The people have spoken. Last weekend, the members of the federal NDP elected Avi Lewis their leader with a solid 56 percent of the first round votes. Not everyone approved.

The NDP leaders of Saskatchewan and Alberta made their displeasure known loudly and publicly. One might think they would at least have given the poor guy a chance, but no, they were all over him.

Saskatchewan NDP leader, and leader of the opposition, Carla Beck, was nastiest. In an open letter, she accused Lewis of threatening Saskatchewan’s workers and said she wouldn’t meet with him until he publicly reversed his positions on energy matters.

Naheed Nenshi, Alberta’s NDP chief, also opposition leader, accused Lewis of openly cheering “for the defeat of the Alberta NDP government” and saying that the direction of the federal party under his leadership “is not in the interests of Alberta.” He has, at least, congratulated Lewis on his victory and said he will meet with him.

The Alberta NDP does have a legitimate grievance against Lewis. At the federal convention in 2016, held in Edmonton, the Alberta hosts rightly expected the focus to be on their recent defeat of a Conservative government that had been in power for 44 years—their moment in the sun.

Things didn’t quite work out that way. A contingent from Toronto, led by Lewis and his partner Naomi Klein, stole centre stage with the Leap Manifesto, a revolutionary document that, among other things, called for rapidly phasing out the oil industry. The Albertans were outraged, not simply at being rudely upstaged, but at having the province’s major industry trashed on their turf. Notley, with admirable restraint, referred to the Leap group as “tone-deaf.”

The defeat of Edmonton’s Heather McPherson, a politician who actually wins elections, in favour of Lewis for leader may not help endear the Alberta party to their federal cousins.

The Alberta NDP, like their Saskatchewan counterpart, play the part of the progressive opposition to the Conservatives, in effect the liberal party where Liberal parties barely exist. When Nenshi, reputed to be a Liberal supporter, sought to move up from municipal to provincial politics, he opted for the next best thing. One of the first things the party did under his leadership was make joining the federal party optional whereas it had formerly been combined with the provincial membership. Nenshi opted out.

As to the leadership race, while I was tempted by McPherson, I nonetheless voted for Rob Ashton. I felt that, having one party in the House of Commons led by a professional politician, another by a successful representative of both the public and business sectors, it was time to have one led by organized labour. There could hardly be a better choice. Ashton has been a dockworker and a union member for over 30 years and is presently National President of the International Longshore Workers Union Canada.

He came second last with a miserable 5.9 percent of the vote. If that in any way represents the NDP’s attitude toward organized labour, it’s no wonder many of its members voted for Poilievre and his Conservatives in the last election.

I believe the House also needs a social democratic voice and Avi Lewis is certainly that. And of course he is right about the need to phase out fossil fuels quickly. If we don’t, we will face a cascade of catastrophes that will bring global civilization down around our ears.

But that is the truth, and we are talking about politics here. Politicians cannot say so, but the masses don’t always want to hear the truth. And people in Alberta and Saskatchewan don’t want to hear that their major money-maker should be phased out. So if progressives want to win provincial elections, they will continue to need highly-modified social democrats.

While Lewis’s voice in the House of Commons (presumably by proxy) would be valuable, taking seats from the Liberals would be less so. Divided progressives would open the door for the Conservatives, and at this perilous time we need the steady hand of Mark Carney in Ottawa.

What all this suggests to progressives, at least in the West, is that for the foreseeable future it’s an NDP vote provincially and a Liberal vote federally, while watching patiently to see what Avi Lewis and friends rebuild from the wreckage of. April, 2025.