Avi Lewis won the federal NDP leadership on Sunday in Winnipeg with a decisive first-ballot victory, capturing 56 per cent of the vote (39,734 votes out of 70,930 cast). Heather McPherson finished second with 29 per cent, followed by Tanille Johnston (7%), Rob Ashton (6%), and Tony McQuail (1%). Turnout was 70.6 per cent of eligible members. Lewis’s victory, on a platform of public grocery stores, wealth taxes, and opposition to new pipeline approvals, immediately drew rebukes from provincial NDP leaders in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Within hours, Naheed Nenshi said the direction of the federal party “is not in the interests of Alberta,” while Saskatchewan’s Carla Beck declined Lewis’s invitation to meet.
The result has implications not only for the federal NDP’s future, but for the Liberals, Conservatives, and provincial parties across the country. This week, MBP Intelligence offer full (political) spectrum analysis of what this means:
- PHILLIPS: Labour's Irrelevance, Lewis's Conviction, and the NDP's New Reality
- MEREDITH: Liberals have an opportunity with Avi Lewis, but seizing it won’t happen automatically.
- WOODFINDEN: Don't Count Lewis Out
- BOESSENKOOL: Lewis Could Be Poilievre’s Problem, Not His Gift
