The NDP could change from top to tail this weekend.
And it couldn’t be more needed, after the near-collapse of the party in the last federal election.
The party’s convention in Winnipeg will see the conclusion of a leadership race, with two front runners, Heather McPherson and Avi Lewis, pitching distinctly different approaches. McPherson has advocated more moderate politics with a focus on winning seats, while Lewis has made the case for a democratic socialist party that would become a partner to social movements.
But as media headlines focus on the race for leader, there are other battles over the coming days that will shape the party’s future.
Not only are members electing a new leader, with voting closing on Saturday, but delegates who are in person in Winnipeg will choose a new executive and vote on policy resolutions.
The fight over the elected executive of the NDP — a governance body that makes key decisions about finances and party affairs — will pit the establishment of the party against a left-wing challenge.
An incumbent slate that includes B.C. Federation of Labour President and NDP treasurer Sussanne Skidmore and officials from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is being taken on by a left-wing slate that includes Libby Davis, a longtime MP and anti-poverty advocate who served the downtown Vancouver east side for nearly 20 years, and Niall Clapham Ricardo, a lawyer, former labour organizer, and member of Independent Jewish Voices.
The incumbent slate is being backed by the leadership of several labour unions, including the CLC, the Steelworkers, and the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represent a more moderate bloc of the NDP.
NDP conventions are also often a battleground between its grassroots base that tries to put forward left-wing policy resolutions, and the party’s top brass who try to stop them. Like in 2018, when MPs and party staffers packed a room to vote against a resolution on Palestine, stopping it from reaching the convention floor.
This year is no different.
Members submitted hundreds of resolutions back in January, but only about 70 were selected for potential discussion. Of those, likely about a dozen will make it to the convention floor for debate and voting.
Here’s how it works in more detail:
First, the resolutions are initially cleaned up and consolidated by party officials in a pre-convention committee. Then delegates to the convention — chosen by their Electoral District Associations (EDA), youth NDP group, affiliated labour union, or an open pool for unaffiliated people — vote online for their top resolutions.
Here’s where it gets opaque and non-transparent: without revealing the vote tallies, the party’s central officials decide the order of priority in which resolutions are presented on the convention floor. Lower-prioritized resolutions won’t get squeezed into the limited time for debate and voting.
Politically bold resolutions that are offside with the party’s establishment rarely make it to the top. This time around, resolutions about opposing oil pipelines or supporting an ambitious Green New Deal were left off the highly-prioritized resolutions, despite their popularity.
If a resolution is voted through at convention, it gets added to the NDP’s policy book. At least in theory, it can direct the party to change its policies or constitution, or take a public stance on an issue.
Here are five highly-prioritized resolutions that will likely hit the convention floor in Winnipeg, with some of them a sign of the party’s potential leftward and democratic revival.
1. Adopting a permanent organizing model
In 2003 the Conservative Party of Canada burst onto the scene, “uniting the right” and aggressively adopting a practice of “forever campaigns” that saw the party organize non-stop.
This is one way the CPC was able to grow its base, a move that brought CPC leader Stephen Harper to power and kept him there for nine years as Prime Minister.
This resolution would have the NDP adopt a similar tactic, treating organizing as a “permanent, year-round democratic function.”
In between elections, NDP electoral districts would be supported by regional organizers to maintain a community presence and canvass around issues that are important to local residents.
It was put forward by NDP Renewal, a group of former MPs and activists pushing proposals to democratize the party and empower its grassroots. This resolution is at the top of the priority list of constitutional changes, so expect it to get plenty of play.
2. Fighting airport privatization
“2026 is the new 2016,” or so the meme goes. The federal government must have heard, because it has resurrected a bad idea from 2016 that never got off the ground: privatizing airports.
“The government will also consider options for the privatization of airports,” Carney’s 2025 budget noted briefly. It’s a single line that represents billions of dollars of public infrastructure.
But when airport privatization was last seriously considered in Canada a decade ago, it fizzled out under criticisms that it would raise costs for travellers, lower safety standards, and worsen working conditions.
Supported by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), this resolution would commit the NDP to fighting “policies that allow airport authorities to pursue subleases, subcontracts, and subsidiaries that invite private investors and pension fund ownership,” and pursuing more investment in public airports.
3. Defending the north coast tanker ban
There’s been a moratorium on tanker traffic on B.C.’s north coast for over 50 years now, but that might change as Mark Carney desperately tries to appease Alberta.
The government is looking at rolling back the tanker ban, which protects the sensitive environment of B.C.’s north coast from oil spills, due to a new deal inked with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for a bitumen oil pipeline snaking from Alberta to B.C.
First Nations have expressed their “profound, unwavering and continued support” for the ban, and this resolution would commit the NDP to “vigorously oppose any efforts to weaken, overturn, or temporarily suspend the tanker ban.”
NDP leadership candidate and president of the International Longshore Workers Union Rob Ashton initially supported scrapping the ban, but then flip-flopped after facing backlash.
4. Sectoral bargaining
Canada’s model of unionizing and collective bargaining was designed back when many people worked for large industrial firms.
Now, workers are more likely to be employed by small employers, franchises, and in the gig economy — meaning they are often shut out of collective bargaining. It’s led to low union density, depressed wages, and poor working conditions.
If this resolution passes, it would commit a federal NDP government to introduce sectoral bargaining “where unions can apply to bargain for a specific entire sector and region if they represent 10% of all workers in the sector.”
This resolution has a raft of endorsements from EDAs, and leadership front-runner Avi Lewis’ platform includes an expansion of sectoral bargaining. Canada might be closer to a debate about industry-level collective agreements than ever before.
5. Accessible and affordable housing
The housing crisis is not caused by a shortage of homes, but by an abundance of profiteers.
The solutions that have been put forward by right-leaning governments include shovelling more credit into the property market and offering public money to private developers. But economists have argued that adding more homes than people won’t bring the price of housing down, unless something is done to curb the power of for-profit landlords and developers.
This ambitious resolution would have the NDP commit to a permanent public housing program with a goal of making 20 per cent of Canada’s housing stock non-market in ten years. It also includes measures to expand co-op and non-profit housing and shrink the influence of housing profiteers.