I Ran for the NDP and Lost. We Need to Change

As the NDP candidate for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country — and, at 18, the youngest candidate in the election — I attended our election-night gathering in Burnaby with high hopes but a heavy heart.

What unfolded was strange. Even in the face of devastating results for our party, the atmosphere remained oddly upbeat. Even when Jagmeet Singh, our leader and the sitting MP for the riding we were gathered in, took the stage to concede a distant third-place finish in his seat and announce his resignation, the room remained more celebratory than sombre.

I understand why. Pierre Poilievre’s “Maple MAGA” Conservatives were kept out of government. The Liberals, despite their cynical fear mongering, were kept to a minority.

And yes, we can be proud of the major legislative wins the NDP helped deliver over the past few years, from dental care to anti-scab legislation. We outperformed many of the most dire projections.

But let’s not delude ourselves — this election was a disaster for progressive politics in Canada.

Many of the forces behind our defeat were outside our control. Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canadian territory and the political chaos erupting from the United States fundamentally altered the nature of this election. The campaign became dominated by fear, nationalism and emergency politics. In that environment, it was nearly impossible for local NDP candidates to break through with our message of social and economic justice.

But while Trump may have hijacked the conversation — and the Liberals shamelessly exploited the resulting fear — it doesn’t absolve us.

Our campaign was deeply flawed. We suffered failures of strategy, structure and communication. That made success an impossibility.

Justin Trudeau’s unprecedented unpopularity should have presented a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Canadians, especially young Canadians, were desperate for change. But rather than presenting a bold, progressive alternative, we pivoted to the centre.

That decision cost us dearly. We allowed ourselves to be perceived as an establishment party at a time when Canadians were rejecting the establishment outright.

I have dual German and Canadian citizenship and spent time in Germany campaigning during their recent election. The parallels are striking. Their Greens and Social Democrats tried the same centrist drift in hopes of winning back voters from the far right — and it failed. The only left-wing party that gained ground, Die Linke, was written off at the start of the election. But they were unapologetically progressive, boldly talking about climate, housing and justice. And with massive support from youth, they surged.

This is not a fluke. The “move to the centre” strategy has failed us every time. It must be abandoned.

Many of our candidates, like Avi Lewis in Vancouver Centre, Bonita Zarrillo in Port Moody-Coquitlam and Laura Dupont in Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, ran inspiring, bold local campaigns. But from the top down, we lacked a clear national narrative. Our platform was full of good ideas, but it never broke through. Our messaging felt reactive instead of visionary. And our campaign infrastructure simply wasn’t prepared to withstand the political earthquake we faced.

The danger now is existential. If we don’t correct course, urgently and unapologetically, we risk becoming a permanent minor party.

Worse, we risk ceding the future of Canadian politics to a false binary between corporate liberalism and authoritarian conservatism.

That’s not the Canada I believe in — and I know it’s not the one most of us want.

So what must we do?

1. Rebuild trust with our base

We lost our core supporters — young people, workers and much of Western Canada. This wasn’t the result of policy failures; it was due to failures of messaging and connection.

I saw it first-hand as a young candidate. The NDP has taken young people for granted. I’ve been sounding alarm bells within the party for years that we’re losing the confidence of youth, but those warnings have fallen on deaf ears.

Conservatives, meanwhile, have worked hard to win over young voters, and succeeded. Their rhetoric, while dangerous, is emotionally resonant. They speak to the deep economic anxiety many young Canadians feel: the impossibility of affording a home, the struggle to find stable work, the fear of a bleak future. The NDP needs to speak directly to that despair and offer real hope.

2. Champion youth — not just in words, but with power

We must support young candidates and help them win, not just use them in symbolic roles or “unwinnable” ridings.

I’ve experienced first-hand how young progressives are undervalued. When I ran for the Powell River-Sunshine Coast BC NDP nomination in 2024, it was one of the safest NDP ridings in the province. There was strong grassroots enthusiasm for my candidacy. But broken procedures ultimately pushed the nomination toward more establishment figures. As a young candidate, I was constantly forced to justify my very presence. Many of those who sidelined me provincially said they would support a federal run — while making it clear they didn’t expect me to win — only to jump ship to the Liberals once the election started.

