The New Democratic Party’s leadership race has generated a fair bit of activity and controversy within the Party itself – and in the Canadian progressive world more generally.
A debate on Palestine organized by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) attracted over 10,000 viewers online, a hefty number for that kind of event.
However, because the mainstream media have afforded it little coverage, most Canadians are only vaguely aware, if they are aware at all, that the campaign is even happening.
Wednesday, January 28, 2026, was the last day to sign up for an NDP membership and thus vote for the Party’s next leader.
But that fact was not featured prominently on CTV or CBC news, or in the pages of the Globe and Mail, although it did merit a piece in the National Post.
With so much Sturm und Drang in the world right now it has been hard for a party with only seven MPs to get noticed – even if that party governs two provinces and forms the official opposition in four others.
A simple process
The process for choosing the New Democratic leader is a ranked ballot, with voters indicating their first, second, third and subsequent choices.
The winner will be the candidate who gets a majority of the total votes, at least 50 per cent plus one, and we will learn who that is at a national convention at the end of March.
For those who want to participate the Party makes the whole process pretty simple.
The NDP’s 2025 leadership vote is a straight ahead, simple process, unlike those of some other parties, which have chosen more complicated processes.
For instance, some parties chose to enumerate party members’ votes riding by riding, giving each riding equal weight. They apportioned points per riding for each candidate, on the basis of the proportion of the vote each candidate won in each riding.
That system made it possible for a candidate to win the leadership while losing the total popular vote – as happens regularly in first-past-the-post elections.
On the other hand, the points-per-riding system assured that all regions would have an equal say in choosing the party leader – even though some regions might have way more party members than others.
By contrast, the NDP opted, this time, for a simple majority of all the votes, across the whole country.
That means, for some candidates a successful strategy would be to work like the dickens to attract votes in the parts of Canada where they are strong, while devoting less energy to the rest of the country.
There is some evidence that’s in fact happening in the current NDP contest.
Although this writer has written about the race several times, it still might be worthwhile to set the stage, once more.
A five-way race, with three front runners
There are five official candidates for the leadership:
Tony McQuail, an Ontario organic farmer and former federal and provincial NDP candidate, advocates a merger of New Democrats and Greens. At public events he uses graphics, and favours pithy formulas, in the style of “the four Fs” or “the five Rs” to characterize his policy options.
He also argues that New Democrats should be making a hard and determined push for electoral reform.
McQuail has his own distinct, unapologetic style. He never appears in public, whether indoors or out, without his signature straw hat.
Tanille Johnston, the only Indigenous candidate in the race, is a social worker on Vancouver Island, and municipal councillor in Campbell River, BC, who ran for the NDP in the last election.
Johnston often speaks for youth. She encourages the Party to lower what she sees as barriers to participation for the young and the marginalized.
One of those barriers, in Johnston’s view, is the NDP’s membership fee.
Ron Ashton is President of the International Longshore Workers and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in Vancouver. He emphasizes that he is the only blue-collar worker in the race.
Indeed, Ashton’s rhetoric often includes references to his authentic working-class status. “I am a real worker,” Ashton tells audiences, unlike faux, would-be champions of the working class such as Pierre Poilievre.
Rob Ashton argues that while workers built the NDP, the Party has, over the years, strayed from its working-class roots. He wants to bring it back to those roots.
Heather McPherson has been the Member of Parliament for Edmonton-Strathcona since 2019. For much of her six years in the House of Commons she has been the NDP’s foreign affairs critic, in which capacity she has been a tireless advocate for the rights of the Palestinian people.
As a leadership candidate Heather McPherson has emphasized her inclusiveness – she does not think the party should impose ideological, in her controversial words, “purity tests” on people, and should welcome all who want to participate.
She also speaks frequently about her hands-on and invaluable experience as an MP.
McPherson is the only leadership aspirant to have ever held elected federal office. Her supporters say it is essential, at this time, for the NDP, with only seven MPs, to have a leader with a seat in Parliament.
