OTTAWA – Nearly half of those who voted for the federal NDP at least once over the past four elections don’t recognize the names of the five current leadership candidates, a new poll suggests.
The Angus Reid Institute surveyed 1,100 Canadians who voted for the NDP at least once between 2015 and 2025. It was conducted online so can’t be given a margin of error.
The NDP will debate calling for mandatory voting in federal elections at its Winnipeg convention this weekend, a long-shot move that could make Canada the first G7 nation to compel its citizens to hit the polls.
It’s one of 70 policy proposals that grassroots New Democrats will be mulling over when they gather, according to documents obtained by the Star, that include pitches touching on a wide range of issues, from industrial strategy and Donald Trump’s trade war to overhauling the Senate and electoral reform.
Avi Lewis likes neon-sign politics. That was the point of the Leap Manifesto he co-authored more than a decade ago in a bid to prod the NDP to the left. He didn’t propose steps. He wanted a leap.
“We’re challenging decades of political clichés. So we want to spend like drunken sailors,” he said then, in an interview at the 2016 NDP convention. “We need a shift in our sense of what’s politically possible.”
He’s Batshit Crazy.
Most political observers believe that Avi Lewis will become the next federal NDP leader on March 29. It appears the far-left activist and former TV host/journalist may have also found a path to political success in Ottawa that his party could only dream of right now.
A recent Mainstreet Research poll suggested that Lewis, if he became NDP leader, would have a legitimate shot of winning the federal Beaches-East York riding if it becomes vacant. The seat is currently held by Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. He’s considering running for the Ontario Liberal leadership and the forthcoming Scarborough Southwest provincial by-election. If Erskine-Smith takes the provincial plunge and resigns his federal seat, Lewis would likely jump at the chance to become the riding’s next MP based on the poll’s findings.
They’re all crazy that I can see.
Lori Idlout’s first act as Liberal MP in the House of Commons, after crossing the floor from the NDP, was to vote against her new party in favour of an NDP motion calling for a stricter arms export control regime.
Prime Minister Mark Carney may have felt sympathy for Louis XIV’s maxim that every time he filled an office, he created a hundred malcontents and one ingrate — although, to be fair, Idlout was the one doing the favour by inching the Liberals closer to a parliamentary majority.
When the NDP’s arms-control bill that seeks to end largely permit-free Canadian military exports to the U.S. is put to a vote on Wednesday, it could garner the support of more than a dozen Liberal MPs.
That would be the first time some in the Liberal caucus split from the government’s position on legislation under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“By my count, so far, I think there may be somewhere between … nine to 16 Liberal members who may support the bill,” said the NDP’s Jenny Kwan, the bill’s main sponsor, at a news conference on Tuesday.
OTTAWA—Some New Democrats are worried the party could be wiped out in Quebec as its only MP in the province signals a possible exit, sources say.
With Montreal-area MP Alexandre Boulerice “seriously” considering a jump to provincial politics, Quebec New Democrats fear they may not be able to hold on to the Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie seat he’s held since 2011, according to five NDP organizers in Quebec who were granted anonymity to speak freely.
I think they’re dead everywhere.
The NDP should have a singular focus for the short- and medium-term: finding a way back to official party status. Everything else can come later. In fact, everything else will only come later if the NDP is once again a party with at least 12 seats in the House of Commons. That official party status will unlock desperately needed funds for a starving party: more than $1.1-million, for example, for a party leader’s office budget. There’s another million and change for research. Money for technology, printing and travel. Plus dedicated spots on parliamentary committees, and daily questions during Question Period. A political party needs those things to get its message out, to fundraise, and to grow.
Politics is a business of addition but this week New Democrat leadership candidates demonstrated they’re focused on subtraction.
Gone are the prospects of forming a government. Former leader Jack Layton’s 2011 orange wave, with 103 seats and a presence in every region of the country, may go down as the unfulfilled beachhead.
The biggest hurdle — obvious to anyone watching the NDP leadership debate Thursday or its more disastrous fall debate — is the painful to inadequate level of French the candidates demonstrated.
NDP Leadership Candidate Proposes Government-Run Grocery Stores, Telecom Services
Avi Lewis says he will push for government-run grocery stores, telecom services, and banking in Canada if he becomes the next NDP leader.
Lewis was one of five candidates to participate in the final NDP leadership debate on Feb. 19. He said his campaign has promoted the “essential role of public ownership” in Canada and noted that, in addition to public health care and child care, he would like to see a similar option for groceries and phone and internet services.
You are a moron engaged in vote whoring from incompatible cultures and have chosen to lie about the harm mass immigration has inflicted upon ordinary Canadians the very people you claim to represent. It is you who is the danger to Canadians.
— Blazingcatfur (@fancypants_s) February 22, 2026
The NDP leadership race could be turning into a nail-biter with no clear winner in sight. But it’s unclear if Canadians are tuning in.
The field of candidates now has three front-runners, several NDP strategists and analysts tell CBC News.
Weeks before the critical membership sign-up deadline of Jan. 28, the outcome remains unpredictable, with no particular candidate having a sure path to victory and all showing signs of momentum.
Nothing to see here just CBC working to prop up a reliable LPC stooge bloc.
New Democrats went into the federal election earlier this year feeling that the odds were against them, given the dynamics of a race that sidelined their party, according to a wide-ranging report on the NDP’s poor performance.
The review-and-renewal report by Ottawa lawyer Emilie Taman, a former NDP candidate, says New Democrats concluded that voters had adopted a “Trump/Carney/Poilievre” mindset before the campaign began in March and that the party was ill-equipped to deal with it.
Let’s list NDP strongpoints
1) Stupid
2) Communist
3) Stupid Communists
4) Singular Achievement – A leader less popular than Trudeau
Pro-Palestinian activist Yves Engler barred from running for NDP leadership
OTTAWA – Self-described “agitator” Yves Engler says he has been denied entry into the NDP leadership race.
Engler says in a statement this morning he wants the party’s federal council to overturn a decision from the leadership vote committee to disqualify his candidacy.
NDP leadership rules say this committee will approve or reject candidates based on their ability to meet eligibility rules and demonstrate integrity and honesty.
OTTAWA—There were cheers. But also some winces.
When Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske asked NDP leadership hopeful Avi Lewis to describe the future of the labour movement in one word during an October forum, he shook his head and raised his hand in protest.
“Can’t do it,” he countered. “It’s two. General. Strike.”
May I suggest MAID?
Challenged by many Liberals, New Democrats, and a wide swathe of Canadians, to defend his softening on fossil fuels, especially liquid natural gas (LNG), one might forgive Prime Minister Mark Carney for saying to himself, or even out loud, “Because its 2025, not 2015!”
The year of Justin Trudeau’s first election victory, followed by the Paris agreement on climate, was an ebullient moment for Canadian green progressives. The United States had finally moved to sanity on climate. Deadlines for transition away from fossil fuels were set by many countries and companies at what were seen as “aspirational” levels.
