Five takeaways from the NDP Convention

You know you've been waiting for this.

Tanille Johnston

After four days of 71 hours of work and 25 hours of sleep, I’m just about home. The NDP convention is over, my livestreams are finished and I’m about to hit the sack for a well-deserved nap. The mainstream news is telling Canadians what happened, to varying degrees of accuracy (shout-out to the Canadian Press who invented a new profession for Lewis today: “an author by trade.”) Not too surprisingly, when the details are missed, you miss details. So here my top five take-aways from the convention that they may have missed, but you shouldn’t.

1. Avi trounces the opposition, Tanille steals the show

Lewis won on the first ballot with just under 56% of the vote (which proudly was my prediction). The prediction though was easy: this was not a surprise result. The energy in the convention was clearly behind Lewis. But one of the surprises for many delegates was Tanille Johnston. She finished third.

Tanille’s presentation during the election forum was the strongest by far. She was the most comfortable on the mic (Lewis included). She was drummed in. She had a quiz that shouted out the other candidates and that had the convention delegates in stitches. If Millennials were allowed to be grown-ups, this race would have been a head-to-head between Lewis and Johnston. While there are a million things to watch about how Lewis moves forward, pay close attention to the role that Johnston takes on next.

And about those million things: watch who Lewis reaches out to, who he hires, how he connects with labour, and what information the party releases about the previous administration. They have been in power virtually for decades, so no-doubt that everything from the bookeeping to the recordkeeping is somewhere between messy and a disaster.

2. Humiliation for labour

Over and over, national labour leaders lined up behind candidates who were rejected by delegates, demonstrating that they are out-of-touch with the members of their party, and that their organizing skills and intel are not great.

Labour didn’t unanimously endorse Rob Ashton, but the bodies that mattered most did, and yet, Ashton couldn’t pull in enough votes to even finish third. He found himself nestled between Johnston and Tony Mcphail, with just over 4000 votes out of the ~70,000 votes cast (that is 5%).

Despite the fact that he was backed by the Canadian Labour Congress and the United Steelworkers (including support through a nomination from President Bea Bruske and with help from staff), Ashton was trounced. This trouncing wasn’t a surprise, which makes me wonder what on earth the strategists were thinking. When Mcpherson approached the Ashton campaign for an alliance, they should have seen the writing on the wall and taken the out. It wouldn’t have pushed Mcpherson over the line but it would have allowed Ashton, and labour, to save face.

It’s hard not to feel bad for Ashton. In my interview with him, his commitment to the working class was obvious. He’s a passionate defender of working people and is rooted in his union’s membership. His campaign must have had data. They must have known that he was a longshot. How did so many people who have to demonstrate that they’re in touch with the grassroots of the working class (who, this convention confirmed many times, are NDP members), make such an unstrategic call? I’ll be watching to see if there’s any fallout about this at the Canadian Labour Congress convention in May, though, I suspect, there won’t be.

(And I know that many people won’t like to read this but I need to remind anyone reading me here — it is my job to say things that are obvious and true as I see them).

Heather Mcpherson and the Ghost of Horwath Campaigns Gone By

3. Executive election

Perhaps the most explosive moment in the convention was when the executive slate that was running on “continuity” was defeated. Two members of this slate — Laurie Antonin and Sussanne Skidmore — were incumbants. A few days before the convention, an insurgent slate jumped into the ring. It was so late that many unions had already endorsed the incumbant slate.

To be able to vote, delegates had to be present in the convention hall. CUPE President Mark Hancock nominated Skidmore, Alexandre Boulerice nominated Antonin, and the slate was defeated. It wasn’t an Ashton-level trouncing — the president vote was within just two dozen votes (the treasurer split was past 100, given the deep unpopularity of Skidmore in the hall).

The new NDP president is Niall Clapham Ricardo. He’s an activist with Independent Jewish Voices, a Montrealer and — full disclosure — works for the same law firm that is my first phone call any time I need a lawyer.

Running on “continuity” at a moment where the NDP has lost party status, has tremendous debt, and where there is widespread discontent is a choice. Sometimes I’m stunned by man’s ability to let hubris get in the way of clear thinking, but anyway. If the delegates choose the continuity slate, I thought, these people are hopeless. How could anything about the party in the last year, or two years, or five years, scream: we need continuity? There’s nothing that can save them now. But they didn’t. With a razor-thin margin, better sense prevailed. The large, losing minority were saved by the small winning majority and to them, they should all say: hey man, thanks.

