After election rout, Canada’s democratic socialists ponder the future reports Robin Arnfield
Like Britain, Canada has a welfare state, public healthcare and a parliamentary democracy modelled on the House of Commons. But, unlike Britain, no left-wing party has ever governed the country, and, in the current political climate of economic nationalism, Canada’s democratic socialists are contemplating what their future role will be.
After Canada’s 2011 federal election, political journalists talked about the “orange wave” as Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party, with its orange branding, became the official opposition to the Conservative government. Canadian socialists began to hope that a country that had traditionally been ruled by centre-right governments might turn to the Left.
Tragically, the NDP’s visionary leader, Jack Layton, died of cancer, depriving the party of an empathetic and popular politician who appealed to voters, and the party’s electoral performance began to decline. In the 2015 federal election, while still holding a significant number of seats, the NDP lost to the charismatic Justin Trudeau, whose Liberal Party government defeated the Conservatives, deeply unpopular for their stringent budget cuts.
Traditionally, the NDP has positioned itself to the left of the centre-left Liberal Party, advocating social programs, labour rights, and an internationalist foreign policy.
Trudeau shared the NDP’s social values and economic policies, and his minority government depended on the NDP for parliamentary support. This led to several significant social reforms, such as the introduction of heavily subsidised dental treatment for low-income people. The NDP also persuaded Trudeau to introduce some elements of a national affordable medication program, such as free diabetes and contraception drugs, but failed to obtain a full Pharmacare program.
Canadians’ revulsion against the aggressively far-right Donald Trump and his designs on Canada, which he calls the ‘51st state’ – led to a Liberal victory in the 2025 federal election under the former central banker and technocrat Mark Carney as prime minister. Carney benefited from fears that the populist Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who had been the front-runner, would have been too close to Trump had he won.
The NDP was a victim of Carney’s success as it lost most of its parliamentary seats and was relegated to a minority party in the House of Commons with no real influence and a loss of its official privileges. Many former NDP voters, fearing a Conservative victory, voted tactically for the Liberals in order to have a strong leader to oppose Trump. However, working-class voters – the NDP’s natural constituency – were attracted by the Conservatives’ populist leader, Pierre Poilievre, who promised to combat the rising cost of living if he won.
However, not all is grim for the NDP. Its provincial parties are in power in British Columbia and Manitoba, with the NDP’s Manitoba premier, Wab Kinew, the first aboriginal premier in Canadian history, regarded as one of the most popular politicians in Canada.
In March, the NDP held a leadership election to replace Jagmeet Singh, who was the first member of an ethnic minority to lead a federal political party in Canada. Singh’s replacement is Avi Lewis, who comes from a prestigious Canadian socialist party and who is married to celebrated environmental activist Naomi Klein.
Lewis is the great-grandson of a Polish Jewish socialist who was a member of the Bund, a left-wing Jewish and non-Zionist political movement in Czarist Russia. His grandfather and father were key players in the early years of the NDP, which was formed in 1961 from a merger of its predecessor, left-wing party the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
It was thanks to pressure from CCF politicians in the 1940s that Canada emulated the UK in developing a public healthcare system. This has led to the NDP acting as the political conscience of Canada, calling for governments to respect the marginalised, the low-income, the aboriginals and the environment rather than prioritising Canada’s powerful oil industry, which forms the core of its exports.
In his leadership campaign, Lewis indicated that he wants to move the NDP leftwards, maybe to differentiate the party from the Liberals, who under Carney have moved towards the centre-right, abandoning many of Trudeau’s progressive policies, such as his commitment to the environment and combating climate change.
Lewis’ policies include creating a Canadian Green New Deal, supporting Palestinian rights, creating public options for grocery stores provided by the government, public telecoms services, postal banking, and public manufacture of pharmaceuticals, building a million public housing units, a wealth tax on the top 1%, and expanding healthcare access by incorporating dental, vision, and mental health services into the public system. However, Lewis’ opposition on environmental grounds to the government’s plans to develop Canada’s oil and gas industry and reduce its economic dependence on US exports, annoyed NDP leaders in the provinces which would benefit from expansion of new fossil fuel developments.
While Lewis has never held public office and has failed to be elected as an MP, he has in Heather McPherson, who was a rival leadership candidate, a very strong and experienced leader of the NDP in the House of Commons. The four other NDP MPs such as Leah Gazan and Jenny Kwan are also very impressive politicians.
Last year, I participated in a meeting of the local federal NDP constituency party where I live. The topic was how to recapture lost voters. I argued that the party shouldn’t abandon its commitment to socialism and emulate the British Labour Party in moving to the centre-right.
It seems that Avi Lewis is following this advice, but whether his brand of democratic socialism will appeal to voters concerned about the rising cost of living and the threat from Trump remains to be seen.
Further reading:
‘From the “Orange Wave” to Wipeout: Can the NDP Rebuild Under New Leadership?’ By Sophie Gandell