Avi Lewis is the new leader of the federal NDP. The ballots are counted, the debates are over and the question of who speaks for the party has been settled. 

But the more urgent and uncomfortable question now looms: who is the party?

Avi Lewis is an injection of kinetic energy. His policies meet the moment. His communication is sharp. And his charisma is unquestionable.

But to make any of that count, the party needs to view Lewis’ nomination as the start, not the end, of serious soul-searching about its connection to the working class it was founded to represent.

Leadership contests are moments of renewal, hope and energy. 

But leadership races on the heels of the Party's worst electoral result in its storied history demand more than renewed energy — they require a sober assessment of who makes up the current rank and file and, crucially, who is absent.

The truth is stark: the NDP did not merely lose votes in 2025. Its electoral loss was the inflection point of decades of dissonance with the people it was founded to represent. In 2011, the party held 103 seats; today it holds just six. 

It is not enough for the NDP to speak for the working class; it must consist of the working class.

For most of its history, the NDP — and its predecessor movements — was rooted in working-class solidarity. It was a party of labour halls, union drives and bread-and-butter economic struggles. 

Its moral clarity came from its ability to unite people across differences around a shared material reality: the need for dignity, stability and fairness in economic life.

That foundation has eroded.

Since 2011, the Party’s culture has shifted toward a narrower, more socially homogeneous base. Its membership has become more urban, more professional, and more ideologically uniform on cultural issues. 

Many of the values which animated this shift are admirable: justice, equality and compassion. But politics is about more than moral clarity; it is about building coalitions. And the NDP’s coalition has shrunk.

The result is a party that often speaks about working people rather than with them. Put simply, there were not nearly enough blue-collar workers at the party’s convention, let alone unorganized workers. 

This is not an indictment of current members. Their commitment and passion are the bedrock which has........

© National Observer