And Then There's the NDP...

Living in France for a couple of years you slowly realise that every French politician carries one image in the back of their mind: La guillotine. Knowing that your actions might have a real personal consequence does tend to temper some of the untrammelled pro-Capitalist goals of Western political elites.

Right now, to a much diminished degree, some politicians in the US are feeling the same feeling - the hairs on the back of their neck are standing up.

Yesterday in New York a candidate called Brad Lander was chosen as the Democratic party nominee for New York's 10th congressional district, defeating incumbent representative Dan Goldman. Lander was not supposed to win over his Democratic opponent. He won based on what (in American terms) was a particularly "progressive" or Left Wing campaign.

Lander was of course endorsed by the supposedly Socialist mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani. Some draw links between them and Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The point of all of this is that in some places in the US voters are learning that they don't need to accept the status quo. They don't need to vote for whatever warm body is placed on the ballot by their preferred party. They are learning that just because they are Democrats doesn't mean that they have to accept the warm-soup moderate ("Well he's better than the Republican candidate") choice delivered by the party bosses.

Some say this is all age based; young voters want these wild and crazy candidates.

For probably the last twenty years I've felt like these young voters. Some times I've held my nose and voted for whoever seemed likely to defeat the Conservative candidate (whatever happened to Andrew Saxton? Who cares?) Sometimes I've looked at the candidates in my riding and decided that I couldn't support any of them.

I've worked for Elections Canada, and for Elections BC, but I've also worked on NDP campaigns, and have even been on the Board of a local constituency association. I've done my time in the electoral trenches, manning the phone banks and knocking on doors.

Now I'm looking at the federal NDP, and Avi Lewis. I'm fairly sure that I met Avi at some point, and I'm equally sure that he's a nice guy, but his Wikipedia resume doesn't thrill me:

Raised in a political family, Lewis began his career in broadcasting, hosting several programs for Citytv, CBC News and Al Jazeera English including The NewMusic, CounterSpin, On the Map with Avi Lewis, The Big Picture with Avi Lewis, and Fault Lines. With his wife Naomi Klein, Lewis directed the documentaries The Take and This Changes Everything. Lewis was also an associate professor at the University of British Columbia and a lecturer at Rutgers University.

Lewis first became involved in politics with the Leap Manifesto, published along with Naomi Klein and several other activists in 2015. He later ran as an NDP candidate in the 2021 and 2025 federal elections, placing third each time. He was elected the party's leader in March 2026 on the first ballot, with 56 percent of the vote.

Compare that to the entry for Hamilton's David Christopherson:

Christopherson was born in Hamilton, Ontario. He is self-educated, having dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. A voracious reader, he is a particular fan of books on politics. He began working with International Harvester in Hamilton at age 19, and remained with the company for eleven years. He was active with the United Auto Workers union, becoming plant chairman in 1978 and president of the Local 525 in 1979.^[1]

I would work for Christopherson again, and vote for him, in a flash.

I think if I were to compare the two NDPers I'd describe it this way. Face to face with a voter Lewis would likely lecture her and try to prove that he was right. And would likely lose that vote by the time that he was done. He would do photo-ops at factories and job sites, no doubt wearing a hi-viz vest and white hard hat, but if asked couldn't actually do any of the jobs on that site. I don't believe that Lewis has ever belonged to a trade union, and doubt that he has much legitimacy with people who actually work for a living.

Dave Christopherson did work in a factory in Hamilton, and did rise out of the union movement. And on a campaign trail he didn't talk at voters, he had a conversation with them. He had lived their lives, and he took the time to listen to them, and share ideas. Sometimes that worked for him, sometimes it didn't. But no matter what, these people knew that Dave understood them and respected them.

Over the last couple of decades the Federal (and arguably BC Provincial) NDP has abandoned its working class roots. Instead of being focused on how they can help ordinary Canadians they've become focused on winning elections, with the assumption (as is the case with American Democrats) that the only way to do that is to move further and further right, into what the right-wing media describe as "the middle."

Which is what gave us a political party that held the balance of power over Trudeau's Liberal party for years, but wasn't willing to actually force the kind of changes that would be possible. Trudeau knew that the NDP didn't have the courage of their convictions to actually force an election, and he used that cowardice to avoid anything but the tiniest gestures towards NDP promises.

I mean, a Pharmcare program that only covers two drugs?

What I'm doing right now is keeping a close eye in former NDP MP Charlie Angus.

I have interviewed Charlie, about 25 years ago, when he ran Highgrader Magazine out of Sudbury (or was it Timmins?) and was still releasing albums with the Grievous Angels.

Right now Charlie is touring with the band, but he's also making the kind of Left Wing political statements that I like a lot. And regardless of what he's saying, I have to think that his Resistance movement is getting ready to become what the NDP used to be: a party for ordinary Canadians, and for human rights, and for fun.

When that happens I'll be there - with money, and elbow grease.

Because I believe that Canadians, real working-class, hockey playing Canadians, are ready again for politics that looks after them before the oil companies and billionaires.