The New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus is an unofficial left-wing faction within Canada's New Democratic Party. Its manifesto maintains that the New Democratic Party has moved too far to the right, and is in danger of becoming indistinguishable from the Liberal Party. Consequently, the Socialist Caucus also opposed Tony Blair's Third Way policies and their adoption by the NDP because they "[leave] the basic class and economic structures of capitalism unchanged." Origins The Socialist Caucus was founded in early 1998 in Toronto by Barry Weisleder, Joe Flexer, Sean Cain, Jorge Hurtado and other political activists who had been involved in Peter Kormos's unsuccessful 1996 campaign to lead the Ontario New Democratic Party. It soon had branches in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as supporters in Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia. It is now active primarily in Ontario at the federal and provincial levels. It also has supporters in other provinces. The caucus views itself as the successor to The Waffle of the 1960s and 1970s and a number of members in the Socialist Caucus were also in the NDP's Left Caucus and the Campaign for an Activist Party or CAP of the 1980s. The Trotskyist group Socialist Action plays a "leading role"<ref name=leading> in the Socialist Caucus. An earlier group called the Socialist Caucus was formed around 1959 and 1960 in Vancouver by a group of Co-operative Commonwealth Federation dissidents, "communists, Trotskyists, and fellow travellers" led by former CCF Member of Parliament Rod Young, and was involved in the CCF and then the NDP. The group published a journal called Press and then Socialist Caucus Bulletin, which was co-edited by Ernie Tate. The group eventually had branches in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec and eventually folded into The Waffle. Policies The group is a socialist faction and advocates economic democracy and workers' control, full employment, the nationalization of large industries and the eradication of poverty and homelessness. The caucus is anti-imperialist, and condemns many of the actions of the United States' government. It supports the Cuban Revolution, the withdrawal of Canada from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the independence of Quebec, and opposes Zionism. Leadership campaigns In 2001, the Socialist Caucus ran Marcel Hatch in a leadership challenge against Alexa McDonough. Hatch won 120 votes out of 765 ballots cast. Bev Meslo was the Socialist Caucus' candidate in the party's