Thank you for this piece. You articulated many thoughts I’ve had on this leadership race.
Progressive politics in Canada has become like 95% advocacy, 3% mobilizing, and 1% organizing. I think the modern Conservative movement figured out how to mix organizing tactics with modern marketing tactics to make a big shift in who is in their coalition. The Liberals have always been masters at marketing and branding. It means the NDP could be a useful political force, but it’s a multi-year, almost generational project to make that shift, and I think you’ve rightly pointed that out.
I think your option 3 is exactly what Avi and his team are planning to do. It’s very hard but they are planning to try and I don’t see the same kind of visionary leadership in social movements at the moment
The visionary leadership in social movements can be found at places like workers' action centres and new Black liberation regroupments, and organizing within warehouses. There's a big social movement strike happening this week in Quebec. I just don't buy Lewis' rhetoric because you can't arrive at 57 years of age and announce you're going to start doing this. You have to have been doing this for decades for it to be believable.
I absolutely agree with you that his feet will need to be held to the fire to ensure Option 3 is actually what we get once he’s leader. Still, he’s running to be NDP leader and has been since the fall. That does require a high degree of self-promotion and playing the game of traditional politics, does it not? For me, the way he’s gone about this inherently not-very-leftist task has given me some (though not unshakable) confidence that he will approach the job in keeping with Option 3.
Exactly. There’s a need for us all to find a way of reconciling our well-honed — and very necessary — instincts to critique and question with believing in ourselves and our project, our ability to overcome the inevitable challenges.
This is where my problem lies -- hope, belief, thoughts -- all great words. But a record of action is much more important and that what I'm using to base my analysis on. If I based it on hope, the piece would be very different.
I think the "Capitalism Can't be Fixed" Policy Document created by socialists in the party (maybe in a warehouse) is the audacious and uncompromising energy of grassroots organizers that you speak about, Nora. And, despite working together and supporting two remarkable candidates who were vetted out (yes, I actually do pin that on Lucy Watson as a metonym for NDP's sinister force of exclusion), a member of the group who co-created the policy document "Capitalism Can't Be Fixed: onto a Socialist Future" named Jasmine Peardon has stepped forward to run for the President of the NDP. Read more about Jasmine and the CCBF policy here: https://jasminepeardon.ca/. I don't see a place for socialism within the current NDP power structure, but with Jasmine as president, there might be a chance. I'm willing to support her and find out what happens just like I supported Yves and Bianca.
Heather McPherson said that the party needs to win seats in Quebec to achieve official party status again.
The only elected francophone NDP MP in Quebec is considering running for a Quebec Provincial party.
The only viable french speaking potential leadership candidate with a democratically derived socialist platform was denied even the vetting process and even expelled from the party by unelected NDP president Silly Goosey Lucy.
French speaking and Quebec based Yves Engler has a lot of appeal among mostly young, antiwar, antizionist Canadians with his democratically derived platform.
He is controversial without a doubt, but also a knowledgable author of 12 books, an activist whose passion is undeniable.
I cancelled my membership when Yves was expelled but I would encourage delegates and others to visit Yves and his wife Bianca at their "parallel convention" at Rudy's Pub, next door to the main, probably boring, event.
That would be great but don’t hold your breath. She would be ex-communicated by the NDP vanguard (unless it’s a hit piece). Credit where credit is due, her take on Avi Lewis is sticking her neck out.
Isn't the point of a coalition of the party/social movements/unions/etc. that it isn't about the leader? That seems to be his core message, that it matters less whether he came from the student movement or whatever because we have others who do, and his role is to make the party engage with and elevate them. For example their policy book was developed directly alongside or by drawing from the demands of social movements and unions, and as a result things line funding supports for tenant unions are in an NDP platform for the first time. Many of the speakers at his events spoke to the unique perspective of their particular movements. The 15 regional chapters with 1000s of volunteers, many coming from various movements, were created in a matter of months. To say nothing of his endorsers Niall Ricardo and Libby Davies running for federal council leadership on the same mission statement. To me it seems like we're already seeing the early signs of option 3, and I bet it'd be even more obvious given another 6 months where he's actually pushing the party in this direction as leader
What movement or union in Canada has transcended leadership? The leader does count a great deal, and it doesn't help our thinking through it to imagine that it doesn't.
