The reaction to Avi Lewis’s victory as leader of the federal New Democratic Party was pretty much as predicted here Sunday night, with the pre-written responses by Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi and Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck setting the stage for the day’s journalistic hysteria.
“Under new leader Avi Lewis, federal NDP looks more communist than social democratic”— Don Braid, Postmedia’s Calgary Herald
“Smith calls Avi Lewis a communist, new NDP leader is Nenshi’s nightmare” — Rick Bell, Postmedia’s Calgary Sun
“‘Communist Party’: New NDP leader Lewis bashed in Alberta” — CityNews
“Federal NDP ‘pretty communist’: Smith on Avi Lewis” — CTV News
Messrs. Braid and Bell have their moments, but both of these columns are, shall we say, somewhat overwrought.
To give Alberta Premier Danielle Smith her due, she made me laugh out loud in CTV’s social media clip when she offered this evidence of the federal NDP’s drift toward Socialism with Canadian Characteristics, to paraphrase someone or other: “They want everyone to have a heat pump!”
If that’s not full communism, what the hell is? God knows, if there’s anything we do well in Alberta, it’s 1950s-style Red-baiting, from the days before red was the colour of the Republican Party and the ball cap worn by Ms. Smith’s political hero.
I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of this in the next few days, weeks and months. The only reasonable interpretation of these outbursts – which remind one of the revival of Vladimir Lenin on The Simpsons – is that Mr. Lewis’s ascension to the leadership of the NDP scares the bejeepers out of the fearless champions of the overdog in Canadian media. They must be fearful Mr. Lewis will ease the famous Overton Window a few centimetres back toward the left.
Why, you ask? The example of Zohran Mamdani, maybe? Who knows?
Alberta’s longest-serving party leader – Naomi Rankin of the Communist Party of Alberta – must be looking at all the ink Mr. Lewis is getting with the political C-word in it and thinking, What am I? Chopped liver?
Meanwhile, Mr. Nenshi appeared to be trying yesterday to walk back his insulting news release attacking Mr. Lewis, which was published while the new federal NDP leader was still giving his victory speech, at least a little bit.
“My fight is not with Avi Lewis,” he temporized on the CBC’s As It Happens last night. “My fight’s with Danielle Smith.”
Well, good try. It may be too late for that, though. The point Mr. Nenshi seems to have missed was explained by author and political commentator Nora Loreto from the floor on the NDP convention in Winnipeg.
Describing on her Substack how Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew rushed to the stage to congratulate Mr. Lewis, she went on: “Kinew wasn’t just on stage to demonstrate that, unlike his non-Premier provincial homologues, he supports Lewis. Kinew was showing that he understands that an NDP with a left populist flank can help a Red Tory like Kinew more than it will hurt him.
“By offering Lewis full support, Kinew showed the press that there is room in the NDP for disagreements, while not alienating Manitobans who are frustrated with Kinew’s radical centrism.”
Mr. Nenshi and Ms. Beck could learn from that strategy, she rightly concluded. “It’s the most basic pro-tip in politics: don’t do the opposite of what the successful, popular guy is doing.”
Alas, some politicians can’t learn.
Getting back to Mr. Lewis, his victory means, oddly, that the federal NDP now finds itself in a position analogous to that of Alberta’s United Conservative Party.
The national NDP is now dominated by what was not so long ago its ideological fringe, just as the UCP under Danielle Smith is now dominated by what as recently as during former premier Jason Kenney’s leadership was the Alberta Conservative movement’s ideological fringe.
At first glance, this doesn’t sound like a formula for success, but as Premier Smith proves every day, the right leader can make it work.
These Postmedia columnists are pathetic, to say the least. They continue to lie about the Alberta NDP, regardless of who their leader is, while continuing to treat the UCP and Danielle Smith as if they are saints. Also, the mainstream media at large will continue to avoid holding the UCP and Danielle Smith to account for their major mistakes, and lets it slide, the majority of the time.
That is the exact reason why Rachel Notley and the NDP were defeated in the provincial election in Alberta, three years ago. Columnists, like Licia Corbella, were flat out lying about Rachel Notley and the NDP, and refused to acknowledge that they were doing it. Now, these low grade columnists from Postmedia, such as Rick Bell, Lorne Gunter, and others, have moved on to lying about Naheed Nenshi. The Alberta NDP can select any leader they want to, and it would be meaningless, because these columnists at Postmedia will continue to lie about them, and continue to let the major boondoogles of the UCP go on, without any scrutiny. Why aren’t they mentioning the UCP’s MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal, which is well beyond half a billion dollars, and how Danielle Smith is trying very hard to erase it from the spotlight?
In addition, Danielle Smith still would have left the by-election for Edmonton Strathcona be postponed until the very last lawful time frame, regardless of who the leader of the Alberta NDP was. Danielle Smith would still cut back the Alberta Legislature sessions to a bare minimum, which also doesn’t help.
