This seems like an NDP desperately grasping at straws to avoid extinction. After 2011, the NDP was poised to supplant the Liberals as the center left party in Canadian politics. Justin Trudeau managed to outflank them in the progressive lane in 2015, and it's broken the NDP's brain. Avi Lewis is one of the twits who pitched the LEAP Manifesto at the subsequent party convention, a document that was widely derided as progressive fantasy at a time when the progressive moment was approaching its zenith. That moment has peaked and passed; progressives like Zohran Mamdani can get elected in some big cities with a voter base tilted heavily left, but this approach is basically going to put the NDP in the position of a slightly larger Green Party: a handful of seats in very left wing areas, but never enough support to even really be a threat to the Liberals.
The comparison to Mamdani is an interesting one. Running for mayor, his campaign was relentlessly practical - focused on cost of living and quality of life issues. He is fundamentally a lefty candidate of course, but far less ideological than his billing.
He was also running against a couple of total embarrassments. In a hypothetical world where center right democrats ran a serious person against him he might well have lost.
His greatest success was in basic retail politics and really world class social media. If the NDP could find someone who could do that, they might make some progress. I don’t know enough about Lewis to say if he’s that choice.
Nevertheless, the NDP as represented by Lewis will continue to exist in an imaginary world. There was a time when we were blindly and decadently rich enough to indulge such foolishness, but that time has long passed, and Trudeau/Singh were the apotheosis of this world view.
The NDP are financially bankrupt, and given their policies, that should be no surprise.
Former paying NDP member here. WAY too many deal breakers for me from any of them. They are still the party of the faculty lounge or 1970s old school statists. Actually Lewis seems to combine the worst of those 2 instincts. And I am someone who wants a solid social safety net.
The NDP is infected with vile antisemitism. Side note: they are now a fart in the breeze of a party and I don't think they've learned anything from getting rejected by voters. (I don't think Pierre Poilievre has learned anything either. ) The whole world is spinning madly out of control and I think the time has come for the PM to address the country and to get people psychologically prepared for dark times. Coalition government would do a hell of a lot to tell everyone we are united against any and all threats to our sovereignty.
If the NDP pick a leader like Avi, the voice of urban liberal Canada, of downtownToronto and Vancouver, of faculty lounges, then the Conservatives will keep their former NDP voters and centrist Libs will thrive. We will have a 2 party system. Not good for the country in the long term.
But great for Alberta separatists. The ideal is a LPC minority supported by another omnicause 'deeper. And in a time of huge political uncertainty (Mr. Trump posted an AI image of the US extending from the 49th parallel to include the arctic, the G&M reporting on our military modelling post-invasion insurgency) the federalists will be running from one end of the corral to the other, looking to escape the inevitable.
I used to regularly vote NDP. Never again, and this column helps explain why. Two lines leap out at me:
1) "The question that should haunt every New Democrat terrified of a “radical” leader: What could be possibly be worse than what they’ve had lately?" Robert appears to believe that the NDP hasn't been radical lately. But under Singh, it's been nothing but radical and divisive identity politics, which is not at all what successful leaders like Layton, Broadbent, David Lewis or Tommy Douglas were about.
2) While the Leap Manifesto is scary, Lewis himself isn't. If he comes off as a nice guy in a legion hall "then the actual policy details matter less than the vibe." The very idea that we should choose leaders based on personality rather than what they believe in -- show over substance -- is how we ended up with Justin.
As an aside, all the NDP leadership candidates have spread the anti-semitic "genocide" lie about Israel that is at the heart of so much of the harassment Jews are suffering on our streets, but none of them have evangelized the lie more than Lewis.
Why not take a risk? How about because Lewis embodies the worst of what the left has become? How about because the perception that policies like those supported by Lewis are becoming the law of the land, even under the Liberals, is the force driving resentment among the Canadian majority (particularly those under 30), polarization in the country, and radicalism on the far right?
This is why McPherson *might* be a better choice although I feel like reaching for a Gravol just to say it. If the author is correct, 15 ND could be enough to split the vote.
Hmmm ..... The NDP has become a party of lunatic crap, vile racists, vile Jew-haters and will continue that way. Go to hell NDP. 2 party system sounds OK to me, for a while.
The NDP is Canada is the Labour of the UK. Full of Jew hating leftists, anti business, pro immigration and devoid of any financial acumen. Good luck Avi. Stay in Central Canada and do not try and LEAP to Alberta51.
Jack Layton is massively overrated as a politician. His rise was driven by the Conservative offensive on Dion and then Ignatieff which made them both unelectable.