I'm not saying the leader doesn't matter, what I'm saying is the role of the leader trying to accomplish option 3 is to be the visionary and the glue. Avi doesn't need to be the most experienced tenant organizer, for example. His role is to orient the party to bring in those people who are, and who might be aligned with the party but not active in it, to help shape its direction and coordinate on their shared goals. That's why I think adopting their demands as policy points and platforming those groups to speak about themselves to members at events is a good sign. It shows the party is listening and lowers the barrier to entry for social movements who then already see themselves reflected in the NDP
In terms of solutions, we can house everyone...here is a model than can work in so many places:
Imagine making the stupidly rich, and only them, pay for housing for the 4,000 unhoused people in BC?
1. Vancouver and Surrey each have over $10b in their accumulated surplus, only a portion of it is designated for specific things.
2. Cities, the province and the feds own so much developable land, even just in the lower mainland.
3. We can borrow just $1b from the surpluses, and build 24/7 supportive housing for 4,000 people on land that is public already, and staff it with social workers already deployed.
4. We pay it back with the proceeds of the empty house tax, in Vancouver and the province, in less than 10 years. Like 6-8, now that the 2026 BC budget has increased their empty home rate.
5. Marc Lee with the CCPA costed this all out in 2016. So we've known how to do it for a decade. We just won't.
Solid observations and mostly in line with what I’ve been trying to express to anyone that will listen for awhile (those poor canvassers hahahaha). The NDP, the collective “we”, need a departure from playing the game the same way as they have been and from the way that is most convenient (and easily dismissed and countered by the two more established parties who are way better at it and have the infrastructure and funding to crush or steal any ideas or momentum garnered).
The NDP needs to be strong and consistently loud and inconvenient AND to hold positions that aren’t liberal lite (trademark pending).
The NDP needs to challenge the current system and the roots of what’s causing us all massive distress in terms and language that inspire and engage not just the party faithful but the ones that have lost hope/felt abandoned as it became more centrist (in the attempt to capture alienated liberal votes) and to appeal to the working class again in real terms (especially those that are not friendly to leftist labels at all but have identified structural issues that socialists have harped on forever and offered solutions to - but that never get heard because the angry conservatives are the ones they’re having points with after work or sharing the coffee room at work with).
I hate that the NDP race is back to a cult of the personality battle as well and I’ve not heard anyone suggesting anything to address that either. If the NDP are a pluralist party, why do they limit themselves to a single leader instead of a coalition of folks in leadership roles that can each pull from and speak to different demographics. Decentralize the party in real terms.
It’s either that or we abandon the corpse of an ineffectual party to start a new one. It’s worked for several conservative groups/parties over the years. Why are we scared to attempt strategies that have been shown to work for others and remain mired in ones that clearly do not?
"Crucially, the goal in these regroupments isn’t to win elections, it’s to change political culture. It’s to unite people, find leadership, train that leadership and get them to take on roles that can help propagate leftwing policies and ideas. It’s to actively bring people into the movement. This is how you build an engine, without which Bold Ideas wither on the vine and die." This is the lesson the NDP establishment (many of whom are, I think, rejected Liberals) has rejected since forever. Even if Avi , or any new leader, wants to overcome the NDP inertia, as you point out, he will meet a wall of resistance. Maybe it will be the final straw and the real leftists will look to form a socialist party. Hopefully they'll do better than the Your Party bunch seem to be doing in the UK.
I think it would help to add the words "to fail" (or equivalent) into the sentence "Option 2 is also likely * because of the push-pull relationship with the provincial parties."
But I wish I wish I wish this were a world in which properly explaining and pointing out mistakes and fallacious thinking (and not just with slogans and zingers either) and then doing (and defending) the obvious would be enough. But I'm sure it's been tried and didn't get far enough even to fail.
