MONTREAL — New Democrats will this weekend be walking the sometimes delicate line between embracing their historic roots and preparing to convince Canadians they are ready to form government in the next election.

“The purpose of this convention is for us to come together and get ready for 2015 and to show Canadians that we are ready to govern and to help ourselves get ready to govern and to win that election,” said Rebecca Blaikie, the NDP president up for re-election at the policy convention beginning in Montreal on Friday.

That includes a renewed attempt to modernize the language in the preamble to the party constitution, rendering it more palatable to mainstream voters who may be turned off by all the references to democratic socialism while staying close enough to the hearts of the grassroots to have a better chance of earning their approval.

It also includes continuing efforts to rebrand the party as capable of managing the economy, a project that has seen Thomas Mulcair move beyond the pocketbook issues and practical solutions New Democrats championed in previous elections to lay out his economic vision on a grander scale.

Joseph Stiglitz, who advised former U.S. president Bill Clinton and won the Nobel Prize for economics, will focus some attention on this issue in a speech to delegates Friday.

Bill Shorten, a minister in the Australian Labour Party who, according to the NDP convention website, has achieved the social democratic dream of delivering “a balanced budget while increasing investment programs” will address delegates Saturday morning.

There have been some bumps along the way toward boosting economic credibility for the NDP — notably the argument by Mulcair that the Canadian economy is suffering from “Dutch disease”, a phrase he has since quietly abandoned — and the Conservative government has been quick to stoke scepticism.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty issued a statement describing some of the policy resolutions up for debate as dangerous to the economy and Canada as a whole.

The full list of policy resolutions from the grassroots membership of any political party has always included some controversial ideas, with this convention being no exception.

No fewer than seven NDP riding associations, for example, want the party to advocate for the legalization of marijuana, even though current policy – and Mulcair – endorses decriminalization instead.

Still, most of those Flaherty referred to are far down on the list, meaning they are unlikely to make it past the in-camera meetings and onto the convention floor for a debate and vote.

Those that do have a better chance of surviving the closed-door debates are milder and often political in nature, such as the resolution calling on the NDP to end the muzzling of scientists or those aiming to fight the Conservative government on attempts to scale back the rights of workers to organize into unions and engage in collective bargaining.

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That will include a town-hall style event Friday evening and a video showing, among other things, Mulcair coaching hockey and skiing with his family.

“I think we will be able to show Tom is this deep, experienced, principled leader and show that side of him that people don’t really get to see on TV all that often,” said Nathan Rotman, national director of the NDP.

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