Edmonton Strathcona Member of Parliament Heather McPherson launched her campaign this afternoon to lead Canada’s New Democrats out of the wilderness they found themselves wandering in after last April’s federal election.
Vowing to “make the NDP a viable choice again, a choice that unites that delivers on the promise of good jobs, of wages that keep up, of homes people can afford, of public services that we can count on,” Ms. McPherson made her expected announcement to more than 300 supporters at La Cité francophone on the University of Alberta’s French-language Campus Saint-Jean in her riding.
She joins Avi Lewis, scion of the Lewis dynasty prominent in the NDP in the 1970s in Ottawa and the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park, in the contest to replace Jagmeet Singh, whose seven and a half years at the party’s helm contributed mightily to the federal NDP’s present unhappy predicament. Mr. Singh resigned when the party was reduced to seven seats, losing official party status, in April.
Mr. Lewis, who failed to win a Vancouver seat in Parliament in April, first announced his leadership bid on social media on Sept. 19, then held an official launch on Wednesday in Toronto. He’ll have another French-language launch in Quebec next month.
No one I heard today at Campus Saint-Jean mentioned Mr. Singh by name, but that of another former federal NDP leader, the late Jack Layton, came up often enough. Maybe it was just the hometown crowd, but even if her message was mostly anodyne, Ms. McPherson’s well-organized launch did have a buzz reminiscent of Mr. Layton’s 2011 federal election campaign, which turned into the famous Orange Wave.
No one from the Alberta NDP’s current leadership seems to have shown up, but former premier Rachel Notley was the best known of those chosen to introduce the three-term MP, describing party as “a group of people who know how to work diligently to earn electoral success that is necessary to make notion-building progressive changes in service of our country and in service of the millions of Canadians who need us to be there.”
“That is the tradition upon which Heather McPherson’s political career has been built,” Ms. Notley stated.
Unlike the easy choice of being a Conservative in Alberta, the former NDP premier observed to laughter, Ms. McPherson’s path “is not the kind of choice people make in service of ladder climbing or career development.” Just the same, she said, “it tends to reveal a genuine principled commitment to the values of our party and, through that, to the livelihoods of the greatest number of people who are our neighbours, who are our friends, and who are in or communities.”
Ms. McPherson targeted Prime Minister Mark Carney in her remarks: “People deserve better than a conservative government and a conservative prime minister wearing a Liberal jersey.” What’s more, she added: “People deserve better than a Conservative Party led by Pierre Poilievre!”
“You know, conservatives target rural seats, rural seats and Western seats, and the Liberals target urban seats and Eastern seats. But the NDP isn’t a regional party. We are Canada’s party. We were built by farmers and urban workers coming together, and we need to reconnect with both. We need to show Canadians that we can make our party stronger. We can make our country stronger.”
So, she said, “If you want pharmacare, if you want dental care, if you want better health care, you have to elect more New Democrats.”
Now, this message is neither unexpected nor likely to be controversial in NDP circles, but it will be much harder to achieve than merely to say.
Turning to the record of Conservatives like Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and federal party Leader Pierre Poilievre – whose name nowadays draws spontaneous boos when mentioned in public – Ms. McPherson observed: “They thrive on division. They turn politics into an us-versus-them, a rural-versus-urban … workers versus the environment. That’s not my vision for the New Democratic Party. We don’t grow by pushing people out. We grow by being bringing people together.”
“That’s the path that Jack laid out. That is the path that Rachel paved. And, like them, we need to make space for everyone.” Noting that with NDP governments in Manitoba and B.C., and New Democrats leading the Opposition in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia, “we know how to win as New Democrats.”
“We win when we build a federal party with the provinces, not when we pull away from them,” she added, perhaps including a subtle jab at Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, who has talked about disaffiliating the provincial NDP from the federal party.
“Every fight I’ve taken on, from protecting water in Treaty 8, to stopping coal mining in the Rocky Mountains, to calling for justice in Ukraine and Palestine, to standing up for jobs here at home, I’ve done it out of a belief of fairness, and I’ve done it bringing people together, and that’s what we need to do,” Ms. McPherson said.
