Jason Morris

By Cheryl Jahn

Federal NDP

Lewis’ election challenging

Mar 30, 2026 | 4:10 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – A coalition of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, or CCF, and affiliated unions of the Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC, was how the NDP was founded in 1961.

Under it’s new leader – Tommy Douglas – it was a Socialist Party; the working man’s party.

In 2011, under leader Jack Layton, it enjoyed a historic electoral breakthrough, becoming the Official Opposition in Parliament for the first time.

“The NDP is seen as a party that has moved from its historical roots, and that had a lot of Western support going back to Tommy Douglas and Saskatchewan, where the party stood up for the bread and butter issues for the lunch bucket crowd and got support from farmers and unions,” explains Jason Morris, UNBC Political Science Lecturer. “But since that time and now with the new leader, they’re focused more on newer social issues.”

Federal NDP

Lewis' election challenging

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It was not that long ago the NDP had a presence in this region, at least provincially.

“We used to have a very strong presence. We had MLAs Paul Ramsay, we had Lois Boone for the longest time,” says Chuck Fraser, long-time NDP’er. “We even had Brian Gardiner, a one-time NDP MP, I worked on his campaign.”

But Lewis’ stance of energy leaves a bitter taste in the West, with negative reactions from the NDP leaders in both Alberta with Neheed Nenshi and Saskatchewan with Carla Beck.

But Northern BC, specifically, is heavily reliant in terms of wages and incomes on natural resources. It’s typically a blue-collar crowd that works that sector. A class that the NDP typically caters to.

“I’d suggest there’s a lot of high income earning people that work in the trades and in the forest industry and elsewhere,” says Morris. “That may be thinking more about the high taxes they pay to get services instead of, looking out for the the common person that the NDP used to be about.”

But, whichever way it goes, in Lewis’ words, it time to rebuild a party that has seen challenging times in recent years.