The comunity economic development sector and progressive policy change in Manitoba

The author also wishes to express his indebtedness to Brendan Reimer, whose position as Coordinator for Canadian CED Network Manitoba allowed him to provide essential feedback on several of the paper’s drafts and to correct innumerable points concerning the development of policy and the nature of the CED sector in the province. [...] In addition, the political platform of the NDP bears a close resemblance to the priorities which the CED sector has long militated for including the reduction of poverty and social exclusion (ibid.). [...] With such former CED activists embedded in the very nexus of power, it wasn’t long before a “strong coincidence of beliefs between government and 2 Loxley and Simpson (2007) describe the ‘greening of Assiniboine.’ In the mid-1990s, some of the more militant members of the credit union staged an initiative to elect a more progressive Board of Director in order to make the organization more responsi [...] In turn, the greater access of the CED sector to people in government “increased the range of interaction between government and the community sector” and created a climate of strong connections between practitioners, bureaucrats and elected officials (Loewen, n.d., 28). [...] MaY 2010 8 the cOMMUNItY ecONOMIc DeVeLOPMeNt sectOr aND PrOgressIVe POLIcY chaNge IN MaNItOba the CED Framework and Lens represent the acceptance by government of the “wisdom of the CED community” (28).