“We don’t have the luxury of waiting,” she said. “People are counting on us now for jobs, for help, making ends meet, for fairness, for hope and yes, for change, and that change starts with us.
“You know. We’re New Democrats. We know how to work hard. We know what to do, because politics does not have to be small. It doesn’t have to be closed. Cuts and cruelty don’t have to be the only options. Canadians deserve better.”
The party will elect its new leader in Winnipeg in March. There will likely be a few more candidates, but it looks as if the real contest will be between Ms. McPherson and Mr. Lewis.
With a seat in Parliament and a record that has made Edmonton Strathcona in otherwise all-Tory-blue Alberta one of few safe NDP seats in Canada, Ms. McPherson can both demonstrate electability and parliamentary experience. Despite the location of her launch, Ms. McPherson spoke only a few words in French – like Prime Minister Carney, she probably has more work to do on that file.
NDP leaders who represent Edmonton Strathcona – or at least the provincial riding with the same name – certainly have a track record of success.
Mr. Lewis, meanwhile, is a well-known broadcaster, documentary-film-maker and environmental activist. He is married to high-profile author and social activist Naomi Klein. So he has traction and enjoys name recognition in a world driven by social media.
Whether his role with Ms. Klein in the controversial Leap Manifesto in 2015 helps or hinders in the NDP of 2025 remains to be seen. Despite their important contributions, I doubt the roles played by Mr. Lewis’s grandfather David as leader of the federal NDP and father Stephen as leader of the Ontario party are remembered by many NDP members today.
Ms. McPherson’s pipeline cheerleading (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-albertas-lone-ndp-mp-supports-trans-mountain-expansion-despite-party/) makes her a non-starter in BC.
Sorry.
Well I wouldn’t be so sure about that Sub-B, I think you’re engaging in wishful thinking. Indeed there was opposition to TMX from some opinion sectors in BC but now it’s largely an inconsequential issue. Ms. McPherson may be a “non-starter” for you and some single-issue types but an anti-TMX demonstration in BC would likely fit inside the proverbial phone booth. Even back when TMX was a hot issue the actual number of demonstrators wasn’t large but the press coverage was. “Non-starter” is an enormous dogmatic exaggeration.
I believe it will take some time for the federal NDP to return to Jack Layton type status. In Alberta, the words NDP and Liberal are despised, yet phony Conservatives and Reformers are praised, despite the damage they are doing in numerous ways.
There are a number of things Mr Lewis proposed that I can agree with, in principle — but he’s forgetting the most important rule of Canadian politics: you need to look for votes where the voters are, and unfortunately, the voters aren’t there for his unabashedly left-wing agenda.
I think what the federal NDP needs instead is the kind of pragmatic, moderately progressive politics that has led many of its provincial wings into government, including current state in Manitoba and BC. I think that Ms McPherson is more likely than Mr Lewis to push for that kind of policy agenda and follow that “Willy Sutton rule” of Canadian politics.
There are other potential candidates waiting in the wings to announce, including a labour leader from Ontario, according to this story in The Star, so I’ll reserve judgement on who I’ll support. But if it came down to a 2-person race between Lewis and McPherson, I’d go with Heather in a heartbeat.
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/heather-mcpherson-launches-ndp-leadership-campaign-with-nod-from-former-alberta-premier-rachel-notley/article_d7a357b4-fa20-4ef4-b43b-b98963248fa8.html
“Left wing agenda”! Heavens no! That’s communism, radical Marxist terrorists!!!!!
The CPC would love to see the federal NDP come back stronger than ever to renew that time honoured tradition of splitting the progressive vote.
JE: This is true and self evident, an inevitable outcome of our first-past-the-post electoral system. But while there is certainly a progressive vote in Canada, it remains unclear whether there is a progressive political party, even one capable of only electing seven MPs. DJC
“No one from the Alberta NDP’s current leadership seems to have shown up”
No NDP leadership at the Legislature, either.
Where can Nenshi & Co. be hiding?
Search & Rescue has found no trace.