I wouldn't say Avi has "virtually no leadership experience" ... he directed The Take to support Argentina's socialist factory-occupation movement. Javier Milei had other plans. And then he got behind The Leap Manifesto (to address climate and social justice) and we all know how well that worked out, despite full shill support by the pop-liberal-combo of wifey Naomi Klein and flea scientist David Suzuki. He also led not one but two failed federal NDP candidate runs, in 2021 and 2025.
So in fact we can say he does have some experience at leading. With virtually no record of success.
Which is lower: the collective effort required to make the NDP walk the narrow line to salvation that you define in option #3, or the collective effort required to permanently destroy the NDP and replace it with a socialist party?
as one of those lefty non-shit small business owners I really do hope Lewis can offer a true socialist contract to Canadians but it's going to be tough when people like Poilievre and trumpoloopa scare the bejeezus out of us and force us to vote lib to keep the cons away
Nora I think your analysis is strangely dismissive of Avi Lewis' track record of organizing to date. You seem to portray him as a person who came out of left field and is coasting by on the credit due to him by virtue of his last name - which hey, may have been accurate if we were talking about Justin Trudeau. But Avi's been active in organizing for social justice causes across North America for over two decades, and knows the political terrain, the policy debates, and the players, high and low,inside and out. That's why he got endorsements from respected activists and organizers across the country. Not because he checks the right boxes and says what people want to hear, but because he's clearly committed to this political project, and people do believe he will follow through.
Now you are welcome to suggest it's all a long con, but that's your opinion, and is perhaps a bit jaded, no?
You seem to be confusing movement-based organizing with political leadership. Generally organizers are not front and center in their activities as a mouthpiece or media figure. If you read through some of the endorsements from organizers that have worked with Avi on campaigns, you would glean some further insight here, perhaps.
But you're right, the leadership role is not one he usually occupies - but it's great that someone with his experience and credentials has stepped into that role when it is so sorely needed!
The answer to this would have just been a list of things though. It's great he's running. I think he's the second best candidate. But inflating his experience helps what?
I feel like I am at a strange, desolate part of Canadian politics. A dark-skinned immigrant who has been here for 2 decades (citizen since October 2009), but has spent 2000-2024 engaged in a peaceful, non-violent struggle to re-humanize & (re)educate myself as a committed, dedicated, devoted student of Buddhadhamma. I have had to spend 27 years struggling to survive, recover, and heal from the wound of CSA at the same time.
I have not had the time to listen to the interviews with the NDP candidates and, to be plainly honest, I have not heard of any of them.
I had not heard of Yves Engler either and it seems that him, as well as his team, find themselves at an unfortunate, and hopefully temporary, dead-end of the current iteration of the Canadian political circus/theatre. I still do not know much about him, the team that supports him, his supporters, or much detail about his politic with which to decide whether I support him or not. But, he and his team did hold one virtual event with Kshama Sawant, a politician and socialist from Seattle who has achieved significant victories on the struggle to Annihilate Caste (Jai Bhim! Jai Savitri!). While caste was never mentioned or discussed during that virtual event, I do not think that socialism/socialists can ignore caste/casteism/casteists, that is still much more than ANYTHING I have ever heard from a Canadian politician on the topic of caste and caste discrimination (absolutely nothing, I have heard absolutely nothing from Canadian politicians on the matter of caste and caste discrimination).
I think we also need to get way more serious about a wealth tax, wayyyy beyond grabbing some billions from the stupidly rich once in a while.
I'm looking for a 25% wealth tax/year on families worth more than $200m, dropping to 5% when they're down to $78m.
California is pondering a 1-time 5% tax on families worth us$1.1b. 60% of NY residents (not just NYC) favour free, universal childcare until pre-K, with an explicit tax on the rich to fund it.
Thank you for this piece. You articulated many thoughts I’ve had on this leadership race.
Progressive politics in Canada has become like 95% advocacy, 3% mobilizing, and 1% organizing. I think the modern Conservative movement figured out how to mix organizing tactics with modern marketing tactics to make a big shift in who is in their coalition. The Liberals have always been masters at marketing and branding. It means the NDP could be a useful political force, but it’s a multi-year, almost generational project to make that shift, and I think you’ve rightly pointed that out.
