How are the NDP leadership hopefuls different? Contrasts emerge as they hit membership deadline

In a leadership race where candidates have largely been in agreement, candidates are beginning to show New Democrats what sets them apart.

The daylight between candidates is beginning to widen as they finish the work of signing up new members — the membership cutoff to vote in the party’s March election is Wednesday night.

With the busy work of signing up members almost done, campaigns can turn their efforts to convincing eligible NDP members why they deserve their vote.

At a Tuesday news conference, Heather McPherson said as NDP leader she would make sure the federal party is not undercutting its provincial counterparts.

The federal NDP has previously clashed with the Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. NDP over oil and gas development and expansion of pipelines.

“I want to work with the provincial NDP,” McPherson said. “My goal as a leader of the NDP would be to rebuild those relationships.”

Although McPherson did not mention Avi Lewis by name, her comments were likely directed at her leadership rival. Lewis has said Canada “can’t keep increasing fossil fuel production.”

Crowds grow at Lewis’s events

With two months left in the race, momentum seems to be building behind Lewis — whose father and grandad both held prominent roles in the party. 

The Lewis campaign has raised well over $900,000 and the campaign said it has filled venues across the country, including Saturday night in Toronto. According to the campaign, Lewis packed the concert hall Lee’s Palace, with more than 600 people showing up.

“There’s something happening in Canadian politics right now,” Lewis told the crowd. “Right now it’s happening under the surface. People aren’t seeing it.

“This is a leadership race for a party that’s supposed to be on life support. And we have been turning out hundreds and hundreds of people in city after city across this country.”

Lewis is running a self-described anti-capitalist campaign that’s proposing issues like a public option for grocery stores and for “government to step in and govern when the market fails to deliver.”

McPherson says there’s been a lot of “excitement” around her campaign, but that she’s taking a fundamentally different approach than Lewis, who is based in Metro Vancouver.

“I’ve made a point of stopping every province in smaller communities talking to New Democrats that I think maybe others are flying over,” McPherson said. “We rebuild our party by connecting with our members from coast to coast, not just in Vancouver and Toronto.”

Rob Ashton’s campaign promised to make him available Wednesday for an interview. The B.C. union boss’s campaign is focused heavily on turning the NDP back into a workers’ party after it lost support among organized labour to the Conservatives in the last election.

Ashton has also criticized Lewis by name, saying in a social media video that “Avi takes us in the wrong direction.”

The underdogs persevere

Meanwhile, two underdogs in the leadership race — Tanille Johnston and Tony McQuail — have remained in the race despite the steep $100,000 entrance fee.

In an interview with CBC News, Johnston said New Democrats should vote for her because she is committed to fighting for a guaranteed livable income to help lift Canadians, especially people with disabilities, out of poverty. Her campaign also said it would enshrine this as a right through legislation.

“People that are on fixed incomes are all living below the poverty line,” Johnston said. “These are families that are really struggling right now.”

McQuail, a farmer from Huron County, Ont., didn’t think he would make it this far but credits his team and support from other campaigns. He said staying in the race has allowed him to emphasize the environment as an issue in this campaign.

Even though the NDP leadership race is heading into its final leg, McQuail doesn’t think now is the moment for candidates to criticize each other.

“The reality is, listening to all the other candidates, we’re all on the same team and we’re working for the same thing,” McQuail said. “The fact that there’s not more conflict in this particular race is because we all have pretty much the same values.”