Should we put out an AMBER Alert for children? a SILVER Alert for missing seniors? an ORANGE Alert for NDP? or a PURPLE Alert for Nenshi?
Geoffrey: Many of them, as it turns out, were at a caucus retreat. This, in my opinion, is not a very good excuse. A couple could have shown up and brought greetings from the rest. There are other issues, I am sure. DJC
Ummm, Mr Nenshi, accompanied by Lori Sigurdson, Janis Irwin, and Parmeet Singh Boparai, was in Grande Prairie just last Tuesday, the 23rd, for the last stop on their “Better Together” tour. Great turnout: big hotel ballroom with only 3 or 4 empty seats (I was there). Pix here.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0kn7uFuaoiB64HAStQbEW9kVVxooHsm461Vp5DX1j3FW3Ey5z2hA7sJd8BxQR7ZP7l&id=100044237715774
Some of the reason they don’t get much media attention is because all of Alberta’s mainstream media outlets are right-leaning, especially the Postmedia “papers” in Calgary and Edmonton, which are essentially the UCP’s house organs. TV and radio aren’t much better either.
Can’t support a NDP leader or party that supports new oilsands pipelines — and climate disaster.
Not voting for climate arson or climate arsonists.
Building new pipelines and reducing emissions are mutually exclusive objectives.
Fossil-fuel expansion is incoherent climate policy. A plan to fail.
A contradiction that seems to have escaped Ms. McPherson.
Welcome back!
And still, the NDP *not* talking about the elephants in the room. Wiffle waffle words with no clear direction. Again.
THERE’S NO HOUSING. Never mind houses to buy, there’s no affordable rental housing from which–the young could save up down-payments, the rest of the country could stop living in terror of sleeping in their cars and the dark money financial asset slumlords would be forced to repair their premises or have their units stand empty or be seized. Not a word about the huge percentage of Canadians paying more than 70% of their incomes just to feed and house themselves.
Not a word about the American dark money infesting the entire housing market infrastructure and condos built as investment properties rather than actual housing. Not a word about the real estate scams and banking nonsense that makes the poor, poorer and the rich, richer. When Canadians spend $4 just to get their own money out of their own bank accounts so they can spend it–it’s time to reign in the record bankster profits.
Not a word about scraping back privatization and boldly taking back Canada’s resources to be shared between Canadians and First Nations in fair, economically and ecologically healthy ways.
Not a word about the egregious Big Three telecommunications networks and their constant price-gouging nor a word about how to either reign them in–or turn their assets over and make telecommunications a public service.
Not a word how a postal service is not a private corporation required to be a *public service* not a profit-making venture.
The NDP is going into this like a buyer going into a bazaar asking, “How much is this rug?” and the vendor saying, “$20” and the NDP replying, “I’ll give you $25 but please, please Mr Seller, can I have the rug?”
If the NDP is just going to be liberal lite, then they deserve to die as a party until a real working class party can be built on a solid social-democratic foundation that doesn’t start from a low-mid bargaining position and actually has some vision for the future.
You haven’t been paying attention to the NDP website, living in your bubble you have created for yourself.
Whether I look at their website or not, the NDP should be braying this from the rooftops at every media opportunity.
They’re not.
Much of what I said above is *not* in their plan and what housing solutions they are offering have zero timelines, no actual numbers and takes three clicks to find.
If I can lay it out that fast–so can they. So they either are too wiffle-waffle to commit to anything concrete, or they have no actual idea how they’re going to implement it. Throwing the ball to the municipalities so they can shrug off their own responsibility does not a housing plan, make.
“The Regina Manifesto (1933)
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation Programme of a Co-operative Commonwealth in which the principle regulating production, distribution and exchange will be the supplying of human needs and not the making of profits.