I think your option 3 is exactly what Avi and his team are planning to do. It’s very hard but they are planning to try and I don’t see the same kind of visionary leadership in social movements at the moment
The visionary leadership in social movements can be found at places like workers' action centres and new Black liberation regroupments, and organizing within warehouses. There's a big social movement strike happening this week in Quebec. I just don't buy Lewis' rhetoric because you can't arrive at 57 years of age and announce you're going to start doing this. You have to have been doing this for decades for it to be believable.
I absolutely agree with you that his feet will need to be held to the fire to ensure Option 3 is actually what we get once he’s leader. Still, he’s running to be NDP leader and has been since the fall. That does require a high degree of self-promotion and playing the game of traditional politics, does it not? For me, the way he’s gone about this inherently not-very-leftist task has given me some (though not unshakable) confidence that he will approach the job in keeping with Option 3.
How can unshakeable confidence in anything positive at the moment
Exactly. There’s a need for us all to find a way of reconciling our well-honed — and very necessary — instincts to critique and question with believing in ourselves and our project, our ability to overcome the inevitable challenges.
This is where my problem lies -- hope, belief, thoughts -- all great words. But a record of action is much more important and that what I'm using to base my analysis on. If I based it on hope, the piece would be very different.
How’s about Hope and Change. . .
I think the "Capitalism Can't be Fixed" Policy Document created by socialists in the party (maybe in a warehouse) is the audacious and uncompromising energy of grassroots organizers that you speak about, Nora. And, despite working together and supporting two remarkable candidates who were vetted out (yes, I actually do pin that on Lucy Watson as a metonym for NDP's sinister force of exclusion), a member of the group who co-created the policy document "Capitalism Can't Be Fixed: onto a Socialist Future" named Jasmine Peardon has stepped forward to run for the President of the NDP. Read more about Jasmine and the CCBF policy here: https://jasminepeardon.ca/. I don't see a place for socialism within the current NDP power structure, but with Jasmine as president, there might be a chance. I'm willing to support her and find out what happens just like I supported Yves and Bianca.
Yes, I'm watching that election.
Heather McPherson said that the party needs to win seats in Quebec to achieve official party status again.
The only elected francophone NDP MP in Quebec is considering running for a Quebec Provincial party.
The only viable french speaking potential leadership candidate with a democratically derived socialist platform was denied even the vetting process and even expelled from the party by unelected NDP president Silly Goosey Lucy.
French speaking and Quebec based Yves Engler has a lot of appeal among mostly young, antiwar, antizionist Canadians with his democratically derived platform.
He is controversial without a doubt, but also a knowledgable author of 12 books, an activist whose passion is undeniable.
I cancelled my membership when Yves was expelled but I would encourage delegates and others to visit Yves and his wife Bianca at their "parallel convention" at Rudy's Pub, next door to the main, probably boring, event.
Yves was probably the NDP's last best hope.
Silly Lucy!
Nora goes silent. . .
The one who raises the most money wins.....rule of thumb in political campaigns.
I'm waiting for her reportage from Rudy's pub!
That would be great but don’t hold your breath. She would be ex-communicated by the NDP vanguard (unless it’s a hit piece). Credit where credit is due, her take on Avi Lewis is sticking her neck out.
Isn't the point of a coalition of the party/social movements/unions/etc. that it isn't about the leader? That seems to be his core message, that it matters less whether he came from the student movement or whatever because we have others who do, and his role is to make the party engage with and elevate them. For example their policy book was developed directly alongside or by drawing from the demands of social movements and unions, and as a result things line funding supports for tenant unions are in an NDP platform for the first time. Many of the speakers at his events spoke to the unique perspective of their particular movements. The 15 regional chapters with 1000s of volunteers, many coming from various movements, were created in a matter of months. To say nothing of his endorsers Niall Ricardo and Libby Davies running for federal council leadership on the same mission statement. To me it seems like we're already seeing the early signs of option 3, and I bet it'd be even more obvious given another 6 months where he's actually pushing the party in this direction as leader
What movement or union in Canada has transcended leadership? The leader does count a great deal, and it doesn't help our thinking through it to imagine that it doesn't.
