NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh walks past supporters during a federal election campaign event in Edmonton in April. There are now seven New Democrats in the House of Commons – the party’s lowest standing in its 63-year history.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The federal NDP has recruited an Ottawa lawyer and former candidate to review the party’s handling of the spring federal election, which saw New Democrats lose 17 House of Commons seats and official party status.
While the party generally does reviews of its campaign efforts, this assessment comes after the April 28 election left New Democrats with seven seats among 343 in the Commons, the party’s worst result in its six-decade history.
Jagmeet Singh lost his seat in Burnaby, B.C., and announced his exit from the NDP leadership and federal politics on election night.
Emilie Taman, the facilitator of the review, said Tuesday she is mindful of the urgency, but she is also intent on doing a proper review ahead of finalizing her report by the end of the year. She is also looking at the issue of party renewal.
“You’re not going to rebuild a party overnight,” Ms. Taman said in an interview. “I don’t think my role in this process is to solve the question of renewal, but it’s to gather insights from a broad range of people.”
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As New Democrats prepare to elect a new leader to replace Mr. Singh, Ms. Taman, who has unsuccessfully run for the party in a pair of Ottawa ridings, said she is also hoping to gather information and perspectives that may be helpful to leadership prospects.
She said she expects the leadership candidates will have visions they want to bring to the table. “I hope that those visions and debates can be enriched by whatever I gather and share from this process,” she said.
Two possible candidates said on Tuesday that they will be watching the review process with interest.
Former NDP MP Nathan Cullen, who previously ran for the federal NDP leadership, said he hopes the review gets into real decisions made for the election. “It was a disastrous campaign,” he said in an interview.
“In my lifetime for sure, we’ve had some great progress and some hard results. This is amongst the worst for sure and you can’t sugarcoat it,” said Mr. Cullen, who left federal politics in 2019 and was subsequently elected as a B.C. MLA and served as a cabinet minister in the NDP government until last year.
“The party has two tasks now: not just get ready for the next election but rebuild in a fundamental way.”
Asked about his own possible bid to lead the NDP, Mr. Cullen said: " I’m at the final stages of considering it seriously.”
Avi Lewis said Ms. Taman’s look at party renewal is “absolutely essential” and that he looks forward to participating vigorously in the effort.
“While I have my own criticisms of our 2025 campaign, I think our fate was already sealed the day the writ dropped,” he said in a statement.
“Over the last decade, we lost an authentic connection to both our own base and our political roots,” said Mr. Lewis, who placed third in a bid to win Vancouver Centre in the recent election. Liberal Hedy Fry was re-elected.
“When the country faced the existential threat of Trumpism, few Canadians saw us as a serious option. That’s why this renewal process needs to be a genuine re-engagement with our members, one that’s both deep and wide.”
As for his own leadership bid, the grandson of former federal NDP leader David Lewis and son of former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis, said he is considering the possibility of running. “As far as leadership goes, I’m not ruling anything out, but I have not yet made a decision.”
Ms. Taman said she is confident that the NDP can rebound from its current plight. She said there were a number of factors that drove the outcome of the election, but she did not want to be seen to prejudge them.
Over the summer and early fall, Ms. Taman will cross the country to engage with local campaign teams, staff and volunteers, and former candidates as well as holding one-on-one meetings with current and former elected members.
Rank-and-file party members can also offer their views via an online survey.
Don Davies, the MP for Vancouver-Kingsway serving as interim leader, said in a statement that the NDP must conduct a thorough examination of how it got to the present situation.
“And it must explore a wide range of ideas of how we can build a successful progressive federal option for Canadian,” he said.
Party spokesperson Nina Amrov said in a statement that the goal is to for Ms. Taman’s report to be finished by the end of the year, and that the document will be publicly released.
She said Ms. Taman has agreed to work as a volunteer and will not be paid for this assignment.