Avi Lewis has had a long and successful career as a broadcaster and filmmaker. During his career, he worked for the now-defunct Much Music network, for Al Jazeera, and for the CBC.
Lewis’ father, Stephen Lewis, is well-known to Canadians as the former leader of the Ontario NDP and as a senior official with the United Nations. In the latter role Stephen Lewis gained world-wide recognition for his role in the battle to eliminate AIDS throughout the world, especially in Africa.
But Avi Lewis more frequently evokes his grandfather, David Lewis, who led the federal NDP from 1971 to 1975.
Avi Lewis speaks frequently about the European Ashkenazi Jewish socialist tradition of which his grandfather was a part.
In fact, Lewis unabashedly and unapologetically talks a lot about his Jewish heritage and identity. In the CJMPE debate he spoke about how, as a Jew, inculcated from an early age with a kind of uncritical support for Zionism, he had to be educated about Palestine and the Palestinian people.
Lewis makes a greater effort than any of the other candidates to connect his campaign to the current existential crisis facing Canada.
He was not reluctant to give credit to Prime Minister Mark Carney for the Davos speech. But he always makes an effort to focus on how he would favour alternatives to the distinctly regressive economic policies Carney is pursuing – policies such as canceling a modest increase in the capital gains tax.
Avi Lewis is the only leadership candidate to place a heavy emphasis on policy. He is especially focused on giving the public sector a far more important role in affirming Canada’s economic sovereignty.
Lewis often says his campaign is not about him or his biography. It is about the ideas the campaign promotes and the community of activists it has built.
Despite that, what Lewis’ supporters talk a lot about is that elusive quality we call charisma. Supporters often say Lewis reminds them of the late Jack Layton, who led the party to its most successful result, 101 seats in the 2011 election.
Those who favour Lewis and have attended his rallies say they are reminded of similar events in support of Layton.
The frontrunners all have significant declared support
Lewis has the support of former NDP deputy leader Libby Davies, environmental leader David Suzuki and Winnipeg MP Leah Gazan, who is the only one of the seven NDP MPs to have declared her support for any candidate.
The Ontario wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees is also backing him.
Rob Ashton has more significant labour support – from the United Steelworkers and the Ottawa-based national body, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).
Heather McPherson early on attracted the enthusiastic support of former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley and a number of other elected NDP politicians.
More recently McPherson bagged a big catch in the NDP world, former long-time Northern Ontario MP Charlie Angus.
Angus continues to be very visible in his post-politics life. He puts out a well-read blog called The Resistance, and tours the country giving talks, largely focused on resisting the dangerous and challenging threat from Donald Trump’s U.S.
In announcing his support for McPherson, Angus said leader of the party is “not an entry-level job” – a jab at the other candidates, notably Lewis, who have never held elective office.
Candidates have, mostly, avoided calling each other out by name, with the exception of Ashton who publicly denounced Lewis for being “divisive”.
One hears that criticism of Lewis from other mainstream NDPers.
They are not happy with his having supported Anjali Appadurai, a young and inexperienced challenger to David Eby, for British Columbia leader.
And they resent Lewis’ part in the movement around the Leap Manifesto, which was an effort to link social democracy to a transition-to-a-green-economy agenda.
Lewis’ detractors say the Leap “blew up” the 2016 Edmonton federal party convention, which saw the ouster of then-leader Tom Mulcair.
At this stage, it looks like this is a three-way race among Lewis, McPherson, and Aston. The other two candidates are running more to raise their own profiles and to make a point than to win.
It is quite possible the Ashton and McPherson forces are working together to stop Lewis.
When pressed privately about Lewis’ main opponents, his supporters tend to focus on the fact that, in the words of one, “they have nothing to say” – meaning the other candidates are running, essentially, on their biographies, not their policies.
NDP members now have to decide what sort of leader they want.