I'm not saying the leader doesn't matter, what I'm saying is the role of the leader trying to accomplish option 3 is to be the visionary and the glue. Avi doesn't need to be the most experienced tenant organizer, for example. His role is to orient the party to bring in those people who are, and who might be aligned with the party but not active in it, to help shape its direction and coordinate on their shared goals. That's why I think adopting their demands as policy points and platforming those groups to speak about themselves to members at events is a good sign. It shows the party is listening and lowers the barrier to entry for social movements who then already see themselves reflected in the NDP
I think that the leader does need to be an experienced organizer though. That's a really big fault line here.
In terms of solutions, we can house everyone...here is a model than can work in so many places:
Imagine making the stupidly rich, and only them, pay for housing for the 4,000 unhoused people in BC?
1. Vancouver and Surrey each have over $10b in their accumulated surplus, only a portion of it is designated for specific things.
2. Cities, the province and the feds own so much developable land, even just in the lower mainland.
3. We can borrow just $1b from the surpluses, and build 24/7 supportive housing for 4,000 people on land that is public already, and staff it with social workers already deployed.
4. We pay it back with the proceeds of the empty house tax, in Vancouver and the province, in less than 10 years. Like 6-8, now that the 2026 BC budget has increased their empty home rate.
5. Marc Lee with the CCPA costed this all out in 2016. So we've known how to do it for a decade. We just won't.
https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/getting-serious-about-affordable-housing-towards-a-plan-for-metro-vancouver/
Thanks for drawing attention to Jasmine Reardon and the Capitalism Can't Be Fixed manifesto. Looking forward to your interview with Bianca Mugyenyi.
Solid observations and mostly in line with what I’ve been trying to express to anyone that will listen for awhile (those poor canvassers hahahaha). The NDP, the collective “we”, need a departure from playing the game the same way as they have been and from the way that is most convenient (and easily dismissed and countered by the two more established parties who are way better at it and have the infrastructure and funding to crush or steal any ideas or momentum garnered).
The NDP needs to be strong and consistently loud and inconvenient AND to hold positions that aren’t liberal lite (trademark pending).
The NDP needs to challenge the current system and the roots of what’s causing us all massive distress in terms and language that inspire and engage not just the party faithful but the ones that have lost hope/felt abandoned as it became more centrist (in the attempt to capture alienated liberal votes) and to appeal to the working class again in real terms (especially those that are not friendly to leftist labels at all but have identified structural issues that socialists have harped on forever and offered solutions to - but that never get heard because the angry conservatives are the ones they’re having points with after work or sharing the coffee room at work with).
I hate that the NDP race is back to a cult of the personality battle as well and I’ve not heard anyone suggesting anything to address that either. If the NDP are a pluralist party, why do they limit themselves to a single leader instead of a coalition of folks in leadership roles that can each pull from and speak to different demographics. Decentralize the party in real terms.
It’s either that or we abandon the corpse of an ineffectual party to start a new one. It’s worked for several conservative groups/parties over the years. Why are we scared to attempt strategies that have been shown to work for others and remain mired in ones that clearly do not?
"Crucially, the goal in these regroupments isn’t to win elections, it’s to change political culture. It’s to unite people, find leadership, train that leadership and get them to take on roles that can help propagate leftwing policies and ideas. It’s to actively bring people into the movement. This is how you build an engine, without which Bold Ideas wither on the vine and die." This is the lesson the NDP establishment (many of whom are, I think, rejected Liberals) has rejected since forever. Even if Avi , or any new leader, wants to overcome the NDP inertia, as you point out, he will meet a wall of resistance. Maybe it will be the final straw and the real leftists will look to form a socialist party. Hopefully they'll do better than the Your Party bunch seem to be doing in the UK.
I think it would help to add the words "to fail" (or equivalent) into the sentence "Option 2 is also likely * because of the push-pull relationship with the provincial parties."
