Federal NDP Leadership Race - What do you want out of Canada's progressive party?

[Wolven]

Since the last election I have been curious about the next steps for the NDP. I feel like they have lost their way over the last couple of decades and that they need a hard reset to get back on track. Their history is largely a socialist / progressive / populist party that is heavily aligned with the working class and average citizens (and goes all the way back to the CCF founding in Calgary!).

Quick recent history recap:

• Under Mulcair's leadership, he tried to convert the NDP into a more neoliberal party to try and take over the Liberal’s political space, but they failed hard in the attempt as they (1) could not steal the Liberal supporters and (2) alienated their base in the process.
• Under Singh, they made some good progress to get back on track and achieve some great outcomes from the minority government (childcare, dentalcare, pharmacare) but failed to get/take credit for any of their policies and then got dummied in the “Stop the Conservatives” election.
• Now there is a leadership race. The NDP got hammered out of party status but it is a huge opportunity for them to hit that reset button and rebuild into a party that has a clear identity and a clear message to the people of Canada.

What I find exciting is that this is not just an opportunity for “them”, it is an opportunity for all of us. Even though the NDP have been around forever, it feels like most people have no idea what they represent. Especially here in Alberta, NDP is a dirty word (even though most people do not know why or how it is bad) and a lot of people stop listening the moment you mention the words “Federal NDP”.

In their purest form, the intention of the party is that they should be the party of the 99% of the population (against the 1% of the elite) and if you are not a billionaire, the NDP has a place for you (that is their sales pitch, not mine). In my opinion, there is a whole political culture right now that tells progressives that they need to think small and act centrist in order to not offend other people. Because of this, I think their new leader could be a huge agent of change in Canada and they need to go big, bold, and loud with ideas that break through the Left/Right spectrum because they are good for everyone (except maybe billionaires). Looking at the NYC mayoral race, it really sets a template that needs to be followed for true progressive populism (with a pretty big overlap in socialism).

To set the stage for those of you not watching the NDP, there are 5 candidates for the leadership of the NDP.
Heather McPherson
Avi Lewis
Rob Ashton
Tanille Johnston
Tony McQuail

It is interesting (and inviting) that the NDP has decided to have a 6-month leadership race to enable both the membership as well as the larger Canadian population a chance to meet the candidates and, if they want, join the party to participate in the vote (democracy!!!).

With that in mind, I would like to invite you all into discussion and consideration of the idea of potentially contributing to a building up a political party and influencing the real outcome for a better result for the nation. Who do you like? What policies do you want to see? How can the NDP break through the Liberal-Conservative blockade?

I like the idea of coming into this discussion by ignoring Left/Right politics for a moment and think about Up/Down politics instead (namely the battle between the 1% and the 99%), I expect all of us posting here are in the 99% and I hope we should be able to find common ground.

[Wolven]

My first pass at the leadership race, I feel there are 3 front runners:
Heather McPherson
Avi Lewis
Rob Ashton

They had the NDP Leadership Forum a couple of weeks ago and can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cIuOUtL_M8

My thoughts on the 5 of them:
Tony has some interesting ideas but in my small amount of research I feel he is hung up on two ideas that should be low priority: He is against AI and he wants to merge the NDP with the Greens. Personally, I think AI is unavoidable and not something to be scared of, but it is important to understand it and ensure that you have your own AI that is secure for you and your people. As for merging with the Greens, it isn’t a bad idea but I think it is a tough sale to say you want to be the leader of the party and that you want to merge it with another party.
Tanille sounds great but definitely not as polished as the front runners and aside from some vibes I did not really see any concrete ideas out of her yet. I also think she has a long way to go to be viable for leadership of a federal party.
Heather is the only current sitting MP. I like that she is from Alberta as I think she could be a strong advocate for helping Albertans find a different party to vote for instead of throwing away our votes for another decade on a party that doesn’t respect or care about Alberta. However, I also think she is a status quo selection that is unlikely to drive the party hard into the populist / progressive space that I believe is needed to win.
Rob is a labour warrior. That is the immediate vibe I get from him. He calls out the war between the Working Class and the Owning Class and frames himself as ready to lead the working class into the next battle. Honestly, I like his vibe a bunch but he does not have any platform ideas or positions yet.
Avi is an activist, journalist, and university professor. He hit the ground running with calling out the populist class war, identifies a lot of the problems everyone is feeling and has announced the most policy ideas thus far out of the 5 candidates. I also noted that he kicked off his answers by going to French. Perhaps not the strongest French, but he showed right away that French won’t be a blocker for him in a Federal party.

[Wolven]

My hot take at the start of the race.

I think Avi is my favourite. He gives Zorhan vibes right off of the bat and I really like that his first talking point is about nationalizing grocery stores. I will leave a couple of videos here for any of you interested in hearing his introduction (and understanding the public grocery store potential).

Leadership race kickoff video:


More on the public grocery store idea:

[TorqueDog]

Only reason I even had Federal NDP membership was because I wanted Alberta NDP membership. With that federal membership requirement gone, I don't intend on re-upping with them.

With that said, I do believe I have already shared what my ideal vision for the Federal NDP's leadership going forward should be....



OpenAI and Jim Henson's Creature Shop, MAKE IT HAPPEN.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Only reason I even had Federal NDP membership was because I wanted Alberta NDP membership. With that federal membership requirement gone, I don't intend on re-upping with them.

To be honest, that is also how I "joined" the Federal NDP. I wasn't interested in the Federal NDP or how they were back then but now there is this opportunity for change....

I love the idea of trying to break the cycle of the two corporatist parties going back and forth. I doubly love the idea of a party that will actually deliver on some things that have been promised to us for decades (electoral reform being the top of the list).