Ironic that Avi " Leap" Lewis, darling of the urban campus, will lose the support of the western rural voter, the very cohort that invented the party...
I expect that 20 years from now it will come out that Jagmeet Singh was a literal paid agent of the Liberal Party.
If the Conservatives knew what game they needed to play, they would be seeking out and bankrolling the most effective NDP leader they possibly could (or a complete knowing puppet with great comms skills) and encourage members to divert half their donation to the Orange Party. At the riding level the NDP has so little funding that one couple giving the max donation could double the local candidate's war chest. That would go much further than buying 1/50th of another cringey tone-deaf CPC TV ad.
Really appreciate this take, particularly this statement late in your piece:
"Will Avi Lewis ever be prime minister? Probably not. But let’s face it: neither will Heather McPherson or Rob Ashton.
The goal for the federal NDP right now isn’t 24 Sussex; the goal is survival. The goal is relevance. The goal is to be a party that matters enough for people to hate it again, rather than just pity it."
In healthy democracies, a strong multi-party system keeps governments somewhat in check, tends to enrich debate and increase policy options, and helps ensure voters have genuine choices. The Liberal Party may (according to some, but with decent electoral evidence) be the 'natural governing party,' but our polity has been impoverished by it becoming the only one.
So, er, yay for the NDP having some prospect of fielding adults as leadership candidates? I'm not an Avi fan, personally, but think the NDP has been at its best as a reliable third party option. I'd like to see the NDP come back from its long walk in the snow, provided it can focus on what works for our country, not, as you put it so aptly, "'woke' culture wars."
And hey: while we're at it, can the CPC (Canada's other natural governing party, when it has adults in leadership roles) please, please manage to do likewise?
Not enough (or any) tats for the base! Seriously, they were once a moral, conscientious and vote splitting thorn in the side of the other two, but ya know, their base won't ever let someone like Avi (like *everything* physically and ethnically about him, hint hint) pass Go. Ironically, he is probably the only saviour/card they realistically have left to regenerate the party. It's a tyranny of the asses sitch.
This seems like an NDP desperately grasping at straws to avoid extinction. After 2011, the NDP was poised to supplant the Liberals as the center left party in Canadian politics. Justin Trudeau managed to outflank them in the progressive lane in 2015, and it's broken the NDP's brain. Avi Lewis is one of the twits who pitched the LEAP Manifesto at the subsequent party convention, a document that was widely derided as progressive fantasy at a time when the progressive moment was approaching its zenith. That moment has peaked and passed; progressives like Zohran Mamdani can get elected in some big cities with a voter base tilted heavily left, but this approach is basically going to put the NDP in the position of a slightly larger Green Party: a handful of seats in very left wing areas, but never enough support to even really be a threat to the Liberals.
The comparison to Mamdani is an interesting one. Running for mayor, his campaign was relentlessly practical - focused on cost of living and quality of life issues. He is fundamentally a lefty candidate of course, but far less ideological than his billing.
He was also running against a couple of total embarrassments. In a hypothetical world where center right democrats ran a serious person against him he might well have lost.
His greatest success was in basic retail politics and really world class social media. If the NDP could find someone who could do that, they might make some progress. I don’t know enough about Lewis to say if he’s that choice.
With respect, you're entitled to your opinion.
Nevertheless, the NDP as represented by Lewis will continue to exist in an imaginary world. There was a time when we were blindly and decadently rich enough to indulge such foolishness, but that time has long passed, and Trudeau/Singh were the apotheosis of this world view.
The NDP are financially bankrupt, and given their policies, that should be no surprise.
Former paying NDP member here. WAY too many deal breakers for me from any of them. They are still the party of the faculty lounge or 1970s old school statists. Actually Lewis seems to combine the worst of those 2 instincts. And I am someone who wants a solid social safety net.
The NDP is infected with vile antisemitism. Side note: they are now a fart in the breeze of a party and I don't think they've learned anything from getting rejected by voters. (I don't think Pierre Poilievre has learned anything either. ) The whole world is spinning madly out of control and I think the time has come for the PM to address the country and to get people psychologically prepared for dark times. Coalition government would do a hell of a lot to tell everyone we are united against any and all threats to our sovereignty.
If the NDP pick a leader like Avi, the voice of urban liberal Canada, of downtownToronto and Vancouver, of faculty lounges, then the Conservatives will keep their former NDP voters and centrist Libs will thrive. We will have a 2 party system. Not good for the country in the long term.