But I wish I wish I wish this were a world in which properly explaining and pointing out mistakes and fallacious thinking (and not just with slogans and zingers either) and then doing (and defending) the obvious would be enough. But I'm sure it's been tried and didn't get far enough even to fail.
small typo alert, second to last paragraph: "The elephant <is> the room is neoliberalism"
I wouldn't say Avi has "virtually no leadership experience" ... he directed The Take to support Argentina's socialist factory-occupation movement. Javier Milei had other plans. And then he got behind The Leap Manifesto (to address climate and social justice) and we all know how well that worked out, despite full shill support by the pop-liberal-combo of wifey Naomi Klein and flea scientist David Suzuki. He also led not one but two failed federal NDP candidate runs, in 2021 and 2025.
So in fact we can say he does have some experience at leading. With virtually no record of success.
Which is lower: the collective effort required to make the NDP walk the narrow line to salvation that you define in option #3, or the collective effort required to permanently destroy the NDP and replace it with a socialist party?
as one of those lefty non-shit small business owners I really do hope Lewis can offer a true socialist contract to Canadians but it's going to be tough when people like Poilievre and trumpoloopa scare the bejeezus out of us and force us to vote lib to keep the cons away
Nora I think your analysis is strangely dismissive of Avi Lewis' track record of organizing to date. You seem to portray him as a person who came out of left field and is coasting by on the credit due to him by virtue of his last name - which hey, may have been accurate if we were talking about Justin Trudeau. But Avi's been active in organizing for social justice causes across North America for over two decades, and knows the political terrain, the policy debates, and the players, high and low,inside and out. That's why he got endorsements from respected activists and organizers across the country. Not because he checks the right boxes and says what people want to hear, but because he's clearly committed to this political project, and people do believe he will follow through.
Now you are welcome to suggest it's all a long con, but that's your opinion, and is perhaps a bit jaded, no?
Beyond running for the NDP and the Leap, what's the movements he's led? I dont know what you mean that i think that this is all a long con.
You seem to be confusing movement-based organizing with political leadership. Generally organizers are not front and center in their activities as a mouthpiece or media figure. If you read through some of the endorsements from organizers that have worked with Avi on campaigns, you would glean some further insight here, perhaps.
But you're right, the leadership role is not one he usually occupies - but it's great that someone with his experience and credentials has stepped into that role when it is so sorely needed!
The answer to this would have just been a list of things though. It's great he's running. I think he's the second best candidate. But inflating his experience helps what?
Doing research and presenting actual facts would probably help with whatever it is you're trying to do here.
Why so smug?
I feel like I am at a strange, desolate part of Canadian politics. A dark-skinned immigrant who has been here for 2 decades (citizen since October 2009), but has spent 2000-2024 engaged in a peaceful, non-violent struggle to re-humanize & (re)educate myself as a committed, dedicated, devoted student of Buddhadhamma. I have had to spend 27 years struggling to survive, recover, and heal from the wound of CSA at the same time.
I have not had the time to listen to the interviews with the NDP candidates and, to be plainly honest, I have not heard of any of them.
I had not heard of Yves Engler either and it seems that him, as well as his team, find themselves at an unfortunate, and hopefully temporary, dead-end of the current iteration of the Canadian political circus/theatre. I still do not know much about him, the team that supports him, his supporters, or much detail about his politic with which to decide whether I support him or not. But, he and his team did hold one virtual event with Kshama Sawant, a politician and socialist from Seattle who has achieved significant victories on the struggle to Annihilate Caste (Jai Bhim! Jai Savitri!). While caste was never mentioned or discussed during that virtual event, I do not think that socialism/socialists can ignore caste/casteism/casteists, that is still much more than ANYTHING I have ever heard from a Canadian politician on the topic of caste and caste discrimination (absolutely nothing, I have heard absolutely nothing from Canadian politicians on the matter of caste and caste discrimination).
I think we also need to get way more serious about a wealth tax, wayyyy beyond grabbing some billions from the stupidly rich once in a while.
I'm looking for a 25% wealth tax/year on families worth more than $200m, dropping to 5% when they're down to $78m.
California is pondering a 1-time 5% tax on families worth us$1.1b. 60% of NY residents (not just NYC) favour free, universal childcare until pre-K, with an explicit tax on the rich to fund it.
So, I want wayyy more, to end the 1%.