I should add something to the discussion on entryism, and this is probably one of the worst kept secrets about groups like the IMT.
Now, this might only work for radicals and good actors, but pull a Trot entryist like an IMTer aside and talk to him about entryism. Say that you think entryism is a crappy tactic for radicals, that the NDP can never be won to socialism, that the NDP isn't going to start or lead "the revolution", and that if there ever is a real revolution in this country, you can bet that the NDP will be on the side of the capitalists, and say that expending all our efforts to be bureaucratically stymied by a social democratic establishment is a waste of time, and radicals have better things to do with our time.
Then, you will see a change of tack. Seeing that he's dealing with another radical and not a naive young NDPer who hasn't been repeatedly burned by The Party yet, the line will shift. They don't really believe that they can "Win the NDP to Socialism" either*, that that is just their public face, the line they feed people in the NDP. Obviously, if you're going to recruit from the NDP, "Win the NDP to Socialism" is a better slogan than "The NDP can never be won to socialism".
So, why even bother with the entryism if even they realize that the NDP is bullshit?
Really, they want to be in the NDP so they can recruit from "the most advanced layers of the working class" who they claim are all in the NDP, or at least will all join the NDP en masse when the "level of struggle" increases (not sure who they think the "advanced layers of the working class" will struggle against when we have an NDP government, but whatevs). Which makes me wonder if the ratio of self-hating middle class students is any different from any other Marxist group in Canada, but that is neither here nor there. They feel the best way to recruit these people to radical politics is to run this slogan up the flagpole and prove by their failure that the NDP can never be won to socialism - then picking up the pieces of folks screwed over by the party brass, and going back in for another round of entryism.
Now, this also means that they need to have a bit of a personality cult around folks like Alan Woods and their leadership in order to keep this all in balance. If they recruit too many people who actually believe their public line, then those people will be a risk to the trusted comrades in the leadership who know that that line is bullshit. There would be nothing worse for the IMT than to have their national sections be taken over by those gullible, advanced layers of the working class found only in the NDP, who actually believe what they preach. Then they will waste their time with honest efforts to "Win the NDP to Socialism"!
*in fact, the one time in Canadian history that the Trots even came close to winning a section of the NDP over (New Brunswick in the early 70s), they started actively sabotaging themselves to avoid success. See here.