Federal NDP MUST Choose a New Direction as Well as a New Leader!

Keeping it Real….

Labour Day marks the beginning of the federal NDP’s leadership campaign to replace Jagmeet Singh.

But the NDP had better do more than just replace the man who delivered the party’s worst election defeat in modern history: the party needs a NEW direction as well!

I told them so months BEFORE the last federal election … on this blog, appropriately named Keeping it Real: https://harveyoberfeld.ca/bc-provincial-losses-signal-trouble-ahead-for-federal-ndp/.

“The party currently holds 25 seats in Parliament … with more than HALF of them … 13 … representing BC ridings. Just think about what that same major shift to Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives in BC federally would do to the NDP in Ottawa!,” I wrote in November, 2024.

“Perhaps it’s not just the Liberals who should be looking for a new leader and a new approach … as their only hope of resuscitating popular appeal?,” I suggested.

The Liberals listened … but the NDP ignored my advice.

The results of the April 28, 2025 proved I … and others sounding the alarm … had been right: the NDP ended up with a miserable seven seats in the House of Commons, compared to 169 for the Liberals, 144 Conservatives and even well behind the Bloc Quebecois with 22.

“And making it worse, the NDP’s share of the popular vote fell to 6.3% this election, from 17.8% in 2021,” I noted.

The NDP even lost Official party status.

Again I sounded a warning: https://harveyoberfeld.ca/spring-time-for-renewal-but-will-the-federal-ndp-get-the-message/.

“It may be admirable, even laudable, to champion Canada as a leader in environmental change (and oppose mining, refineries, pipelines) or provide a home for hundreds of thousands Third World immigrants, almost unlimited numbers of refugees, prioritise spending on homelessness, services (and supplies) for hard drug users, and advocate on behalf of trans-gender issues or pontificate on world conflicts … but right now, Canadian taxpayers/voters have other priorities,” I wrote last May.

Now, I’ll try once more to help the NDP “get real”.

Here’s what the federal party MUST do to climb out of basement … and not end up being buried down there!

The NDP has to PRIORITIZE working families, the middle class, blue collar tax-payers, struggling seniors and, yes, jobs-producing businesses and tax-revenue-generating resource developments, even if they require new pipelines.

NOT sacrifice the majority to push costly climate change priorities, Indigenous reconciliation, gender issues, refugees, international social justice, conflicts or supporting/pushing revolutionary causes/protests on campuses or as government policies.

Canadians are hurting and are more worried about REAL issues: jobs, trade, inflation, housing, crime, Courts and their own and their kids’ futures.

In other words, the NDP MUST get back to the party that thrived under Ed Broadbent, Jack Layton, Audrey McLaughlin and Thomas Mulcair and move away from the armchair socialist theorists, activists and university elitists who I sensed ruled the roost under Singh.

A new leader gives the party a chance to change the direction that brought such disastrous results.

The NDP leadership campaign will wind up on March 29 at a party convention in Winnipeg.

So far, several names have emerged as possible contenders:

Most prominent is Avi Lewis, a professor at UBC’s “Centre for Climate Justice”, in my view, just another silver-spoon socialist, son of former Ontario NDP Stephen Lewis and grandson of former NDP federal Leader David Lewis.

“Lewis has also pushed for Canada to take more pro-Palestinian positions…. a longtime climate activist, filmmaker, and a former broadcaster with CBC and Al Jazeera,” the Toronto Star reported last week.

Hmm! A climate activist, documentary maker, CBC broadcaster who worked at Al Jazeera … which I would describe as the unofficial propaganda arm of the Hamas terrorists!

A loser’s Curriculum Vitae these days for an aspiring Canadian political party leader, I’d say!

His current priorities?

“Lewis said he believes the NDP should be taking on a more populist approach and focus on affordability with policies like national rent control, which was in the NDP’s election platform, and publicly supported non-profit grocery stores. He also said efforts toward nation-building development projects that have dominated the political discourse in Canada should instead focus on massive public investment in things like health care, elder care, child care and education,” The Star reported. (Read the full article here: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/heather-mcpherson-avi-lewis-prepare-ndp-leadership-bids/article_2d65de8b-66f3-4e27-82ce-b354769f692e.html).

Lewis would never get my vote.

Another well-known potential candidate, Edmonton MP Heather McPherson “has a family history in the oil and gas sector, and has been less hawkish on conventional energy development, except for coal, than some others in the NDP, including Lewis.,” The Star reported.

“More people need to be welcomed, and more people need to see themselves within a progressive movement. I think sometimes, we don’t do that,” she said. “There’s no future to a New Democratic Party that doesn’t include workers, that doesn’t include seats in southern Ontario and in Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

“She worked in the non-profit sector before becoming a member of Parliament in 2019, and gained a profile in the last two years as the NDP’s foreign affairs critic, leading the party’s push for the Liberal government to take tougher stances on Israel in its war in Gaza and to recognize a Palestinian state.”

Better … but still not for me.

The Star also pointed to possible candidates: Yves Engler a Montreal activist with “an anti military, anti-capitalist platform”; Rob Ashton, President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union; Tanille Johnston, a Campbell city councillor; and,  Ontario farmer and former NDP candidate Tony McQuail .

Well, the campaign is just starting: let’s hope … for the sake of the future of the NDP … a successful candidate emerges in touch with what the MAJORITY of Canadians need here and now, and puts a lid on the NDP’s extreme left ideological ideas … both domestic and foreign.

Happy Labour Day!

Harv Oberfeld

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