A Better Ontario is Possible!, Socialist Party of Ontario

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: A Better Ontario is Possible!, Socialist Party of Ontario 

The Socialist Party of Ontario was formed on May 28, 2011 in Toronto and ran candidates in two provincial elections. 

As I wrote five years later in the piece On the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Socialist Party of Ontario the need for a new party has never been greater :

"Based around putting the supposed egalitarianism of socialism into action, it was created as a leaderless party whose intent was to allow for the flowering of a real collective and democratic approach to party policy and governance.

It also adopted an unashamedly and avowedly democratic socialist platform."

While not as "vintage" as many of the leaflets posted here, this was the SPO's general leaflet printed in 2012 that outlined many of the party's most important policies as well as its general philosophy. 

Its central slogans were "A Better Ontario is Possible" and "A New Ontario: Community, Diversity, Solidarity, Justice" under the banner "Socialism, Democracy, Feminism, Equality". 

If you are interested in reading more about the party its platform and constitution can still be found online. 

(Click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).


If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

On the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Socialist Party of Ontario the need for a new party has never been greater

Five years ago today in Toronto, the Socialist Party of Ontario was formed.

Based around putting the supposed egalitarianism of socialism into action, it was created as a leaderless party whose intent was to allow for the flowering of a real collective and democratic approach to party policy and governance.


It also adopted an unashamedly and avowedly democratic socialist platform.


Sadly, for reasons that would take an epic second article to relate (one which I may yet write, as the lessons of experiments are always important) the SPO is now dormant. It had its opportunities and moments, but something would always derail them.

I remain tremendously proud, however, of what the activists who came together that day tried to do.

If for no other reason that we tried to do something. 

The NDP is a shallow, undemocratic neo-liberal farce. The entryist attempts to change it, as well as broader efforts, have and will almost certainly continue to lead nowhere.

With the revival of socialism as an idea in the United States even, there is a clear and present opportunity for a new Left Front style party and movement to unite Left Social Democrats. Socialists, Anarcho-Syndicalists and Communists together in the common cause of attacking head on and tearing down the rotten edifice of the bankrupt capitalist politics of today, including those of the NDP.

The sick and grotesque politics of inequality, systemic oppression and environmental degradation.

Yet, sisters and brothers, that new movement is NOT another Marxism conference or lamenting article away! If we are to build something worthwhile and new to escape the swamp of what is the emptiness of the liberalism of the NDP and Liberal Party and to fight for a real working-class agenda, we have to go beyond sharing internet memes celebrating victories in other countries.

We have to make these victories happen here as well.

Today, I share links to the SPO platform and constitution as well as to our two Spokesperson videos from 2011 and 2014.

The socialist idea will never die. Let us try to build a new party around it together again.

No more talk. The time for action is now.

SPO Constitution

SPO Platform










The SPO website

Joe Higgins speaks in Toronto 2011 - with Tommy Douglas' Mouseland! Leftist TBT

Four years ago today, the great Irish Socialist leader Joe Higgins traveled to Toronto to speak at the founding meeting of the Socialist Party of Ontario, an attempt to create a real left electoral alternative in the province.



Joe addressed those assembled to talk about the devastation in Europe and Ireland caused by austerity politics, the failure of the traditional social democratic and labour parties to oppose these politics and on the need for new left parties in Canada and beyond, as well as on the fundamental bankruptcy of the NDP.

We share this speech, which still remains powerfully true today, as well as, as a bonus, a video of Joe introducing the famous socialist parable, Mouseland, written by Tommy Douglas.




After the convention, Joe and a group of us also went to enjoy some of Toronto's best chicken wings at a working class bar in Etobicoke! You can read an account of this trip here: Going for Toronto's best chicken wings with Irish Socialist leader Joe Higgins