Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has a blunt message for federal NDP leadership candidates.
Nenshi said he has spoken with the three front-runners — Avi Lewis, Heather McPherson and Rob Ashton — and suggested to CBC News that he asked candidates not to stand in the way of his push to win next year’s Alberta election.
Nenshi is attempting to unseat the United Conservative Party government led by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
“In Alberta, we are facing a particularly horrifying government, a government that is malicious, that is incompetent and that is corrupt, to be very blunt,” Nenshi said in an interview with CBC News.
“We don’t have the luxury in Alberta to get caught up in ideological battles … within our own party.”
Nenshi said the Alberta NDP is in a “very different (position), bluntly, than the challenges facing the federal NDP,” which is in a rebuilding phase after the last federal election nearly wiped it off the map.
“I just needed all of the party leaders to understand that,” he said.
He pointed to “tensions” between his predecessor, Rachel Notley, and former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh over issues such as pipelines.
“We need to show [Alberta voters] what a pragmatic, populist, progressive party looks like and what a government in waiting looks like,” he said.
The provincial wings of the NDP movement have enjoyed much more success than the federal one recently. In Nova Scotia and from Ontario all the way to British Columbia, the NDP either holds government or forms the Official Opposition in the provincial legislatures.
Meanwhile, the federal NDP lost official party status in April’s election — with only seven MPs returning to the House of Commons.
As the NDP leadership race enters its sixth month, at stake for some is whether the next leader will be an asset or a drag on the party’s aspirations to form more provincial NDP governments.
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NDP leadership campaign now 3-way race as membership drive ends
With the deadline to sign up new members ending, strategists say Toronto activist, author and media personality Avi Lewis is now in a three-way race for the New Democratic Party leadership, along with Edmonton MP Heather McPherson, and longtime union member and dock worker Rob Ashton.
In one of the sharpest lines of attack in the federal leadership race, Ashton praised those provincial NDP leaders while going after one of his competitors.
“They don’t need a federal leader who lectures them or second-guesses them from Ottawa,” Ashton said in a social media post.
“Avi [Lewis] takes us in the wrong direction. His kind of politics turns New Democrats against each other and undermines the wins. NDP governments are delivering,” Ashton said.
“When we’re divided, let’s be clear about who wins: Conservatives like Doug Ford, Scott Moe and Danielle Smith.”
Lewis has raised the most money in the first few months of the race, and has said Canada “can’t keep increasing fossil fuel production.”
It’s a policy position that puts him in conflict with provincial NDP leaders who are broadly supportive of, or at least don’t oppose, increasing oil and gas production alongside strong climate policies like an industrial carbon price.
Lewis responds
In an interview with CBC News, Lewis dismissed the criticism that he is fracturing the NDP movement or that if he becomes federal leader, he would undermine the provincial NDP.
“We support our provincial sections passionately,” Lewis said. “We will do anything we can to help Naheed Nenshi be the next premier of Alberta.
“All Canadians would benefit from a government in Alberta that actually governs for the people instead of its corporate friends.”
Lewis noted that there are more things that New Democrats provincially and federally have in common, such as opposing the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.
Avi Lewis has raised the most funds during the NDP leadership race so far. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)
When tensions arise, Lewis said they are temporary, like in 2018 when Notley banned B.C. wine after an interprovincial spat over the Trans Mountain Pipeline with NDP B.C. Premier John Horgan.
“These situations are normally a flash in the pan when they appear, and they are remedied by conversation and negotiation among responsible leaders,” Lewis said.
Lewis also believes debate within the party should be encouraged.
“We are allowed to have differences of opinion on individual issues because we’re a democratic party. Hey, it’s in the name, it is actually OK.
“And in fact, Canadians in general really support a kind of politics where we work together, where we agree and we don’t have to agree on everything.”
Nenshi won’t vote in leadership race
Aside from those comments, the Alberta NDP leader said he is staying out of the federal leadership race. Nenshi said candidates shouldn’t expect any help from him.
The Alberta NDP leader said he is not voting in the race or endorsing any candidates, although his provincial district overlaps the riding of the only candidate who currently holds a seat: McPherson.
Nenshi said he is not a member of the federal NDP. Unlike other provincial wings of the New Democratic Party, Alberta NDPers can opt out of federal membership.
He expects, though, that the membership of the Alberta NDP will have a “huge impact” on the race. More than 85,000 members were eligible to vote in the 2024 race that elected Nenshi as Alberta NDP leader and the province’s Opposition leader (though some of those memberships have since lapsed).
“I think all of the candidates really see that even though we’re a smaller percentage now, whoever wins Alberta probably wins the election,” he said.