WE AIM TO REPLACE the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social order from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning will supersede unregulated private enterprise and competition, and in which genuine democratic self-government, based upon economic equality will be possible. The present order is marked by glaring inequalities of wealth and opportunity, by chaotic waste and instability; and in an age of plenty it condemns the great mass of the people to poverty and insecurity. Power has become more and more concentrated into the hands of a small irresponsible minority of financiers and industrialists and to their predatory interests the majority are habitually sacrificed. When private profit is the main stimulus to economic effort, our society oscillates between periods of feverish prosperity in which the main benefits go to speculators and profiteers, and of catastrophic depression, in which the common man’s normal state of insecurity and hardship is accentuated.“ Lucky the Lewises and Jack Layton and Rachel Notley got all those bugs out of capitalism.
That’s the true NDP. But the far right, aka the fascist Cons and their partners in crime, the corporate media, would have a field day of it. “Radical communists and marxist terrorists have taken over the NDP!!!” “Canada will be finished if we elected them!!!”
Absolutely correct DH. Nothing in this almost century-old manifesto is incorrect or can be disputed but we’ve been “educated” to reject these facts as dangerous. This manifesto is dangerous only to the elites.
McPherson would probably be a much better choice for leader than a guy with a famous name and a high profile, but who had trouble getting elected in a province where it was generally easier in the past for NDP candidates to be elected.
I suppose despite its troubles the Federal NDP at least still can claim to be a national party, although one seat per province or region is not so great and it is surpassed by the Liberals and the Conservatives in most provinces.
If McPherson does win, it will make for a trifecta of leaders with connections to Alberta. So if the west still wants in, it seems it now is.
Well no surprise Ms. McPherson is running. At the ABNDP town hall in Edmonton on the 28th of Aug, there was nomination drive for her.
I signed, and will vote for her. Ms. Notley not running, Ms. McPherson is acceptable. About time the federal NDP had a pragmatic westerner for leader again.
There was a fascinating report on the latest federal election put out by Pollara, which I discovered reading Susan Delacourt’s column in The Star. What it shows is that the federal NDP lost hugely even in provinces where they are either in government — Manitoba and BC — or are a strong Official Opposition — Saskatchewan and Alberta. Even in Ontario, where the NDP only got 18% of the vote in the latest provincial election, but held onto Official Opposition there because their vote was more efficient than the Liberals’, the federal NDP could only muster one-third of that already dismal result: 6%.
What does this mean? One takeaway for me is that the only way New Democrats can win elections in this country is to offer a pragmatic, moderately progressive alternative to their small-‘c’ conservative opponents, with clean, largely scandal-free governance, rather than trying to drag Canadian voters to the left like some commenters here seem to think they should do.
Sure, I’d love to see a genuinely left-wing platform win an election, either provincially or federally. But that simply isn’t going to happen. So, unless we want to be the perpetual. irrelevant also-rans, with only marginally more influence on politics than the fringe parties, we need to look for votes where the voters are.
And, with all due respect to commenters like Mr Pounder here, that isn’t going to be found in shutting down Alberta’s (and northeastern BC’s) oil and gas industry.
“Politicians are weathervanes when they are supposed to be compasses.”
Jerrymacgp seems to suggest that we should just close the book on progressive, social democratic politics — and wait until the voting public swings back to the left. Someday, somewhere over the rainbow.
No opportunity for political leadership. This is mere followship.
Well, nuts to that. With all respect.
Politics is hard work. Politicians have to work at it. Don’t wait for voters to come to you.
“Politics is the art of the possible.”
So we are told by party apologists and defeatists.
No. Politics is the art of persuasion. Cars do not sell themselves. Progressive policy including sane climate policy does not sell itself either.
Politicians sell new ideas and policy change to voters all the time. That’s the job.
If you don’t want that job, don’t run for office!
Politics is the art of the necessary. Anybody can do the politically expedient. Anybody can govern by poll. Anybody can follow the parade. Anybody can pander to industry.
True leaders do what is necessary, even if unpopular. They persuade people to follow.
If “progressive” politicians are not willing or able to defend the public interest, why run for public office? If progressive politicians cannot defend climate policy as wildfires devour town after town and hundreds of Canadians die in a single heatwave, why are they in politics?
Why enter politics in the first place if you cannot sell and defend your values and policies? If all parties simply go where the votes are, that eliminates any role for leadership. Government by poll fails to serve the public interest.
