Energy policy key as NDP leadership candidates make final pitch

WINNIPEG — The NDP leadership candidates made their last pitch to voters Saturday morning in a last-ditch effort to win support from the handful of members who have not voted yet.

Many of the roughly 1,800 attendees at the Winnipeg convention have already cast their ballots.

This includes Sofia Lindfield, a delegate from Halifax who said this is her first year getting more involved in the party. She said she voted for filmmaker Avi Lewis because he’s putting forward “big and bold” policies to address issues around affordability and the environment.

“I really appreciate where he comes from on climate in particular. I’m climate organizer. I’ve worked in this space for over six years at this point, and this is the first time that I’ve really seen a bigger-name candidate take on climate with the real kind of urgency and science-based facts that we really need to be seeing,” Lindfield said.

Lewis said in his Saturday speech that fossil fuels “destabilize” the world in a variety of way from inflation, climate change and “explosive wars” — a reference to the current conflict in Iran.

He said it’s up to the NDP to chart a path that “quickly” moves away from the “boom and bust roller-coaster” of the oil and gas sector and invest in clean energy infrastructure.

Lewis said in a media scrum that it’s not uncommon for the federal and provincial branches of the party to have disagreements, but is confident he could keep everyone in the orange tent.

“We have navigated our democratic differences because, hey, we’re a democratic party. It’s our middle name,” Lewis said.

“It’s very normal for the federal NDP, which is making an offer to the entire country based on all of the different regions, all of their different economies, and all of their different political contexts, (to differ) from the provincial leaders and premiers who are dealing with the political and economic situation in their specific provinces.”

The Heather McPherson campaign sent out a fundraising email talking about how this stance provides attack lines for provincial NDP opponents in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Naheed Nenshi, Alberta NDP leader, unveiled his party’s energy policy Friday and it discusses increasing Trans Mountain pipeline capacity and revisiting cancelled projects like Energy East.

McPherson said in her leadership showcase that NDP governments in Manitoba and B.C., plus holding opposition status in several provinces, show that the party can win. She said that can either be ignored and opposed, or built on.

“I’m going to work with the provincial parties. And you know we have a history in this party of not always being as supportive as I think we needed to be. And so for me, that’s a priority,” McPherson said in a media scrum.

Gabriel Cassie, an Ottawa delegate who is originally from Alberta, said he’s supporting the Edmonton MP because he’s seen what can happen provincially when a New Democrat marries “ambition and pragmatism” to win an election.

Robert Clipperton, a delegate from Saskatoon, said that he believes there will be tension between provincial and federal branches regardless of who wins, pointing to a lack of Saskatchewan NDP MLAs appearing at the convention.

“I think the Saskatchewan caucus feels that they could be too closely identified with the NDP federally and that may detract from their support,” Clipperton said.

“I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. I’ve done a lot of door-to-door work in both provincial and federal campaigns and that’s not something I picked up on the doorstep.”

Leadership candidate Rob Ashton said that he’s not going to speculate on federal-provincial relations before the next leader is chosen, but said disagreement are part of having a big tent.

“Our party is made up of different arms and different groups, and yeah, we can get grumpy with each other every once in a while, but we all know we’re a family, and we all fight for each other,” he said in a media scrum.

“And just like in families, there’s differences of opinions. And we’re going to stick together and we’re gonna fight together and do good things for the working class.”

Mary Childs, a Vancouver delegate who said she first joined the NDP more than 40 years ago, said that she’s supporting Lewis after volunteering on his Vancouver-Centre campaign last year and seeing his ideas attract new people to the party.

When asked about potential divisions between provincial NDP wings and the federal party if Lewis is chosen as leader tomorrow, Childs said she’s confident that the party can work together despite differences.

“I mean one of the campaign slogans is ‘socialism is a big tent’ and I think it’s possible to work together positively on things,” Childs said.

“We don’t have to agree on absolutely everything all the time in order to all be trying to work to make Canada a better place for everybody.”

The party’s roughly 100,000 members will pick the new leader through a ranked ballot system, where the first candidate to get more than 50 per cent support is the winner. Voting closes early Saturday evening.

The next NDP leader will be announced Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press