The selection of Avi Lewis as federal NDP leader does little to resolve the party’s existential crisis. In fact, it might have exacerbated it. The party has drifted so far from its roots and the mainstream that it can barely hold together, let alone rally support.
When Jagmeet Singh resigned as leader almost a year ago, it seemed the only way the party could go was up. Singh openly admitted he propped up the unpopular Trudeau government to keep Conservatives from taking power. Ironically, he was killed by his own sword. Typical NDP voters who similarly didn’t want Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the prime minister’s chair voted for the Mark Carney Liberals.
The last election wiped the slate clean, but also almost wiped the NDP off the map. The party won only seven seats, short of the 12 required to keep party status in the House of Commons. On March 11, 2026, Nunavut MP Lori Idlout left the NDP for the Liberals. She was 14 per cent of the party’s MPs all by herself.
Normally, leadership campaigns attract positive momentum for a party, but not this time. The party had six per cent of the vote in the 2025 election, 10 per cent last January, and sits at eight per cent now. Did watching the NDP debate policies attract people to the party? No.
On social media, an embarrassing compilation of moments from the campaign floor garnered the most attention. Equity cards were held up by those asking questions or making statements from the convention floor, a sure sign that identity politics had taken over. The speaker had to sort squabbles and endure complaints based on who had the right to speak next. The speaker also complained about being called “madam speaker,” and insisted on a non-binary identity.
Heather McPherson, the MP for Edmonton Strathcona, and the only leadership candidate with parliamentary experience, wanted better. Last September she said, “We need to stop shrinking into some sort of purity test, we need to stop pushing people away and we need to invite people in.” For this call to mainstream appeal, fellow NDP MP Leah Gazan called McPherson’s comments “appalling” and a “tacit justification for white supremacy.”
At least the man who climbed atop this heap of ruins has some chops. Avi Lewis has experience as a talk show host, debate moderator, documentary filmmaker, and university professor. He won the debate on the first ballot, getting 56 per cent of the 71,000 votes cast. He is also the grandson of David Lewis who led the party nationally in the 1970s and Stephen Lewis, who was Ontario Opposition Leader with the NDP in the same decade.
It should concern Canadians, if not the NDP, that the Liberals chose Justin Trudeau as leader for similar reasons under similar circumstances. Trudeau put the Liberals on a winning streak but put Canada on a losing one.
Some of Lewis’ policies will alienate mainstream Canadians. He believes in nationalizing telecommunications companies and wants publicly-run grocery stores. He also “unequivocally” opposes any new oil and gas development and wants “green” jobs instead.
No wonder two provincial NDP leaders distanced themselves from Lewis. Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck refused a request from Lewis to meet with him. In a letter she said his stance on fossil fuels was “ideological and unrealistic” and “would hurt Saskatchewan workers, communities, and industries,” not to mention at least 900,000 jobs across Canada.
“The NDP is the party of working people. It’s impossible to support — and respect — working people without respecting the jobs they have, not the ones you think they should have,” Beck wrote.
The tensions are even worse between Lewis and the Alberta NDP. In a tweet, former Lethbridge MLA and Minister of Environment Shannon Phillips called Lewis “extreme radical eco-terrorist who would shut down Alberta’s oilsands and send Alberta’s economy off a cliff.” In a 2020 video, Lewis’s wife Naomi Klein said, “We’re still married and she’s not environment minister anymore,” a comment that prompted both to laugh.
Alberta NDP leader, and former Calgary mayor, Naheed Nenshi, has not forgotten. In a statement, he wrote, “It is clear that the direction of the federal party under this new leader, someone who openly cheered for the defeat of the Alberta NDP government, is not in the interests of Alberta.”
Identity politics can only take the NDP so far and with so few. It’s hard for the NDP to defend jobs while promoting policies that kill them. It’s also hard for the NDP to have mainstream appeal when some in its ranks denounce that approach as “appalling.” The NDP is a house so divided against itself, it cannot stand.
