There are perspectives from which a snap federal election call might make sense. There are far more perspectives from which it looks like a fever dream trapped in a bubble. Many of them have to do with the New Democrats, who aren’t even an official party in the House of Commons.
OTTAWA — The NDP is weighing how to fast-track its campaign readiness in the case of a snap election, sources say, as its MPs weigh a budget vote that could trigger the fall of the Carney government.
Days before Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled his first budget, the party’s governing body discussed giving its headquarters the power to nominate candidates speedily, including current leadership contestants, and outlined plans to run a pared-down campaign focusing on winning back ridings lost in the previous election rather than a leader-focused national operation, said two sources with knowledge of the discussions who were granted anonymity to speak freely.
“Confession: I get shredded cheese,” said Avi Lewis, feigning sheepishness, to a Zoom audience of approximately 500 people on Wednesday. The event, titled “Emergency Austerity Budget Town Hall,” held in response to the Liberal government’s newly-released 2025 budget, was half NDP buzzword salad, half leadership campaign.
‘We can’t keep increasing fossil fuel production,’ says NDP leadership candidate
NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis says Canada cannot keep increasing fossil fuel production, likening the practice to an “addiction.”
Lewis, during a panel discussion on Friday with his main competitors in the race, labour leader Rob Ashton and Edmonton MP Heather McPherson, attempted to distinguish himself by telling the crowd that he would not support further expansion of natural gas, oil or coal in Canada.
“We need really straightforward policies that distinguish ourselves from the federal Liberals,” Lewis said. “We cannot keep increasing fossil fuel production in this country.”
OTTAWA—Federal NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis is among a group of Jewish academics slamming one of Canada’s biggest pro-Israel Jewish groups as anti-Palestinian in a new report released Tuesday.
The report, authored by six members of the Jewish Faculty Network, is based on an examination of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ (CIJA) public statements and social media posts during the first six months of the war in Gaza. It argues the organization has promoted anti-Palestinian racism “through the idea that unrestricted violence against Palestinians is necessary for Jewish safety,” pushed for a crackdown on protesters critical of Israel, and excluded dissenting Jewish voices.
For the sake of Canadian workers and their families, and Canada’s ambition to establish economic sovereignty, the time has come to reform public‑sector union funding and end mandatory dues.
This is clear from last week, when the anti-capitalist Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) held its biennial national convention at the luxurious Metro Toronto Convention Centre. There, the national union, representing 800,000 public employees, spent its time debating Canada’s withdrawal from NATO, pledging funds for legal defences of activists who protest foreign conflicts, and passing resolutions disconnected from everyday workplace realities. At this point, it’s fair to ask whether mandatory union dues still serve their purpose.
OTTAWA — NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis is promising to lower grocery bills across the country by bringing in a national “public option” to compete with corporate supermarket chains, but economists say this could be a hard row to hoe for a meagre yield.
“I think it would be profoundly expensive, and very difficult to make succeed, for a relatively marginal benefit for Canadians,” said Mike von Massow, a professor of food, agriculture and resource economics at the University of Guelph.
Worried about the price of groceries? Of course you are. Socialists in Canada are hoping to take advantage of you.
Avi Lewis, a candidate for leader of the federal New Democratic Party, posted a video extolling the virtues of publicly owned grocery stores.
Around the world, state-owned grocery stores have resulted in long lines and empty shelves—just ask anyone from the former Soviet Union.
But the NDP are historically illiterate and they hope you are too. pic.twitter.com/0gY5c3dp52
— Kevin Vuong ️ (@KevinVuongxMP) October 10, 2025
OTTAWA — Two separate paths to party renewal — and three very different contenders — have emerged as the race to choose the next leader of the federal NDP begins to take shape.
While still in its opening weeks, the contest is already shaping up as a referendum over whether the NDP should double down on courting middle-class moderates or focus its energies on reconnecting with its traditional blue-collar base.
The NDP hates Whites but especially White males they will tolerate self-hating White women when convenient.
Hamish Telford doesn’t envy whoever is elected next leader of the federal NDP.
The University of Fraser Valley political scientist is likely not the only one who feels for the next person to head the flagging left-wing party.
The two front-running candidates, Telford said, are “idealistic” former journalist Avi Lewis, who is based in Metro Vancouver, and “pragmatic” Edmonton MP Heather McPherson. Montreal activist Yves Engler and Rob Ashton, a Vancouver union leader, are also throwing in their hats.
The NDP hate the working class, in particular the white working class. They will not win them back. (Incognito)
Recent decades in politics have made us cynical. We rarely trust our politicians to wield power effectively or honestly. Our politicians have responded by making their promises smaller and more boutique, or else giving up their power altogether. Our cynicism has made us lazy and unimaginative.
And so the tools of public policy have, increasingly, become targeted tax cuts and public-private partnerships. The results have been worsening government services and a distinct feeling like Canada can’t build anything anymore.
The NDP don’t know how to make their own lunch.
It was a pleasant evening in Toronto’s well-to-do downtown Annex neighbourhood last Wednesday as the usual mix of University of Toronto students, local residents and visitors strolled up and down Bloor Street to restaurants and other local amenities. There was one unusual event, however, as some pedestrians turned down a side street where, a few doors from the main drag, they found their way to the Tranzac Club.
Big in TO!
OTTAWA—Painting herself as a pragmatist with the electoral track record to revive the weakened NDP, Edmonton MP Heather McPherson launched her bid to lead the federal New Democrats on Sunday.
With former Alberta premier Rachel Notley standing by her side, McPherson made the case the NDP needs to focus on bread-and-butter issues to rebuild and grow the party’s tent amid Prime Minister Mark Carney’s rightward shift.
She’s Batshit Crazy and could probably beat up Avi Lewis. I say she’s gonna win.
OTTAWA — Filmmaker and activist Avi Lewis entered the NDP leadership race on Friday with a populist message, promising to champion “the many” over “the money.”
Lewis vowed in a slickly produced launch video to take the fight to the corporate oligarchs who are “hoarding extreme wealth (and) foreclosing on our shared future.”
Avi grew up a socialist princeling I never got the impression he was comfortable among the great unwashed.
Maybe the NDP will get its act together. Maybe it will become a real political party, a viable third option, a progressive voice in a political ecosystem where Prime Minister Mark Carney has so graciously yielded the floor.
Mr. Carney uttered the word “austerity” last week in describing what to expect from his upcoming budget. That term was verboten under his predecessor Justin Trudeau, who became prime minister a decade ago under a promise to run a series of deficits.
