NDP hopefuls already splitting over identity politics

National Affairs / By Althia Raj

Less than a week after the first NDP leadership contestant entered the race, the infighting has begun.
Perhaps it was inevitable. Political parties are big tents after all, and members often disagree. But it is rather rare to see a member of Parliament publicly attack a colleague – accusing them of justifying white supremacy – even during the course of a leadership race.

What set off Winnipeg MP Leah Gazan were statements by Edmonton MP Heather McPherson, who said during the launch of her leadership bid the party needed “to stop shrinking into some sort of purity test.”
“We need to stop pushing people away, and we need to invite people in. We need to have more people at the table and we need to listen to them,” McPherson said.

Gazan posted on social media that she was “appalled and deeply disappointed” by the “purity test” framing, saying that she felt it dismissed the calls for justice from marginalized communities, “especially Black, Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQ+, disabled and immigrant workers – who now make up a major part of the labour movement and the working class.”

“It becomes a justification for white supremacy,” she added, by protecting “the status quo, which has historically privileged white, male and able-bodied workers as the default voice of the working class” and by erasing “the realities of a diverse workforce by pretending that the fight for good jobs can be separated from the fight against racism, sexism and colonialism.”

“Rejecting so-called ‘purity tests’ isn’t about broadening the movement – it’s about narrowing it back to those who have always held power within it,” Gazan wrote.

McPherson’s language had been intended as a slight towards another leadership candidate, Avi Lewis, a former broadcaster and the son and grandson of NDP giants Stephen Lewis and David Lewis.
Flanked by former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley, McPherson presented herself as the centrist candidate – the one more capable than Lewis of broadening the NDP’s tent if it wants to gain power. What’s left unsaid but is understood is that the party needs to bring back its blue-collar male voters – the ones it lost in droves to the Conservatives in this spring’s election, when it received just 6.3 per cent of the popular vote and won only seven seats in the House of Commons. Lewis is also trying to court those voters but by striking a more populist stance, fighting against the elites and for what he describes as the 99 per cent.
Slights or perceived slights aside, there are clear policy demarcations between the candidates. On oil pipelines, for example, McPherson told the Star’s Mark Ramzy she doesn’t support spending taxpayers’ money on a new project but suggested she could support more fossil fuel infrastructure. “Making sure that jobs, Canadian jobs are being created is front and centre for me,” she said, adding that any new projects had to ensure impacted Indigenous communities were consulted, given free, prior and informed consent, and that the Impact Assessment Act is followed.

Meanwhile, Lewis is decidedly opposed to more fossil fuel extraction. He told Ramzy the federal government should focus instead on building the care economy – health care, education, child care and elder care. “(That) work … directly benefits the lives of working-class people … much more so than these mega-projects that are focused on exports, which is about turning nature into money and sending raw resources to other parts of the world,” he said.

A third candidate, Rob Ashton, the president of the Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada, says he’s not a politician, and he lacks the smooth edges of McPherson and Lewis. He speaks like the type of voter the NDP is after, and with his bald head, long white beard and tall stature, he looks the part, too.

But where he stands on the issues – beyond standing up for workers’ rights and their interests, as well as those of small business owners – is far from clear. He told the Star’s “It’s Political” podcast he intends to ask party members and the NDP caucus to vote on the issues, like pipelines and gun control.

“I might think one thing on something but the caucus overrules me and votes another way. That’s the message that I’m going to lead with,” he said.

But can Ashton really spend the next six months avoiding a stance on any controversial issue? What will he do when most offensive and damaging attacks come from his own team?