Five people vying to be the next leader of the federal NDP were brought together in one place for the first time in the campaign.
The Nanaimo-Ladysmith NDP electoral district association hosted an all-candidates’ forum on Thursday, Oct. 16, at the Beban Park Social Centre. Two candidates – Tanille Johnston and Rob Ashton – attended in person, while the other three – Heather McPherson, Avi Lewis and Tony McQuail – participated via Zoom. The event wasn’t a debate format, but rather an opportunity for the candidates to introduce themselves and make a first pitch to party members.
McPherson, NDP MP for Edmonton Strathcona, lamented the party’s recent election setback at a time when she said New Democrats are needed more than ever to hold the governing Liberals and opposition Conservatives to account.
“Right now we have a far-right Conservative opposition, but make no mistake, we also have a conservative government. Now, Mark Carney may say he’s a Liberal, he may say he’s progressive, but every piece of legislation he’s brought forward … this is a conservative.”
Candidates were given eight minutes to talk and most didn’t outline specific policy ideas, but McPherson suggested she wants a clean environment, good jobs, housing and groceries that people can afford, and a health care system that works for everyone.
She said the party needs to rebuild by re-engaging with people.
“There are New Democrats across this country that are ready to rebuild our party, that are excited to be part of a rebuild,” she said. “So let’s do that. Let’s come together, let’s make a bigger table, let’s invite Canadians to be part of a party that believes in the values of taking care of each other.”
Next up was Lewis, who lives in Vancouver and Halfmoon Bay and is the son of former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis and grandson of former federal NDP leader David Lewis.
He said the party faltered because it stopped talking about the “everyday cost of living emergency” in clear, direct ways.
“For me, the NDP is the only party that can really offer a diagnosis of why this is happening because we are the party that criticizes capitalism and the old parties, the governing parties of Liberals and Conservatives are afraid to say those words,” Lewis said. “I think we need more straight talk.”
He said he’s not scared of being labelled a radical considering the scale of the problems Canada is facing. He favours an aggressive wealth tax, a green industrial strategy, public ownership in industry and has even put forward the notion of a public food option for groceries.
“If nothing else happens in the course of this campaign, we have started a conversation that I think could really lead somewhere,” Lewis said. “But we don’t want to just win the argument, we want to win the change.”
The most recent candidate to be approved to run for leader is McQuail, an organic farmer from Huron County, Ontario.
He said his campaign centres on representation, regeneration, redistribution and redesign. He’s a proponent of proportional representation and since that’s not the way the federal electoral system works right now, he favours an NDP-Green coalition.
“We have to deal with [the status quo] by looking at how we can co-operate with the Greens and build a broader Green-progressive movement that reaches out to all the people who have given up on politics and have stopped voting,” he said.
Regeneration refers to environmental sustainability, redistribution refers to redistributing wealth, and redesign is necessary, McQuail said, because “we are living way outside the environment’s carrying capacity.”
Tanille Johnston was back in Nanaimo after launching her leadership bid in the Harbour City last week. The First Nations woman and Campbell River city councillor acknowledged that she’s the youngest candidate in the race, but said she feels ready to lead the party into its “next chapter” in which it’s growing and winning.
“I’m here as much to talk as I am to listen,” she said. “You are the people of the party and you know what’s best for us and I believe that we are interviewing for the opportunity to be that phenomenal conduit for you into the House of Commons.”
She touched on a few of her platform points, including stopping handouts to big polluters, saying no to pipelines, cracking down on corporate landlords and corporate real estate hoarding, pursuing national rent control, creating green jobs as part of a clean energy future, and making health care – including mental health care – more accessible.
“I don’t believe that growing our movement means that we have to sacrifice our values at all,” she said. “If anything, we need to dig deeper and root ourselves stronger.”
The final candidate to speak was Ashton, a longshoreman and union president from Port Coquitlam.
He said he never set out to be a politician, but said he’s gotten “sick and tired” of what he’s seen from successive federal governments and felt he had to do something. He suggested that working-class Canadians are upset and aren’t directing their anger where it belongs, toward Ottawa.
“We’ve been fooled by successive governments since we colonized this land…” Ashton said. “We’ve been fooled to agree every time that there’s a change in government that going from the Liberals to the Conservatives is a change. That’s not a change. That’s handing the keys to another thief.”
He said he doesn’t think of the NDP as a party, but rather a social movement for every Canadian who isn’t a millionaire, billionaire or trillionaire.
“Let’s fire people up and let their angry voices be heard,” Ashton said. “That’s the type of person I am.”
The NDP leader will be selected at a convention in Winnipeg from March 27-29. The party’s previous leader, Jagmeet Singh, announced his resignation on election night this past April when he failed to win re-election in his riding of Burnaby East. In May, Don Davies was appointed as the NDP’s interim leader.