An insurgent NDP leadership is unchartered territory. Losing the leadership is one thing, but the party’s establishment not being able to control delegates on the floor is an entirely different thing. The old regime is the first obstacle that the Lewis campaign needs to get rid of, and the Lewis-adjacent slate managed to do it. They will be key for Lewis to implement his vision of the party. The fourth member of the executive is a VP chosen by labour. Siobhan Vipond currently holds that seat and I suspect that she will be a helpful addition to the new leadership, along with Libby Davies, a former MP and longtime NDP activist. It will be a good mix of people.

The big thing to watch is what they do together. The executive members have never really exerted their control over the party — that work usually delegated to staff. But now, the executive has a mandate to make change, a leader who wants change, and a federal council that is comprised of a majority of people who supported Lewis. Had Lewis won, but the establishment candidates had also won, it would have been much harder for him to realize his vision. Now, the path is clear for him to get to work.

Wab Kinew’s presser

4. Provincial issues

Many of the headlines from this past weekend focused on discord between provincial leaders and Lewis’ vision. This will undoubtedly be one of the more difficult terrains that Lewis has to traverse. During his speech, with a wide-smiled Kinew looking on, Lewis said that he looks forward to reaching out to BC Premier David Eby. Someone laughed out loud from the crowd. Indeed, Lewis’ supporters should be critical of the centrism of the Eby government, Lewis’ own sister-in-law included.

When Lewis took the stage when the results were announced, Kinew rushed to the stage and scooped up Lewis’ hand before interim leader Don Davies could. Already though, the knives were out from other provincial leaders.

Kinew wasn’t just on stage to demonstrate that, unlike his non-Premier provincial homologues, he supports Lewis. Kinew was showing that he understands that an NDP with a left populist flank can help a Red Tory like Kinew more than it will hurt him. By offering Lewis full support, Kinew showed the press that there is room in the NDP for disagreements, while not alienating Manitobans who are frustrated with Kinew’s radical centrism.

Carla Beck and Naheed Nenshi, who mostly should be ignored until they can demonstrate that they’re effective (which they have not yet demonstrated), could learn from Kinew’s strategy. Rather than loading up and firing pre-written fuck-yous about Lewis to the press, they should embrace the change. It will make them look dynamic rather than crusty, and Kinew is showing them how to do it. It’s the most basic pro-tip in politics: don’t do the opposite of what the successful, popular guy is doing.

There’s no doubt that this division will be used to discipline Lewis (as I have previously written). But Kinew is a key ally for Lewis, Red Toryism and all, and their relationship will be one to watch.

5. The Party of Working People?

Throughout the convention, the most common thing that people said at the mic was that the NDP is the party of the working class. It was mentioned over and over, and was even the subject of debate. Delegates agreed to amend the consitution to say that the NDP was founded by or rooted in workers’ struggle — something that created a weird moment when a delegate said, but farmers! And the question was posed: are farmers working people? Of course, but also … working people also needs to include racialized people, said someone else. Which was like ah … ?? Obviously?

Who a working person is, is the kind of debate that someone has when they have no idea what to do about reaching a working person. This was, for me, the biggest red flag of the convention. Sure, working people includes farmers but also, farmers were distinct from the labour movement, and both groups of people created the NDP. But also, who cares?

This could be an interesting discussion for a second-year labour studies class, I guess, but it took up time and attention at the expense of any concrete discussion about how to actually reach working people. The more important question is: what is missed when the working class is conceptualized as being white, secure and middle class, as the debate undertones suggested? Many people motivated at the microphones that the inclusion of “working people” in the NDP constitution was critical to defeat Pierre Poilievre — something that would probably make the average person who doesn’t think about these things at all laugh their ass off. The NDP’s crushing defeat last year wasn’t because the constitution didn’t reference working people. The labour leaders who support the Conservatives won’t be stopped by changing the language of the NDP constitution either. While a policy convention has its limits — as in, debate is limited to policy — there is an enormous need for the members of the NDP to have a frank discussion about why they have lost the working class. And the debate about the constitution was not that. Instead, it came across as fiddling while Rome burns. Or debating while Poilievre eats working class breakfast.

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Thanks to everyone who told me what they were thinking this past weekend. Your insights and ideas all helped me form mine. Special thanks too to everyone who subscribed to this page, threw me some money, or thanked me for my work. It’s hard to be a one-man show (seriously, when I was filming the victory, I was thinking to myself — I specifically refused to learn how to be a camera operator in journalism school because I hate this.) But your comments and good words have all made it worth it.