Eleven stories on the future of the left in Canada have now run in rabble.ca's ongoing series: Reinventing democracy, reclaiming the commons: A progressive dialogue on the future of Canada.

Every Friday since May 20, stories that explore the options and possibilities have been published. The series is currently taking a hiatus for August, with our next story due to run after Labour Day on Friday, Sept. 9.

The series will run in this, rabble.ca's 10th year, and is curated by journalist Murray Dobbin.

We invite readers to take a look at what we've published so far, add comments to the bottom of each story, or participate in chat about what has been run in babble, rabble.ca's forum.

Welcome to rabble.ca's extended series on the Canadian left -- Reinventing democracy, reclaiming the commons: A progressive dialogue on the future of Canada -- a look at where it stands after the 2011 federal election, and what the future can hold. The series will run in this, rabble.ca's 10th year, and is curated by journalist Murray Dobbin.

Open Letter for a "NEW" Democratic Socialist Party

Sisters and Brothers,

In his Oct. 9th, 2010 column, titled "The NDP: Not your father's socialism," John Ivison of The National Post wrote about the NDP's "metamorphosis of an old 20th-century socialist party into a vibrant 21st-century social democratic party." What exactly a "21-st century social democratic party" looks like is hard to discern though a few clues were provided by Ivison in a lower paragraph in the story:

So, Rob Ford is Mayor. I've been sitting on Facebook (my social media of choice) and watching the pain, fear and sadness descend on my friends and colleagues. There is shock that this happened. How could it? What does this mean? Who did this to us? But, they hate us gay, Chinese, cycling, latte drinking intelligentsia? Should I move?

Don't move! Create solutions!

Ever the optimist, I have been thinking about what this means for us. For democracy. For electoral politics. For the Centre for Social Innovation. For the citizens of Toronto.

Marc Lee, of the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, has proposed an excellent 12-part program for a reoriented and reinvigorated Canadian Left. He has done us a real service by identifying key themes that would define the Left and catalyze fundamental change:

• a universal guaranteed income program

• sectoral collective bargaining

• legal changes to rein in the power of corporations

• abolition of intellectual property (copyright and patents)

• public control of key economic sectors and infrastructures through regulation, nationalization or the creation of public corporations