Under government by poll, there would be no need for politicians to inform themselves, consult experts, consider wider context, provide leadership, temper public emotion and impulsivity with foresight, and deliberate with wisdom. Ill-informed and misguided opinion would trump facts, evidence, and context.
We do not need nominally progressive politicians who blow with the wind. Politicians, political parties, and governments that merely follow the parade, ignore the best available science, and turn their backs on reality are worse than useless.
How would people on the street negotiate complex trade deals, int’l conflict, minority rights, and other matters that require in-depth knowledge, awareness of history, financial acumen, and expertise?
Government also has a responsibility to future generations, including your grandchildren — Canada’s future.
Who speaks for minorities, future generations, and other species? Future generations have an interest in environmental protection. Unfortunately, they do not vote. Who speaks for wildlife?
Individuals pursuing their own private interest frequently overlook the common good. Individuals will vote for their selfish, short-term interests, not the public interest.
We elect our political representatives to invest the time and apply their expertise to n complex issues. MPs and MLAs serve their constituents as representatives, not delegates. Politicians should resist the temptation to govern by poll. Policy should be based on the best available science and evidence.
The federal NDP should not aim to win elections. The NDP should aim to win the argument. Seats will follow.
The federal NDP can claim many victories for Canadians over recent decades, even though they have never formed government. Success, not failure.
We need a political party on the left that defends progressive, social democratic principles. A party that anchors political debate in science / reality / sanity.
We need such a political party on the left even if it never wins an election or forms government.
The federal NDP has a choice.
Either to boldly forge its own future or remain a Liberal-lite party on the fringe.
Alberta and B.C. NDP parties have morphed into Conservative-lite.
In Alberta, Rachel Notley tried to outconservative the conservatives:
That strategy failed. Voters with pipeline values united behind the real pipeline party, and the NDP lost by a landslide in 2019.
A pipeline project became the rallying flag for Albertans, whose sense of grievance against Ottawa burns eternal. Fuelling the right-wing rage machine.
Pandering to fossil fuel dinosaurs just fed the right-wing frenzy. Stoking Albertans’ perennial resentment over pipelines and everything else under the sun only helped the UCP. Most pipeline boosters would not vote NDP if Notley built a billion pipelines.
Notley’s pipeline hysterics only inflamed Albertans against the NDP and alienated her own supporters. Notley’s shift to the right was a disaster for the NDP and the progressive cause in Alberta. A major blunder.
With no hopes for re-election against a united Conservative party, the NDP had nothing to gain by shifting right. Albertans who support pipelines will just get behind the real pipeline party.
The Alberta NDP’s shift to the right, aping UCP policies and parroting Smith’s rhetoric around climate and energy, is a political blunder of first magnitude.
In B.C., Eby nearly lost the 2024 election to the upstart brain-dead Conservatives.
Does the NDP’s future lie in adopting the opposition’s policies, chasing the Conservatives to the right? Or in defining its own progressive vision?
Federally, Canada does not need a Liberal-lite NDP. Utterly superfluous.
Canadians with centrist values (and few principles) will just get behind the real Liberal party — unless the Liberals offer them irresistible reasons to toss them out.
“To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
—
jerrymacgp wrote: “… that isn’t going to be found in shutting down Alberta’s (and northeastern BC’s) oil and gas industry.”
The usual straw man.
What’s on the table is fossil-fuel expansion enabled by new pipelines.
No one said anything about shutting down the O&G industry, certainly not overnight.
Exactly what I’ve been saying.
If you start the negotiation by caving in to the oppressor’s framing (which the NDP has done now for decades) you are boned from the start.
If you have confidence that you are the future and grounded in the past without being governed by it and providing practical solutions–eventually you will gain momentum because at some point…the future meets you.
No wonder China is kicking everyone’s azz. They see this, they know this, and they act on this. Because they view their *citizens* as their most valuable resource to development. And if those people are suffering, who cares what the Oil execs think? Our leaders just see us as consumers. If they can’t sell it to us–we’re useless to them.
Oops, I forgot to include a link: https://polisci.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/PoliSci-Post-election-analysis-Deck-fx.pdf