If Naheed Nenshi would have done this, or if the Alberta NDP would have done that, it would be different, is the claim of certain people. They aren’t the problem. A very weak media is. Many years ago, the media, including columnists for The Edmonton Journal and The Calgary Herald, wouldn’t be writing trash like this. I remember when columnists were writing proper columns, from a balanced and neutral position. Others would remember that too. How many of these Postmedia columnists are members of the UCP? You have to wonder. Calling the NDP communists is very low.
Copy editors checking facts? That’s thing of the past at Postmedia, apparently, as election column illustrates – Alberta Politics https://share.google/7rBUVg9cGLVpKwafW
Corbella: NDP dislike oil and gas and its workers | Calgary Herald https://share.google/1GHFqfEm2K8LTejCq
Rachel Notley can’t run on her record as premier because it’s a disaster | National Post https://share.google/5lbvuRpQmkGLTCEYp
Bell: Smith calls Avi Lewis a ‘communist’ NDP boss is Nenshi nightmare | Calgary Herald https://share.google/84qthS3OA1JJ1azAY
This is further proof that the media in Canada needs a very serious overhaul. Fact checking doesn’t exist, while a clear political agenda does. Postmedia columnists are clearly endorsing the UCP and Danielle Smith, as the provincial election draws nearer. Even other conventional media outlets hardly ever question the UCP and Danielle Smith for their major missteps.
Will they ever report on how these pseudo Conservatives and Reformers cheated Alberta out of its oil and tax wealth that Peter Lougheed intended for us to have, while dumping a massive orphan well cleanup cost onto Albertans? From all of this, Alberta is out at least $1.3 trillion. Of course they won’t. Somehow it’s communism to ensure that the oil industry is developed in a responsible way, as Peter Lougheed had been doing. Where’s the sense in that?
As I said yesterday, if we’re all gonna be accused of being commies at the first hint of socialism, let’s at least do something remotely commie, first. You know, like fix healthcare or build social housing for everyone, or push through some co-operative workplaces, or start up the Wobbies again so we can turn all those overworked, enslaved baristas and burger-slingers into proud union members.
You know what all this “OMG COMMIES! REDS UNDER THE BEDS!” panic has done?
Turned the TikTok generation, who are curious, into actual, frontline commies. They’re growing up with no future, they see us burning down the planet they’ll be living on and the smart ones are trying to find a way through. They’re not all stupid. Plenty of them realize that crapitalism is an ungovernable system of .0000000001% of the population sucking out the lifeblood of the rest of the population, corrupts governments and that it’s not sustainable and leads to endless colonialism, genocide, war and hardship for the entire planet.
Speaking of the entire planet, this generation grew up speaking to the entire planet. That includes actual socialist Nordic and South American countries. They’re learning that the form of democracy doesn’t necessarily produce the result of social justice and particularly not when crapitalism is allowed to run rampant.
Wab Kinew understands something that Mulcair and even Layton did not. If you’re going to win as NDP then wave your socialist cred proudly and stop begging to get into the political big tent. When you pass legislation to get better healthcare, education or house people–the people who disagree with you aren’t going to disagree with you once it benefits *them*. They won’t want to lose it, either.
That’s why the Dixie Danis of this world are liars. They tell you it will be okay but they incrementally chip away at the public structures. Because if they came out and said, “We’re gonna privatize your healthcare tomorrow, we don’t care how much it costs you to get treated while we strip away any human rights you think you have”–they’d be booted out before you could say, “Ed Broadbent”.
The Kidz, at the tail end of this sham see how what their grandparents fought for has all been chipped away. They see what successive austerity governments have produced for them in a country with enormous wealth. And it ain’t pretty.
So Commie on, Canada!
I bet when the endp-communists said everyone needs a a heat pump Carney got all excited since he builds them.
Is there something going on here? (again)
Just on a side note:
What The Actual Phuque is, “radical centrism”?
By its very definition, centrism cannot be radical.
Another stupid term made up for the purposes of slinging incoherent insults to generate memes. Everyone call this nonsense out for clarity’s sake.
B: I assumed from the context this is a reference to The Extreme Centre, the “coruscating polemic” by Tariq Ali, which is definitely worth reading. https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/171-the-extreme-centre?srsltid=AfmBOoqMxH33h9JHnX_4f9z5yQHpuZhmuJH47bMLj8HKm2Vg3JTqSHj- DJC
@DJC
In other words, it’s just a wiffle-waffle term for those who don’t want to state the obvious or overly intellectualize a concept that can be grasped by a ten-year-old, mainly “sharing and caring” vs “get rich for yourself, screw everyone else”
Government in thrall to “free market” crony crapitalism. There’s nothing “radical” about it. It’s the default position in this day and age.
The important thing is that the NDP will pose no threat whatsoever to Canadian imperialism and its racist, kleptocratic oligarchy. The “red-baiting” of the last bona fide struggle against the plutocrats, in the time of Wobblies, IWoW and actual reds is a century in the past, and unlikely to rear its gnarly head.
@Murphy,
Now yer makin me sadge.