Too often, young candidates are allowed to run only where we’re expected to lose. That’s not empowerment; that’s containment. My predecessor as the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country NDP candidate and mentor, Avi Lewis, built real momentum in a so-called “unwinnable” riding in 2021. I tried to build on that. But once I won the (federal) nomination, my campaign was essentially abandoned by the central party.

We need to rethink how we prioritize seats so we can actually grow, not just defend what we already have. And we must rebuild a strong youth wing that has been decimated by party officials in retaliation for our role in removing Tom Mulcair as leader. Rebuilding it — while actively supporting young candidates in competitive ridings — is the way forward if we want a future where progressives lead with power and not just potential.

3. Democratize the party — truly

We need to return the NDP to its democratic roots. That means ensuring that leadership races and candidate nominations are open, competitive processes that reflect the will of members, not backroom strategists. It means empowering members to develop and vote on policy through open conventions. It means decentralizing power away from party elites and toward grassroots organizers.

We must eliminate the sense that decisions are made in locked rooms. Because right now, that’s how it feels to far too many of us.

And we need transparency. Far too often, party leadership has made decisions behind closed doors that alienate volunteers, demoralize candidates and suppress movement energy. We need open books, open meetings and open ears.

One of the greatest strengths of the NDP is that it is one party, on all levels of government. But we’ve seen our provincial wings, especially here in B.C., being used as tools for political opportunists, who simply side with whichever party can give them the most power — often supporting the federal Liberals and using their positions within the NDP to actively undermine our national efforts and push the party (that they don’t even truly support) to the “centre.”

We welcome anyone who shares our values and vision. But we must enforce our rules limiting positions of influence to members committed to the NDP at every level — who see the party not just as a ballot line, but as a unified movement of social democracy and socialism across Canada.

And we cannot give the Liberals another blank cheque of support. Any future support must be earned, not handed over. We must stand firm against their corporate handouts and broken promises. Electoral reform should be an absolute baseline for us to support a Mark Carney government. They need to be held to account for promises they made in 2015, and forced to do the right thing and make everyone’s vote count.

5. Tell a bold story and renew our leadership

We need a vision that inspires hope and dares to imagine a better future for Canada, one where no one is left behind. Right now, the NDP offers solid plans but lacks a compelling narrative that resonates with Canadians. Most people don’t vote for policies; they vote for hope.

Our vision must be bold, not timid. This vision must come from new voices — from youth, racialized communities and other marginalized groups. But it also can’t abandon the workers and seniors who built our country and movement. We need to empower everyone with real decision-making power, not just token positions.

This is how we renew our leadership: by putting forward a clear, powerful story that connects with people and reflects their aspirations.

6. Learn from our own history and, maybe, begin again

In 1958, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, or CCF, faced a similar existential crisis after a catastrophic election where they won just eight seats. Instead of fading into irrelevance, they transformed. They listened to their base, organized across civil society and built something new: the New Democratic Party.

Maybe it’s time to do the same.

Maybe we need a New Progressive Party, one that refuses to be timid in the face of crisis. One that doesn’t water down its values to please the status quo. One that fights for a Green New Deal, housing as a human right, a just transition for workers and a radical expansion of public health care — including mental health.

Perhaps that movement builds from within the NDP. Or, maybe, it emerges through new partnerships and realignments. Our cousins in the Green Party share many of our values. If there were ever a moment to think boldly about co-operation, about uniting fragmented progressives under one fearless banner, it might be now.

The point is not to protect an institution. It’s to protect the future.

The NDP I believe in has always stood for a vision of Canada rooted in justice, solidarity and human dignity. If that’s what we still stand for, we must be brave enough to transform and to lead again. A party that is grassroots led, youth powered and unapologetically committed to justice.

I don’t say this lightly. I say it because I believe our movement is worth saving — and that sometimes, saving something requires remaking it.

The stakes are too high to settle for moral victories. We need a rejuvenated, fearless left that can compete and win.

This election isn’t the end. But it must be a turning point. Let’s take this loss seriously. Let’s learn. Let’s build something new together.

Let’s rise again — not just to rebuild a party, but to reclaim the future.