’s funny I said he was

Consulted that’s one thing he didn’t consult us on and there were some people who said we should at least have talked about it but no seriously I mean Ed was uh Ed Ed was just he was just extremely decent guy incredibly hardworking I think Jack I heard Jack meet saying the

Way he um came back uh uh continued to come back and he for him it was politics was a vocation for him public service was a vocation for him uh and I think it’s important for Canadians to know and young Canadians to know that there are people who just believe that this is

What you do you you you give back and you contribute and he believed in the public good he believed intensely In fairness for working families and he believed intensely that Canada could be a fairer and better country than than it was and even than it is and he never

Never changed Tunes or I’m looking thinking of myself because he was very critical of my decision to leave the new democrats for the Liberals he never changed parties but he was he was his friendship was consistent and he was did he give you a lot of grief over that did

Did he give you a lot of no he we wrote one strong article where he rejected what I did um and I saw him a few days later not long after and he looked at me and he said are we still talking I said absolutely we’re still talking why

Wouldn’t I talk to you and we continueed to talk after uh and when I went to work in on indigenous issues he was extremely supportive and when I was appointed to the UN he was one of the first people to call me up and say that’s a great a

Bright place for you to be so I I’ve managed to our personal relationship managed to survive the uh the political divorce just just as a final Point like his decency that you talk about I I’m dating myself a bit here too I me the first real national election I paid

Attention to was 1988 you know I was 15 free trade all of these things were happening and I’m looking at this old New York Times article from November 8th 1987 a leftist leader surging in Canada I talked to Brian about this earlier in the show Ed Broadbent was

First in the polls according to a globa mail poll then 38% for him 35 for the Liberals 24 for the conservatives who ended up having the big win he almost got there it was right there it’s that sort of decency and and Clarity you speak of almost carried him to the big

Job well you know one of the regrets that I have is in some ways I think Ed left too soon um I I believe that I mean he left elected politics he went on his head up the Dem the Democratic Institute that uh Mr M actually appointed him to

But nobody was more disappointed than I was I was leader of the NDP in Ontario at the time and I was at the announcement where he where he announced that he was stepping down and I can remember saying too loudly because I I I thought I was just whispering but as

Often this a case I was talking a little louder than that I just said no no no no h and I I felt very strongly that he was very disappointed in the election result uh the free trade election but we got caught in a squeeze the NDP got caught

In the squeeze that he couldn’t get out of and and I I still believe that that you know it was still there I mean he he needed to but he didn’t he didn’t want it he’d been there since’ 68 he’d been there for 20 20 years of service uh but

He kept on giving back in many in many many other ways um he had a great sense of humor um he was uh above all he was uh I I went through some very difficult personal times um in the 80s with my wife’s parents and and my own brother um

And he could not have been kind her uh and I think that’s a quality in politics it’s often undervalued uh is you know kindness is everything and curiosity is everything as the late John Godfrey said and uh I think Ed had both things he was curious and he was uh constantly interested in

What was going on uh and he was an extremely kind and decent guy and I think everybody will who knew him and worked with him will remember him that way no certainly in all the conversations we’ve had about it uh since the news broke decency and dignity

Are are two things that that come through uh I want to thank you for coming in with thank you good to talk to you you Ambassador Bob Bray

Ed Broadbent is being remembered fondly as a friend, mentor and champion for change by those who knew and worked with him. The Broadbent Institute, which he founded, announced his death in a statement Thursday. He was 87.

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