The first official debate among NDP leadership aspirants happens in Montreal on Thursday evening, November 27.
Ahead of that event, three of the five candidates have put forward some fairly robust policy proposals.
Union leader Rob Ashton has a long series of proposals on housing (including an end to renovictions) and what he calls worker power (which includes worker representation on corporate boards of directors).
Organic farmer Tony McQuail has his by-now-familiar “four Rs.” They target electoral reform, regenerating landscapes despoiled by industry, a wealth tax, and sustainable growth.
Broadcaster Avi Lewis focuses on what was once a great Canadian tradition, using the public sector to manage, direct, and grow an economy run by and for Canadians.
Lewis proposes that the federal government create publicly-owned corporations in the wholesale food business, in banking (via Canada Post), in housing, and in pharmaceuticals.
Campbell River city councillor Tanille Johnston is the only Indigenous candidate in the race. From the outset of her campaign, she has shared eight brief bullet points which, at a high level outline, her policy priorities.
Except for a pledge to make post-secondary education “free and accessible”, those bullet points are all non-specific and general in nature. Johnston promises, for instance, to prioritize “equitable access to health care” and “diverse and affordable housing”. But she does not say how she would achieve those goals.
Edmonton MP Heather McPherson is the only sitting member of Parliament in the race, one of seven New Democrats who got elected in last April’s election.
She is not emphasizing any particular policies at this stage in the campaign. The leadership race does not end until March of 2026.
McPherson has devoted some energy to calling out Prime Minister Mark Carney’s increasingly blue-Liberal policies, most notably his 2025 budget.
McPherson voted against that budget and is well-positioned to understand, in detail, how devastating Carney’s projected cuts to such vital areas as foreign aid will be.
Five different leadership styles on display
The Edmonton MP is running on her competence, parliamentary experience, and inclusiveness. She promises a practical, feet-on-the-ground, realistic leadership style.
Rob Ashton wants NDPers to support him – a dock worker and union leader – as the “class warfare” guy. His rhetoric is full of references to the working class versus the ruling class.
Take for example what Ashton’s campaign says about housing:
“Canada’s housing crisis is not an accident— the ruling class engineered it. It is the result … real-estate investors, corporate landlords, and decades of political decisions that put profits ahead of people. It is a class war.”
Avi Lewis is the candidate of media-savvy enthusiasm and ambition.
The journalist and broadcaster, now based in Vancouver, launched his campaign with a video (in English) in which he walked and talked, Rick-Mercer-style, against a gritty urban background.
On the eve of what the Party calls the “mostly-in-French” Montreal debate Lewis put out a similar video in French.
In both videos, Lewis makes more reference to his grandfather, David Lewis, who led the NDP in the 1970s, than to his father Stephen Lewis, who not only led the Ontario NDP but had a subsequent illustrious career at the United Nations.
Lewis has made a determined and conscious effort to link his (somewhat) radical public ownership agenda to grassroots concerns about affordability.
The purpose of enhanced public ownership in key economic sectors, he says, would be to “lower prices, improve services, and break the stranglehold of corporate monopolies over the economy.”
Tony McQuail’s environmentally-oriented policies make sense to many NDP activists.
But it is not clear what kind of statement McQuail is trying to send with his unconventional choice of garb. The candidate never appears in public, regardless of the context, without his signature old-school farmer’s straw hat and rumpled work shirt.
Tanille Johnston is the next generation candidate. Her role is a bit like that of Karina Gould in the most recent Liberal leadership race. She is the voice of youth.
The acid test for all candidates’ fluency in French
The Montreal debate is one of only two the federal party headquarters have scheduled. The second will not take place until well into the New Year.
In past NDP leadership races there were many more.
In 2011-2012, when the Party ultimately chose Tom Mulcair, there were six official debates, three of which were bilingual and one of which was in French only.
In 2017, when the winner was Jagmeet Singh, there were even more, ten official debates. One of the ten was in French only and two were bilingual.
The Party’s current rules state that there must be at least one debate in French and one in English.
But the Montreal debate will not be exclusively in French. The Party says it will be mostly in French.
That choice stands to reason, since a number of the candidates have extremely limited capacity in French.
So far, Avi Lewis is the only candidate to have expressed himself to a significant extent in French, although, even in his case, mostly in rehearsed, scripted situations.
The acid test – for Lewis and all the others – will come when they have to express themselves unrehearsed and spontaneously in French. That is a whole different kettle of fish from memorizing a text and delivering it with a credible accent.
It is safe to say that this NDP leadership is the first one in a long time in which there are no fluently bilingual candidates.
In no particular order, and going back to the 1970s, here is a very partial list of past, comfortably bilingual candidates, three of whom led the party:
Lorne Nystrom, Svend Robinson, David Lewis, Nikki Ashton, Guy Caron, Brian Topp, Jack Layton, Jean-Paul Harney, Jim Laxer, Jagmeet Singh, Tom Mulcair, and Nathan Cullen.
The Montreal debate on Thursday, November 27 will not have a live audience. It will take place in a studio and will be available online only.
It starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Editor’s note: Yves Engler, who has declared his candidacy for the leadership race, but has yet to be officially approved by the party’s leadership committee, said in a statement to rabble that the “NDP excluding the only fluent French speaker from a largely French language debate in Montreal would be absurd.” He added that his campaign has raised the required $100,000 entrance fee and said that he believed that his campaign had as much public support as most of the other candidates.
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