Avi Lewis’ leadership win put the New Democratic Party (NDP) back in the spotlight. Nearly a month in, it seems to have triggered the Canadian establishment. And I’m here for it.
Let me be clear: I am not implying that the NDP is saved or that Avi Lewis is its saviour. I want to see what he has to offer over time. I am merely gleeful that there presents an opportunity to apply real political pushback on neoliberal politics and economics, which is what got us into this affordability crisis in the first place.
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Establishment enmity could be a good omen for the NDP’s Lewis
The mocking responses of the Establishment to Avi Lewis’ win belie their divorce from the realities of Canadians not in their socioeconomic class.
CALGARY—The collective crash-out of the Canadian political and news media establishment over Avi Lewis’ March 29 win in the NDP leadership race is giving me life.
It only took one ballot that garnered 56 per cent of the vote, and as CBC News noted, it was “a decisive victory that slightly outstrips what Jagmeet Singh won in 2017.” Alberta MP Heather McPherson walked away with 29 per cent of the vote, placing her second. With this victory, the NDP has let us know that they’re going all-in on democratic socialism, and moving away from the chokehold the consultant class has on the party. In addition, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew introduced himself on the national stage much like future United States president Barack Obama did at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Kinew, whose politics lie left of centre, is the most popular premier in the country at 61 per cent. There is a strong appetite for left-wing populism in Canada, which has not seen representation since before then-NDP leader Jack Layton.
Currently, there is no left-wing representation in mainstream political and media structures in Canada. The capture of the Conservatives by the far right, facilitated by Leader Pierre Poilievre, has pulled the Overton window in that direction. We now categorize Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney as the centre, when he’s a right-wing banker whose top priority is not Canadians, but Canada Inc. There is no diversity of thought here. Anyone who doesn’t pray at the altar of neoliberalism is labelled a kook, and publicly denigrated.
Our media have been promoting conservatism at the expense of representation. These are the same people who present Poilievre as ready to lead because he managed to keep his vitriol and name-calling to a minimum for a few hours. The goalposts move to accommodate him, while Lewis—who just got here—is expected to have policy positions to fix Canada’s problems on Day 1. Canadian news media doesn’t even feature left-wing pundits, and if you are to believe the testimony of many left-wing journalists, even CBC has blacklisted many of them from appearing on the network. I, too, have been blackballed by CBC. Remember, this is an entity whose diversity is mandated and funded by our tax dollars, including those of left-wing voters.
The mocking responses of the Establishment to Lewis’ win also belie their divorce from the realities of Canadians not in their socioeconomic class. Former Conservative industry minister James Moore said on CTV News, “I think Mark Carney is one of the luckiest political leaders that we’ve seen in this country in a long time in the fact the New Democrats keep tripping over themselves and electing people who are not electable to the broader Canadian public.” Unelectable? Same thing everyone said about Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race, and the United Kingdom Greens who are now waxing the Labour party with their “unelectable” candidates on a democratic socialist wave of political support. Just because left-wing politics didn’t have proper representation for 20 years doesn’t mean there isn’t a political appetite. Let’s not forget that Carney’s win was made possible by an NDP collapse, which saw those voters go Liberal.
Due to the elites’ commandeering of political and media spaces, we have not had much movement or policies geared towards tackling income and wealth inequalities. In fact, it has been talked about very feebly when it is done so, if at all, in news media. There has been absolutely zero discussion on the economic violence our tax and wage structures continually visit upon everyone who isn’t rich. I wrote about the classism of our current structures in this paper in 2023: “Political power drives policy, and that’s one of the reasons our neoliberal policies have favoured the rich and continue the trajectory of a smaller and smaller number of elites who run the country.”
The elites have run this country into the ground, removing the promise of upward mobility and a good quality of life one would expect from a western country. They consistently starve public services but subsidize industries and their shareholders for the promise of jobs; yet those jobs have not materialized into providing liveable wages. While the Conservatives have rightfully called this out, they blame government, never the economic leadership that gouges wages and fixes prices. An example is the bread price-fixing scandal, where the rich companies exploited us and only walked away with a slap on the wrist. The Conservatives don’t mention the culpability of the elites at all because that’s who they truly represent. In addition, they blame the most vulnerable for the deeds of the wealthy, as Lewis rightfully pinpointed in his convention speech: “They’ll blame Trump. They’ll blame immigrants. They’ll blame Indigenous land rights. They’ll blame anyone but the CEOs, the corner-office class to whom they feel accountable.”
t remains to be seen whether Lewis can truly rebuild the NDP into the progressive party it is supposed to be. Frankly, there is a lot of work to do, but Lewis comes in as a great organizer, which is what the party desperately needs. The NDP is currently in the gutter, so there’s nowhere to go but up.
Erica Ifill is host of the Bad+Bitchy podcast.
The Hill Times
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