But great for Alberta separatists. The ideal is a LPC minority supported by another omnicause 'deeper. And in a time of huge political uncertainty (Mr. Trump posted an AI image of the US extending from the 49th parallel to include the arctic, the G&M reporting on our military modelling post-invasion insurgency) the federalists will be running from one end of the corral to the other, looking to escape the inevitable.
Bring on Mr. Lewis!
I used to regularly vote NDP. Never again, and this column helps explain why. Two lines leap out at me:
1) "The question that should haunt every New Democrat terrified of a “radical” leader: What could be possibly be worse than what they’ve had lately?" Robert appears to believe that the NDP hasn't been radical lately. But under Singh, it's been nothing but radical and divisive identity politics, which is not at all what successful leaders like Layton, Broadbent, David Lewis or Tommy Douglas were about.
2) While the Leap Manifesto is scary, Lewis himself isn't. If he comes off as a nice guy in a legion hall "then the actual policy details matter less than the vibe." The very idea that we should choose leaders based on personality rather than what they believe in -- show over substance -- is how we ended up with Justin.
As an aside, all the NDP leadership candidates have spread the anti-semitic "genocide" lie about Israel that is at the heart of so much of the harassment Jews are suffering on our streets, but none of them have evangelized the lie more than Lewis.
Why not take a risk? How about because Lewis embodies the worst of what the left has become? How about because the perception that policies like those supported by Lewis are becoming the law of the land, even under the Liberals, is the force driving resentment among the Canadian majority (particularly those under 30), polarization in the country, and radicalism on the far right?
Go Avi, take enough votes from Liberals to make them vulnerable. Deja vu platforms and ideas won't be enough in this polarized world.
This is why McPherson *might* be a better choice although I feel like reaching for a Gravol just to say it. If the author is correct, 15 ND could be enough to split the vote.
Hmmm ..... The NDP has become a party of lunatic crap, vile racists, vile Jew-haters and will continue that way. Go to hell NDP. 2 party system sounds OK to me, for a while.
The NDP is Canada is the Labour of the UK. Full of Jew hating leftists, anti business, pro immigration and devoid of any financial acumen. Good luck Avi. Stay in Central Canada and do not try and LEAP to Alberta51.
Jack Layton is massively overrated as a politician. His rise was driven by the Conservative offensive on Dion and then Ignatieff which made them both unelectable.
"Slinging beer at the pub"
That's what many Americans said about George W Bush (in contrast with Al Gore).
How'd that go?
Ironic that Avi " Leap" Lewis, darling of the urban campus, will lose the support of the western rural voter, the very cohort that invented the party...
I expect that 20 years from now it will come out that Jagmeet Singh was a literal paid agent of the Liberal Party.
If the Conservatives knew what game they needed to play, they would be seeking out and bankrolling the most effective NDP leader they possibly could (or a complete knowing puppet with great comms skills) and encourage members to divert half their donation to the Orange Party. At the riding level the NDP has so little funding that one couple giving the max donation could double the local candidate's war chest. That would go much further than buying 1/50th of another cringey tone-deaf CPC TV ad.
Really appreciate this take, particularly this statement late in your piece:
"Will Avi Lewis ever be prime minister? Probably not. But let’s face it: neither will Heather McPherson or Rob Ashton.
The goal for the federal NDP right now isn’t 24 Sussex; the goal is survival. The goal is relevance. The goal is to be a party that matters enough for people to hate it again, rather than just pity it."
In healthy democracies, a strong multi-party system keeps governments somewhat in check, tends to enrich debate and increase policy options, and helps ensure voters have genuine choices. The Liberal Party may (according to some, but with decent electoral evidence) be the 'natural governing party,' but our polity has been impoverished by it becoming the only one.
So, er, yay for the NDP having some prospect of fielding adults as leadership candidates? I'm not an Avi fan, personally, but think the NDP has been at its best as a reliable third party option. I'd like to see the NDP come back from its long walk in the snow, provided it can focus on what works for our country, not, as you put it so aptly, "'woke' culture wars."
And hey: while we're at it, can the CPC (Canada's other natural governing party, when it has adults in leadership roles) please, please manage to do likewise?
Not enough (or any) tats for the base! Seriously, they were once a moral, conscientious and vote splitting thorn in the side of the other two, but ya know, their base won't ever let someone like Avi (like *everything* physically and ethnically about him, hint hint) pass Go. Ironically, he is probably the only saviour/card they realistically have left to regenerate the party. It's a tyranny of the asses sitch.