Commentary, Opinion

Returning the momentum

April 2, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Maybe it’s the classic movie fan in me, but whenever anyone talks about making a comeback, I can’t help but think of the film, Sunset Boulevard.

In the film, an up-and-coming screenwriter, through a series of events, is swept into the life of Norma Desmond, a silent screen star just waiting for the “talkie” fad to fade before she can once again take her rightful place atop the Hollywood Heap – with the right comeback vehicle, of course.

A comeback? Excuse me. According to Desmond, it’s not a comeback, but rather a “return” to where she’s meant to be. 

If you’ve seen the picture, you know how it turns out. She makes a return to public consciousness, all right, but certainly not in a moment of triumph – but hope springs eternal, right?

I couldn’t help but chuckle last week when journalists scrummed Steven MacKinnon, Canada’s Minister of Transport and Government House Leader, ahead of this past weekend’s NDP leadership race.

The question: “Do you think there will be a resurgence of the NDP, a resurgence of the threat from the left given the momentum they have right now?”

It was a question that evidently took the Minister by surprise.

After his eyes widened a bit and a smirk formed on the corners of his mouth, he replied, “Um, momentum?”

On first blush, it’s a fair question.

Canadians have been down this road before.

Since the party that lead what was then Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition from 2011 – 2025 was decimated at the polls in the last Federal election, losing Official Party status in the process, it’s been a question of just who might be the right person to capture the public’s imagination and bring the NDP back to the top, or close enough.

By the same token, it was a similar question when Michael Ignatieff led the Liberal Party of Canada to a drubbing in the 2011, the worst showing of the party in its history, as it happens, resulting in a slashed caucus of just 34 seats.

Who would be the right person to capture the public’s imagination and bring the Liberals back to the top, or close enough?

The Liberals were lucky to have party scion Justin Trudeau just around the corner and whether you like him or not, the fact that he quickly engaged the electorate and harnessed its momentum towards victory can’t be denied.

Vying to be that person for the NDP this time around were union leader Rob Ashton, municipal councillor Tanille Johnston, filmmaker and activist Avi Lewis, incumbent MP Heather McPherson, and long-time NDP candidate Tony McQuail.

The five candidates brought a breadth of experience and vision to the table, yet, in the days leading up to the leadership convention, an Angus Reid poll of voters who cast their ballots for the NDP sometime over the past four Federal elections, found 44 per cent had no idea who was even running for the top job. 

“It does speak to really the extent of the hill that the NDP has to not just climb, but claw their way up to re-pierce the psyche of a significant segment of Canadian voters,” Angus Reid president Shachi Kurl told CTV News. 

That’s not a good sign of the health of our democracy by any measure, but the data made Minister MacKinnon’s response somewhat understandable, and Canadians by and large may have had the same reaction.

But momentum can only be underestimated at one’s peril.

Whatever political affiliation you hold close to your heart, I think most of us can agree that Canadians are dissatisfied in one way or another. Beyond partisan bickering, the average Canadian is struggling more to make ends meet and simply get by.

While Prime Minister Mark Carney is enjoying comparable popularity here at home and abroad, if his more centrist approach to most things doesn’t bear fruit in the next couple of years – assuming, of course, that a Majority Government will be in sight before too long – momentum is going to go one of two ways: back to the Conservatives, or potentially a new path.

This is something that Sunday’s victor, Avi Lewis, seems to recognize.

“Canadians are living on the edge,” he said following his decisive victory. “We’re under economic attack from the US. While Donald Trump stomps around the globe grabbing foreign leaders and oil fields and starting wars he has no idea how to stop. And at the kitchen table in Canada, there’s an even bigger crisis. The everyday emergency of just trying to get by in an impossible economy. Whether you’re on a single salary, hustling with multiple gig jobs, or taking care of loved ones, working hard no longer earns you a living. I know every politician says they feel your pain. And they claim to be outraged by the sky-high price of everything. But what they won’t talk about is why. An economy that’s rigged for the rich, leaving the vast majority of us behind.”

Taking aim at what he described as a “tiny group of billionaires who control every part of our economy” and politicians who will blame anyone but themselves for the issue, he said Canada was now at a crossroads.

“Our plan is to Trump-proof the economy by investing massively in Canadian economic independence, using the unmatched power of public ownership to ensure the fundamentals of a good life. A network of public providers for food, phones, and internet. A public housing developer and public construction companies to build millions of non-market homes. A 21st century electrical grid, an EV bus revolution, and a heat pump in every home, built with Canadian steel, creating tens of thousands of unionized jobs. Investing in the care economy as true nation-building. The education, health care, elder care, and child care that holds our social fabric together. And finishing [Tommy Douglas’] dream: eyes, teeth, mental health, medicine. They are all part of your health. They have to all be part of our universal public health care system….

“We’ve got to start winning now. We know we can live in a country built on a foundation of care and connection. Where you don’t have to fight every day just for the basics. Where hard work earns you a living and if you can’t work, you’re not abandoned. And where our kids know we are doing everything we can to protect the air and water and their right to a livable future. That is why the NDP is coming back. Because we know that a thriving world is possible and we know who is standing in our way. And there are way more of us than there are of them. We just have to find each other.”

Time will tell whether the NDP is indeed coming back, but what’s certain is it’s making a return – a return to the House of Commons, to hold leadership to account, and be a voice for its constituents. In a healthy democracy, that’s a big win.

It might be a tall order as Lewis works not only to engage Canadians but win over the party’s Provincial counterparts in Alberta and Saskatchewan without the benefit – yet – of a seat in the House of Commons, but, in this current climate, any underestimation of the party and where Canadians are at just might be a mistake.

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