On the second day of the NDP convention on Saturday, March 28, each of the five NDP leadership candidates took to the stage in Winnipeg to give their final pitch to the gathered delegates.
First up was Avi Lewis, who was introduced by members of his campaign team, Winnipeg-Centre MP Leah Gazan, and his wife Naomi Klein.
Avi Lewis
“In the face of inequality at an all-time high, we are done at nibbling around the edges,” said Lewis. “It is time to fight for solutions that are actually as big as the crises we face.”
Lewis explained that he planned to build a bigger coalition through the promotion of policies like “head-to-toe” healthcare, fare free bus service and tuition free education.
He also emphasized the need of moving away from fossil fuels and to renewable energy and once again brought up his idea for a public option for groceries.
Tony McQuail
Tony McQuail, who styles himself as a Green Progressive, has centred his campaign around his four “Rs.”
McQuail’s first “R” is electoral reform, namely through the implementation of an election system based around proportional representation.
The second “R” for regeneration is the main environmental plank of his platform, focusing on environmental clean-up and restoration.
“R” number three is redistribution, exemplified by his proposal for a progressive wealth tax, something that other candidates in the race like Avi Lewis have also advocated for.
The fourth and final “R” is for redesign, a blend of the previous two platform planks focused on sustainability.
“We need bold, brave and beautiful alternatives for a world being blown apart by greed coupled with economic arrogance and ecological ignorance,” McQuail said. “Its time for a green progressive movement, it is time for representation, regeneration, redistribution and redesign.”
Tanille Johnston
Tanille Johnston is the first Indigenous woman to run for the leadership of a major federal party. She was drummed to the stage by an Indigenous drum circle.
A social worker and city councillor in Campbell River, BC, Johnston began her address to the convention by quoting lines from her fellow leadership candidates and asking the audience to guess who said each line. The quotes were well-known phrases from each campaign, delivered in each candidate’s distinct styles that have become so familiar over the course of the leadership race.
“I’m running because I believe in unapologetic dedication to our path on the Left,” she said. “I believe in an unwavering dedication to the right thing because it is the right thing to do.”
“We as the NDP should be championing democracy within and without of ourselves,” Johnston said. “This looks like accessibility at conventions. This looks like ensuring our commissions have what they need to feed the momentum of our party. This looks like ensuring that all Canadians have ballot boxes in not only physically and geographically accessible spaces but in spaces they identify as safe.”
Johnston also expressed her support for a wealth tax, Universal Basic Income program and affordable post secondary education.
Rob Ashton
Rob Ashton is the only union leader in the race, being president of the Canadian branch of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union was introduced by Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske who lauded Ashton as a leader who can go into a workplace lunchroom and have those “tough conversations.”
Ashton was joined on stage by members of his campaign and Marty Warren, National Director of the Canadian branch of the United Steelworkers, which endorsed Ashton early in the campaign.
Ashton’s presentation to the convention took the form of a back and forth scripted panel discussion between himself and the people who joined him on stage including Warren.
“As a party founded on labour, rebuilding the trust in workers is essential for our future. So what’s your plan to win those voters back,” Warren asked.
Ashton acknowledged that some members of labour, especially blue collar workers were attracted to the Conservative Party in the last federal election.
“Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party, all they deliver is slogans,” he said. “They deliver slogans that deliver with hate and vile. This is something we have to defend against by getting into your memberships, not just in your mines and your mills, but in hospitals and shop floors and schools. To listen to them and look them in the eye, squarely, so that they believe that we can earn their trust back and fight for what they need.”
Heather McPherson
Heather McPherson, the only sitting NDP MP in the race was introduced, via video, by former NDP MP Charlie Angus, and in person by former NDP Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.
“Heather doesn’t just build for the next election, but for the one after that and the one after that and that is the real difference in this race,” said Notley. “Heather understands that we can only grow through addition, not division.”
Unity and party growth has been a theme of McPherson’s campaign since its launch event, where she said that the party had to do away with so-called “purity tests” a line that drew criticism from other members of her party including fellow MP Leah Gazan.
“Now is not the time for us to shrink even more,” McPherson told the convention. “We haven’t been losing support because our values are wrong, we just haven’t always been connecting as well as we could.”
McPherson told the convention a story of helping Linda Duncan’s campaign and its victory for the NDP in the 2008 federal election in what had been the Conservative riding of Edmonton-Strathcona, the riding McPherson now represents.
“They learned something everyone in this room knows, never underestimate New Democrats,” said McPherson. Lewis is viewed as the frontrunner in the NDP leadership race, with McPherson a likely second.
