VP Katie Francis’ Report on Participation at the 2026 Broadbent Progress Summit and Emerging Leaders Program
The Broadbent Institute is a non-partisan, Canadian social democratic think-tank founded by Ed Broadbent in 2011. It produces research, convenes progressive dialogues, and trains organizations to advance social justice and equality.
Every year, the Broadbent Institute hosts a Progress Summit for progressive activists, democratic institutions, and labour leaders to come together, share ideas, and find solutions on emerging issues. This year, I was selected to join the Summit through the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) offered by the Broadbent Institute. This is a supplementary, year-long program that equips participants with the skills needed to build a fairer, more inclusive society through a combination of training, mentorship and workshops. The program honours the legacy of Ed Broadbent to shape the next generation of progressive leaders in the fight for equality and justice. This program took place from March 4-6, 2026.
Emerging Leaders Program
On Wednesday morning, the Emerging Leaders participants convened for the first time. The group includes leaders from labour, not-for-profit, and student organizations with similar, progressive purposes and goals. After brief introductions, the group attended our first workshop on strategy and how to make a difference in building our own strategy. In this session, we discussed persuasion, which studies have shown is broken down to 50% caring, 35% dedication, and 15% competence, highlighting the importance of “knowing” someone if you want to “move” them. We also looked at how to build a successful strategy by looking at strengths and weaknesses and through turning our weaknesses into our strengths/”their” weaknesses. The strategy building tips from this session will help in building a better long-term strategy for PIPSC.
The next workshop of the day focused on leadership and the foundations that make a leader great. The facilitator discussed how to overcome the human side of leadership that can lead to imposter syndrome and isolation, and that it is essential for good leaders to have accountability and agency well defined. She also highlighted that good leaders should be empathetic, respectful and empower their team. We ended the session discussing conflict resolution skills, including how to identify common goals in problem solving.
Finally, we did a short session on building a public narrative to draw people into a movement. This session drew on the work of organizer Marshall Ganz and taught us how to build a story that resonates in a way that calls people to action. This lesson will be useful in organizing efforts and I look forward to sharing what I learned with colleagues and activists at PIPSC.
Progress Summit
On Thursday we joined the broader Progress Summit attendees in the main plenary. The first session I attended included “Defending Democracy Across Borders,” which brought in speakers who are working on the front lines to defend democracy. This included Amy Hewett-Olatunde, a teacher in Minnesota who described the challenges her school is facing in defending their students from current issues. There was also a German MP, Rodion Bakum, who spoke about confronting far right ideologies. Organizer Syed Hussan also presented on defending migrant workers who have long been exploited in Canada. Guillaume Lavoie of the FTQ was also present and he discussed the attacks on unions being initiated by Avenir Quebec and how it is a losing strategy. Finally, we heard from journalist Rumineek Johal of Press Progress who is reporting on far right extremism and fighting for journalists’ abilities to do their jobs freely. A central theme to all of these talks was defending democratic freedom and human rights.
The following session I attended was “Shaping Canada’s Economic Future – Workers, Trade and What Comes Next.” This session featured Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske, UFCW President Barry Swyer, and FTQ President Magali Picard. In this session, they discussed concerns around youth unemployment, cuts to science, and the aging population combined with the healthcare crisis. We were reminded that solidarity is a team sport and that people need to see themselves being represented in order to be a part of a change. The panelists called on us to hold politicians accountable to build a Canada that we want to live in. PIPSC has an upcoming lobby day in March, where we will remind our MPs that public service cuts are not the solution in a time when Canada is trying to become more self-reliant.
On Thursday, I also attended the session “Defending Jobs in a Trade War – Canadian Perspectives on Work, Security and Economic Trust.” This session presented data from surveys on public opinions towards jobs, unions, and demographic divides. The findings indicated that 36% of participants view unions as the defenders of jobs – not politicians. The survey findings also showed that most respondents feel that pay matters in a job, but good benefits, decent vacation, and strong job security are nearly as important. Among non-unionized participants, young workers were most open to the idea of joining a union. Respondents also indicated that they value investments in eldercare, trades, housing, manufacturing, and renewable energy. These results can help shape PIPSC’s strategy going forward.
Thursday also included a final workshop for the Emerging Leaders group on the topic of consultation and negotiations. This session highlighted three types of negotiations: a competition style, a win-lose method without regard to their other party’s needs, a compromise style, which leaves both sides feeling like they didn’t get their needs fully met, and an interest-based style, which aims to solve interests for all parties involved. The facilitator noted that interest-based negotiations tend to result in the best outcomes, because all parties have the opportunity to introduce their needs, which leads to more understanding as the process moves along. We also worked through several scenarios where we practiced consulting and negotiating as opposing parties. These lessons and practice are applicable to consultations and negotiations taking place at PIPSC and the skills taught in this session have already proven useful.
I ended the day by participating in a coalition building meeting, convened by fellow public service union CAPE, with a focus of coming together to confront austerity measures. The strategy was to identify potential collaborators to develop co-strategies in protecting public sector jobs. Several unions and organizations in the not-for-profit sector indicated that anti-austerity is a priority for their organizations. Several of the organizations were also concerned about how the austerity measures will affect the agriculture sector, including public service cuts at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Conversations in this area are planned to continue as the federal and provincial government’s austerity measures continue to evolve.
On Friday, one of the final sessions of the Summit was “Building Real Canadian Digital Sovereignty and Democratic AI” featuring Paris Marx of Technology Won’t Save Us, Sarah Ryan of CUPE, Laurent Carbonneau of Canadian Innovators Ottawa, and Mia Travers-Hayward of the Canadian Teacher’s Federation. This session discussed the importance of building Canadian technology systems, including public sector-developed platforms for the government to do business on, in order to mitigate potential security risks associated with using non-Canadian systems. They also got into the potential for AI to make jobs worse via increased surveillance, hiring algorithms that could introduce bias and discrimination, and reduced worker autonomy and control. They indicated that AI and an austerity budget do not work well for a service delivery agenda and that public trust needs to be built by regulating AI to reduce harm to workers and the public. It was also indicated that workers should be consulted on how AI is rolled out in their workplaces since they understand the work best. A final thought was that AI in the public sector should be publicly owned, so that Canadians as a whole benefit from the use of the technology.
The last session I attended was “Our Time is Now – Delivering Change from NY to Toronto.” This talk featured Grace Mausser of the NYC Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and Karla Webber-Gallagher who is Mayor Olivia Chow’s Chief of Staff. These speakers spoke about how change is a choice and that the mayors of NYC and Toronto are choosing to make life more affordable. Finally, they touched on using joy as a leadership tool and allowing yourself to connect with people in new ways. They shared the commonality between Toronto and NYC leadership in finding fun by embedding themselves in working class culture and immersing themselves in the people they represent.
Key Takeaways
The theme of the 2026 Progress Summit of “Defending Democracy Across Borders” rang true in many of the sessions I attended over the course of the three day conference. The lessons, data, and skills shared across these sessions will be useful in shaping PIPSC’s strategy going forward in this time of austerity. The Summit also offered a valuable opportunity to connect with fellow public sector unions and other organizations that are pushing back against austerity measures and government mandates. The Emerging Leaders Program offered further opportunities to connect with leaders across various sectors and within the labour movement, while also offering workshops relevant to leadership and movement building. This opportunity will help strengthen PIPSC’s efforts in organizing and mobilization going forward.