In response to the Trump administration and the energy of the Bernie Sanders movement, progressives across North America have spent the 2020s reimagining what progressivism can look like.
This past year has been a case study in how social democrats can act as a motivating force against the global rise of the far right.
Progressive leaders such as Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, Minnesota Senator Omar Fateh and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani have made waves by mobilizing youth as well as their broader constituencies. They’ve taken bold swings with fresh ideas and concrete policies that make affordability feel attainable.
Canada – or at least the federal NDP – has unfortunately missed that memo.
The party’s failure to provide any compelling policy to address issues in our country – issues that fundamentally demand progressive solutions – is lamentable.
Student loan debt and skyrocketing rents have been devastating for social mobility in Canada, especially among students. But despite heavy influence under a near-decade of Trudeau rule, the NDP-sponsored policies feel milquetoast compared to the rising cost of living.
Nowhere is that failure more evident than during New Democrat MP and leadership candidate Heather McPherson’s recent town hall at the University of Ottawa, where she made it clear she intends to stay the course.
The most disappointing moment came during a question about climate change: The phrase “your generation” was enough to make me want to tap out.
Climate change is not a generational issue. For decades, leaders like Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau shifted responsibility onto young people to solve an existential threat instead of taking any meaningful action themselves.
Scientists have warned that the world could breach the warming threshold by early 2029. Once we cross that threshold, the effects of climate change become drastically more difficult to reverse.
And McPherson is 53.
She will be around to reap the consequences of our institutions’ inaction towards the climate crisis. Why should she – and other politicians – refuse to be part of the solution?
Another source of disappointment was McPherson’s reliance on “team sports” politics — treating politics as a game where loyalty to your party is above all else. Her repeated jabs at Alberta Conservatives and a weary complaint about how tiresome it is to fly to Ottawa with them won’t do anything to win her support. Team-sports is the wrong approach, especially when your team is losing.
Contrast that with politicians who have broken free from this team-sports mentality and taken more independent, riskier positions — Sheinbaum and Mamdani, whose constituents loved them for it. At her townhall, McPherson skipped around with rehearsed stories and the same rehashed policies with nothing to distinguish her from the failed Singh era.
At McPherson’s event, where questions ranged from affordability and climate to how to win back the young male vote, I saw no clear answers.
Instead, I heard vague assertions similar to “We’re fighting for that” with no meaningful elaboration on how.
To her credit, McPherson acknowledged the New Democrats’ precarious position. While she did point to this past election as “not normal” in what felt like an excuse, I liked that she pointed out the general public isn’t afraid to vote NDP, reminding the room that provincial New Democrats still win and govern.
My frustration with McPherson isn’t personal.
She has a blue-province-progressive appeal, and I can see how people can get behind her as a leader.
The problem is the messaging.
She can successfully appeal to the NDP base, but she failed to reach beyond it. Progressive leaders abroad seem to have no problems swaying opinions from the political right. Mamdani spoke with New York City Trump voters and got their support on a social democratic platform. Why can’t the NDP do the same?
The final nail in the coffin came when McPherson dismissed ranked-choice voting as something that “would’ve kept the Liberals in power forever.” That’s ironic. Many New Democrat losses this past election were caused by vote splitting — the problem ranked ballots are designed to mitigate.
I left McPherson’s townhall exhausted and disappointed. The New Democrats need their own Sanders, and McPherson isn’t that person. The town hall was about “We’re focused on…” when it needed to be “Here’s what we propose, and here’s how it’ll work.”
I end with this: Canadian progressives need to stop apologizing to Drake and come up with something new to say.
