Carney is 'fast

Carney is 'fast-tracking corporate Canada's wish list' in trade war: NDP leader

5 elected members of the New Democrats are in Toronto for caucus retreat

NDP Leader Avi Lewis opened three days of meetings with his parliamentary caucus accusing the Carney government of forgetting ordinary Canadians.

"The prime minister, who still enjoys considerable support, at the negotiating table has nonetheless pursued a very specific policy, which is that if you're a powerful corporation in Canada, you go to the front of line."

Lewis and his five NDP MPs met Tuesday in Toronto with union leaders, affordable housing advocates and leaders from the city's food banks.

With those stakeholders standing behind him at a news conference, Lewis said the government has enough money to spend billions building a new pipeline to the West Coast and make historic investments in Canada's military but not enough to address the concerns of ordinary Canadians.

"The government is fast-tracking corporate Canada's wish list, and calling it a plan to fight a trade war," Lewis said. "What we heard from people on the front lines of the emergency of everyday life in this expensive city is: where is the money for people?"

Lewis called for reforms to employment insurance, or EI, and better wage supports for workers impacted by the trade war.

He also called for the government to build more affordable housing, mandate rent controls and introduce publicly run grocery stores to sell cheaper food.

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Much of Lewis's remarks addressed affordability issues faced by residents in a city that has become increasingly unaffordable.

Toronto is key to rebuilding the federal NDP, according to one senior New Democrat.

Federal New Democrats are still digging themselves out of their 2025 election debt. Their leader still doesn't have a seat in the House of Commons. And their tiny caucus enters the fall parliamentary sitting even smaller, after one MP joined the Liberals and another left federal politics.

But Lewis likes to say that's only one side of the story, seen by those in the Ottawa political bubble. He and others say the NDP movement is ripe for a revival — and that Toronto offers a path forward.

In a video posted on social media the day after last week's byelections — in which the party won no seats — Lewis admitted the New Democrats were "never expected to win."

Nevertheless, Lewis said the results in Toronto signal the party is showing signs of coming back to life. In that byelection, the NDP saw its vote share triple compared to the 2025 general election in the Toronto riding of Beaches-East York, and also surpassed its vote share in the riding in 2021 and 2019.

"The big headline for me is we are back," Lewis said. "Our rebuild as a party is well underway. Lots of work still to do. But the early signs are really encouraging."

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The New Democrats saw their worst-ever result in the last federal election. Jagmeet Singh resigned as leader on the spot.

In March, New Democrats elected Lewis, who won on the first ballot with 56 per cent of the vote.

Lewis could run for a Toronto seat

A senior NDP source tells CBC News the party's five-member caucus is going to Toronto because the party believes the path back to official party status is through Toronto seats, especially communities like Davenport and Parkdale.

CBC News is not identifying the source as they are not authorized to speak publicly about internal party matters.

Downtown Toronto and surrounding areas, the source said, is ground zero for the main issues Lewis has been focusing on — the cost of groceries, housing, opposing another West Coast pipeline and tackling the climate crisis.

The NDP hasn't won a seat in Toronto since 2011. But the party has potential, according to Éric Grenier, polling analyst and publisher of The Writ.

"I do think that the kind of messaging that Avi Lewis has been promoting, his general kind of approach and demeanour and policies are more likely to appeal in a place like Toronto, in urban downtown area kind of ridings."

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Lewis told the independent news website The Breach he was tempted to run in the Beaches-East York byelection.

And CBC's source said that Lewis could eventually run in Canada's largest city.

"We're keeping our options open," the source said. "There are opportunities to win seats … there is real potential to build upon."

It would have been a gamble, but Lewis had a chance to win in Beaches-East York, said Jordan Leichnitz, a former NDP strategist and frequent panellist on CBC's Power and Politics.

Leichnitz said the votes the NDP were able to pick up likely came from progressive voters who are uncomfortable with Carney changing environmental regulations, supporting a pipeline and attempting to change the Canada Labour Code, potentially making it harder for some to strike.

"The ground organizing muscle that they were able to demonstrate in Beaches-East York is significant," said Leichnitz, who's also the Canada director for the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, an international German foundation that's aligned with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

"The fact that they were able to sort of prove, on the ground, the thesis that there are some progressive voters who voted Liberal who are now willing to come home under Lewis's leadership — that's important."

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Year-round organizing, not just elections

Under Lewis, the NDP is developing a model of permanent organizing where the party is training and connecting with volunteers throughout the year and not just during election time, according to Matthew Green, the party's outgoing national director.

At a time when many people have fewer in-person social connections, he said, New Democrats hope NDP riding groups become community hubs where people form lasting relationships instead of just the transactional politics of door-knocking and phone calls at election time.

"What we're proposing around building communities is the idea that there is space for joy and fun and socializing and community and food and music and dance and things that typically wouldn't be associated in the modern era with politics, but were a core part of our [predecessor party] CCF."

Other than Beaches-East York, the NDP's byelection results were dismal, according to Grenier.

Its vote share shrunk in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, and in North Vancouver-Capilano it earned three per cent of the vote — falling in third behind the Green Party of Canada.

"The NDP is still not in great shape. They're in better shape than they were in 2025, but that was the worst shape the party's ever been. So it's a low bar," Grenier said.

Senior reporter, Parliamentary Correspondent

David Thurton is a senior reporter in CBC's Parliamentary Bureau. He covers daily politics in the nation’s capital and specializes in environment and energy policy. Born in Canada but raised in Trinidad and Tobago, he’s moved around more times than he can count. He’s worked for CBC in several provinces and territories, including Alberta and the Northwest Territories. He can be reached at david.thurton@cbc.ca