Heather vs Avi. That’s how the liberal media and NDP brass would like to frame the leadership race but, unfortunately for them there’s an anti-genocide, anti-military and anti-US insurgent left campaign promoting economic democracy, degrowth and land back policies, which is already shaping the debate.
In “Heather McPherson, Avi Lewis prepare NDP leadership bids” the Toronto Star reported that those two individuals were seeking to lead the party. The front-page article devoted a dozen paragraphs to two candidates who have yet to formally announce they are running to lead the party. Conversely, it wasn’t until the fifteenth paragraph that the article noted, “Montreal activist Yves Engler has announced his plan to run for the leadership on an anti-military and anti-capitalist platform.”
Unlike the two individuals the Star focused on, my campaign has a website, graphics and leaflets. We’ve also published multiple press releases and I will be at the Toronto Labour Day parade on Monday and am speaking in Toronto, Hamilton, St Catherines, Kingston and London this week.
On Tuesday the Star reporter called one of the campaign co-managers to inquire how things were proceeding. He was told that more than 700 volunteers have signed up to help and that there’s multiple committees working on different aspects of the campaign. As part of the mobilization efforts, coordinators have handed out nearly 10,000 leaflets at Palestine events.
While my campaign obviously deserved more than a single sentence on paragraph fifteenth of the Star article, the reporter probably would have given us more space if the NDP had treated us equally. On August 20 the NDP nomination package was supposed to have become available. Before noon that day I emailed the party’s electoral officer asking for it. After not hearing back I followed up on Sunday. He finally sent me the nomination package on Monday. But the Star article reported that McPherson was signing people up at last weekend’s Ottawa Pride parade, suggesting she had already received the package.
Within 72 hours of seeking signatures for my NDP nomination form, 690 party members had signed (500 are required to participate in the race though other regional, age and equity criteria must be met). If the party would have sent the nomination document last Wednesday, we would likely have already fulfilled the first requirement to participate in the race by the time the Star inquired, making it more difficult to bury our campaign in the article.
Despite party and media obstacles, the campaign is impacting the discussion. Thursday McPherson released a statement calling on Canadian authorities to investigate and deter Canadians from fighting in Gaza. McPherson’s statement is an important breakthrough for the movement against Canadian complicity in Israel’s holocaust. I recently criticized McPherson for staying mum on the issue and my campaign has raised the issue in leaflets, an online poster, launch statement and elsewhere.
As we begin campaigning in earnest, it’s likely that we will drive the debate far to the left. The right understands this. As such, they’ve been attacking me unrelentingly. Four days ago, The Western Standard published a long commentary headlined “Activist and NDP candidate tests Canadian tolerance of genocide revision.” The article takes up B’nai Brith’s claim that I deny the Rwandan genocide while denouncing me for saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Over the past week both Rebel News and Leviathan, which previously doxed me, have also criticized my campaign.
This is not a Heather vs Avi NDP leadership race. It’s a race to Yvesthesystembehind.
Starting Sunday I will be speaking across southern Ontario on the genocide in Gaza, militarism and capitalism. Please support my nomination form to participate in the NDP leadership race. If you are not an NDP member become one.
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