Bell and Braid are now fighting over who will be the next Lubor J. Zink, warning us there’s a commie under every bed. Of course these two anachronisms have to write this nonsense or they are out of a job.
JE: Lubor Zink! What a blast from the past! And where’s McKenzie Porter now that we need him to remind us about “body hygiene”? DJC
I remember these two columnists. They were as extreme to the right that existed at that time. I was in a bar that the graduate students hang out in and there were some engineering/business/accounting students and academics and they all thought that Avi was too extreme and that they thought they were all wedded to the idea that the only thing Alberta could do was resource extraction. If these are the people that oppose the NDP than I think that they are doing the right thing.
Lubor *J.* Zink, as I recall. He would refer to Trudeau père’s “New Economic Policy” (rather than National Energy Policy) as if we were living in 1920s Soviet Russia.
The over reaction from the conservative print Alberta media here is interesting. Although, I feel Bell is probably generally a much better indicator of UCP thinking and messaging than Braid. However, I do wonder whether this over reaction will damage the credibility, particularly of the latter. I believe it may be a way for him to try get attention at a time when the reach of the pay walled print media continues to diminish considerably. A decade or two ago, such articles would have had much more impact.
However, no doubt the UCP and its Federal brethern the CPC will probably continue with this sort of messaging and the Alberta print media will probably continue to repeatedly echo it to see if it sticks. Smith can probably hardly believe her good luck, first oil prices rise enough to make her huge deficit problem go away, at least for a while. Second, she had now found a new Federal political leader to demonize. Of course when things are not going well at home, the politically expedient thing to do is to find external enemies so the local print media has something to cover other than all her AHS problems and scandals.
So we should not be surprised if Smith also does various things to provoke the new Federal NDP leader and try to get into a fight with him. However, if there are any political lessons from our last Federal election it is that Canadians are reluctant to go down the more polarized political path that our southern neighbours have. Even Poilievre and the CPC now seems to have realized he needs to sound more moderate, after winning his leadership review vote.
Someone grab the smelling salts! I think Don Braid has fainted.
Wab Kinew a “Red Tory”? Nice to see the term making a comeback. With all this talk about the conservative movement being MAGAfied I missed it. Of course the original Red Tory was Joe Clark, former PM from 79-1980. Speaking of which his boyhood home in High River is up for sale for less than a million bucks.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11750267/former-pm-home-sale-alberta/
I saw that, Ron. It was tempting. But it’s probably on the flood plain – indeed, almost all of High River is. They call it High River for a reason. DJC
Huh. Happens that I do have a heat pump (and the solar panels to power it). Paid for it out of my own pocket too. Panels have brought my annual power bill to ~ $0, and heat pump resulting natural gas to about $50 monthly (and that’s almost all riders and fees, actual gas usage is < 2 gJ – almost all for hot water).
As for Mssrs. Bell & Braid – their screeds make good bird cage liner and fish wrapping. Wouldn't call it journalism though. Post Media is just not worth reading anymore.
Now for Mr. Lewis – a national grocer? WTH? What came to my mind was "national energy policy for bread". Not the right response to an incipient oligarchy.
Without a doubt, if Smith and post media are attempting to shit on you, that means you must be on the right path.
Who cares what Rick Bell and Don Braid have to say.
My fear with Avi Lewis is that all he may have to offer is grandstanding. All sound and fury signifying nothing.
Nenshi did not stage a takeover of the Alberta NDP to fight Danielle Smith, but to use it as a conduit to power, and use that power to protect the status quo.
I wonder if it’s occurred to Nenshi that perhaps he helped Avi Lewis get elected. After all, Alberta NDP voters are sick to death of NDP “leaders” who don’t lead, who sell out and stay mute when they should be screaming from the rafters about the UCP destruction of society as we know it.
BAC: When you have a media that is clearly lying about the Alberta NDP, and cheering on the UCP and Danielle Smith, this doesn’t help. The Alberta NDP can get any leader they want to, and show what their intentions and plans are. That is meaningless if the media will continue to publish lies about them.
Corbella: NDP dislike oil and gas and its workers | Calgary Herald https://share.google/dGaqyhh0zTVywKlR1
Rachel Notley can’t run on her record as premier because it’s a disaster | National Post https://share.google/oCBhsdKtxhCfyebRv
Bell: Danielle Smith and UCP mock NDP Nenshi, the so-called rock star | Calgary Herald https://share.google/fXxuPASKldHwEyFBL
A red scare, a smear campaign, and lazy thinking rolled up into one big hysterically shrill PR screed, due to the perceived threat to the established economic order [an economic order that was and still is based on theft, forced expropriation, and slaughter] represented by Avi Lewis.
I would not expect anything less from those who serve the interests of the status quo dominant political and economic order, as it has historically always been the case of similar actors playing similar roles serving similar dominant interests.
She has no business judging anyone’s political views since she is so tolerant of racists and other bigots. According to Justin Ling, she has been hanging around with anti-Semites and conspiracy nuts again.
https://bsky.app/profile/justinling.ca/post/3mij6jyk4nk2o