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Lorne Gunter: New NDP Leader Avi Lewis not good for Alberta

Nenshi took to social media to announce he wanted nothing to do with the author of the “Green New Deal” and the “Leap Manifesto”

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Will Avi Lewis, the new national NDP leader elected on the weekend, do for the Alberta NDP what Justin Trudeau did for the Alberta Liberals?

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From 1993 until 2012, the Liberals were the official opposition in the Alberta legislature. Then anti-Alberta, anti-oil Trudeau became federal Liberal leader and the provincial party’s fortunes plummeted.

By the 2023 election (the most recent one), the provincial Liberals could recruit candidates in just 13 of Alberta’s 87 constituencies and earn just 0.2 per cent of the poplar vote. Not only did they finish behind the UCP and NDP, they were also behind the Greens, the Alberta party, the Independence party and even the ultra-fringy Solidarity Movement – the party of anti-vaxxers.

The unpopularity of Trudeau, the federal leader, damaged the provincial party among provincial voters.

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So will the new NDP leader, Lewis, who has proposed a nearly immediate shutdown of all oil and gas operations, plus “free and fast public transit, public high-speed rail, and inter-community electric bus service,” plus a return of the Liberals’ EV mandate, be as much of an albatross around the neck of Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi as Trudeau was to the Alberta Liberal leader, whatever his name was?

Lewis is, after all, much more anti-Alberta and anti-oil than even Trudeau was.

My favourite Lewis-ism is his plan to place grocery stores under government ownership and management.

If you think groceries are expensive now, just wait until the stores are run by Agri-Food Canada and Canada Post.

And picture the selection when bureaucrats are making the decisions about what to stock on the shelves.

Nenshi must be worried about Lewis being a drag on the fortunes of the Alberta New Democrats, too. Less than an hour after the federal party announced Lewis’s overwhelming, first-ballot win, Nenshi took to social media to announce he wanted nothing to do with the author of the “Green New Deal” and the “Leap Manifesto” who has proposed spending tens of billions transitioning Canada to a zero-emission economy as soon as possible.

Nenshi wrote on social media, “It is clear the direction of the federal party under this new leader, someone who openly cheered for the defeat of the Alberta NDP, is not in the interests of Alberta.”

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“We believe in Alberta,” Nenshi continued, “and we believe in Canadian energy and in the good jobs it creates.”

Not Lewis. There can be little doubt that Lewis is the most-fanatical eco-warrior ever to become the leader of a major federal party. Lewis proclaims himself to be “unequivocally opposed to any new fossil fuel development — including LNG.” No oilsands. No pipelines or “fossil fuel Infrastructure.”

Nenshi also explained that in 2025, the Alberta wing of the NDP voted “to make membership in the federal party optional.” Prior to then, there was one membership for both parties. If someone belonged to one party, they belonged to both.

Other longstanding members of the provincial wing have pointed out since Sunday that Lewis mocked the Notley NDP for their loss of government in 2019. Despite the fact that Notley’s government caused great unemployment and loss of investment in Alberta with its eco-activism — their provincial carbon tax, coal phase-out and massive “investment” in wind and solar — Lewis castigated them for failing to do more while in power.

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In another eerie echo of Trudeau’s government, Lewis said during the leadership campaign that “there’s no business case for another oil pipeline to tidewater,” just as Trudeau said there was no business case for more LNG to Europe.

The Alberta Liberals had it worse than the Nenshi NDP in one way — Trudeau had power. He had the ability make his flaky, “green” proposals into law and regulation.

It is unlikely Avi Lewis will ever become PM, so it’s just as unlikely Nenshi will ever have to face down volume of complaints at the doorstep about the NDP in Ottawa.

lgunter@postmedia.com

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