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 sustained this party through unprecedented challenges.

But this dynamic has been politically devastating. It has allowed opponents to caricature the NDP as a party more concerned with symbolic gestures than with the everyday struggles of ordinary Canadians. It has alienated the people the NDP sets out to represent: the working-class people who are struggling to pay rent, afford groceries or juggle multiple part-time jobs.

But there is every reason for optimism.

Political coalitions can be rebuilt. Parties can rediscover their purpose. But only if they are willing to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves — and to change.

If Avi Lewis’s leadership is to mean anything, it must begin with a reorientation toward class. Not as an issue among many, but as the central organizing principle of the party. Because class is the one axis along which the broadest and most durable solidarity can be built.

Canada today is marked by staggering inequality. The top one per cent has hoarded an astonishing share of the country’s wealth while millions of people face rising costs and job insecurity. Housing is increasingly unaffordable. Food prices are volatile. Stable, well-paying jobs are relics of a bygone era. These are not niche concerns. They are universal pressures.

A relentless focus on affordability — on wages, housing, food and taxation — is not just good policy. It is the only viable political path forward. It is how the party can rebuild trust with voters who have drifted away. It is how it can expand its base beyond its current cultural boundaries. And it is how it can reassert its relevance as a mass movement rather than a niche constituency.

This does not mean abandoning commitments to racial justice, gender diversity or environmental protection. On the contrary, it is a plan for actioning them.

Progress on cultural and social rights has never occurred in isolation. The great advances in civil rights were only made possible by high levels of social cohesion and working-class solidarity. When people feel connected to one another — when they share institutions, spaces and struggles — they are more open to expanding the circle of inclusion.

The victories of the Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation movements of the 1960s were built upon the class alignment of the 1950s — the high-water mark of organized labour and class consciousness.

The deplorable backsliding on DEI, civil rights and gender equality is a direct byproduct of declining class alignment.

Class solidarity is a condition precedent for social and cultural progress with staying power.

If the NDP wants to defend and advance rights for marginalized groups, it cannot do so by narrowing its membership to those who already agree. It must instead widen its tent — bringing in people who may be skeptical, uncertain or even opposed to some cultural questions, but who share a common economic reality.

This is not a betrayal of principles. It is a strategy for making those principles a lived reality.

Consider gender-affirming care. In a politically fragmented and culturally polarized environment, advancing this cause requires more than moral argument — it requires trust and human connection. People are more likely to support rights for groups they understand, and they are more likely to understand those groups when they share space and mutual connections.

Transphobia, like many forms of prejudice, is rooted in distance and unfamiliarity. It is easier to fear or reject people you have never met.

A party that functions as a closed social club — where membership is implicitly conditioned on already holding the “correct” views — does nothing to bridge that gap. It reinforces it.

If the NDP is serious about building a more inclusive society, it must first become more inclusive itself — not just in terms of identity, but in terms of perspective. It must become a place where people with different views can come together, argue, learn and ultimately find common ground.

That requires a willingness to prioritize what unites people over what divides them. And in today’s Canada, what unites people is clear: economic insecurity.

The single parent who is working two jobs to afford rent. The tradesperson facing volatile contracts. The young graduate who is burdened by debt. The immigrant family navigating rising costs. These experiences cut across lines of race, gender and culture. They are the raw material of solidarity.

The NDP must reclaim them.

This means speaking in plain language about class. It means naming the concentration of wealth at the top and proposing bold measures to redistribute it. It means advocating for labour protection, non-market housing, public ownership and progressive taxation — especially on wealth. It means being unapologetic about taking on the economic structures that produce inequality.

But it also means opening the doors wider.

The party must actively recruit and welcome blue-collar Canadians, even when they do not align perfectly with the party’s current cultural orthodoxy. It must create spaces where disagreement is not treated as disqualifying, but as an opportunity for engagement. It must trust that solidarity, once built, can transform perspectives.

This is not an easy path. It will involve tension, conflict and discomfort. But the alternative is far worse: political irrelevance.

A political party that cannot win elections cannot implement its policies. It does a disservice to the equity-seeking groups it stands for. 

Lewis now leads a party at a crossroads. He can choose to double down on the existing model — refining its messaging, sharpening its identity and hoping for a different outcome. Or he can take the more difficult route: confronting the party’s internal limitations and working to rebuild it as a broad-based coalition rooted in class solidarity.

The task ahead is not simply to oppose the status quo, but to construct an alternative that resonates with a wide swath of Canadians. That requires more than policy proposals. It requires a reimagining of what the NDP is — and who it is for.

The answer must be simple and expansive: it is for anyone struggling to live with dignity in this country.

That includes people who are progressive on every social issue. It also includes people who are not. It includes those who are deeply engaged in political debates and those who are simply trying to get by. It includes those who agree and those who are still figuring things out.

A melting pot, not a mirror.

If the NDP can become that kind of party — grounded in class, open in spirit and ambitious in scope — it can begin to rebuild the solidarity that has always been its greatest strength. And from that foundation, it can once again make the case for a more just, inclusive and equitable Canada.

But it starts with an honest reckoning.

The leader has been chosen. Now it is time to choose the party.

Luke Hildebrand practices First Nations law in Kenora, ON. He is the president of the NDP Kenora-Rainy River Riding and Northern Co-Chair of the ONDP. 

© National Observer