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Vaughn Palmer: Western NDP leaders put up a wall between them and new national leader

For David Eby, bad blood with Avi Lewis includes bitter B.C. NDP leadership race

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VICTORIA — Premier David Eby issued a carefully hedged statement of support Sunday for the NDP’s new national leader, opponent of LNG and other fossil fuel development, Avi Lewis.

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“Congratulations to Avi Lewis on being elected as the federal leader by NDP members,” said Eby, who then reminded Lewis of NDP priorities here in B.C.

Vaughn Palmer: Western NDP leaders put up a wall between them and new national leader Back to video

“Our Look West plan is growing our economy and creating good, union jobs in the industries that power our province like mining, energy and tech. We are speeding up approvals by working with local communities and Indigenous people.”

Those priorities include further development of natural gas for export, the second phase of the multi-billion dollar LNG Canada project in Kitimat foremost among them.

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“We will work with anyone and any federal leader who shares our priorities,” said Eby, “and stand firm against those who put that progress at risk.”

Still, the B.C. NDP leader sounded conciliatory compared to the reaction from his Alberta counterpart, Naheed Nenshi.

“It is clear that the direction of the federal party under this new leader, someone who openly cheered for the defeat of the Alberta NDP government, is not in the interests of Alberta,” said Nenshi. “Albertans deserve federal leaders who understand the importance of Alberta and our essential role in the federation.”

Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck also distanced herself from Lewis over his “ideological and unrealistic” suggestion that workers in the oil and gas sector should be retrained for green jobs.

“It’s impossible to support — and respect — working people without respecting the jobs they have, not the ones you think they should have,” wrote Beck in response to a request from Lewis for a meeting. “When you publicly reverse your position on these matters … I will meet with you.”

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Policy disagreements are one thing. But there’s also some personal history between Lewis and the NDP leader here in B.C.

Lewis backed climate activist Anjali Appadurai’s challenge to Eby for the B.C. NDP leadership back in 2022.

He personally chaired the Zoom conversation where she launched her whirlwind drive to take over the B.C. party, an effort that ended with her being disqualified over alleged campaign irregularities.

Eby purported to welcome Appadurai to the leadership race. Behind the scenes, his campaign worked to discredit her.

His organizers supplied a recording and transcript of the Aug. 6 Zoom conversation, containing evidence of alleged rule bending that led to her being disqualified.

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Lewis then wrote a bitter account of what happened in the National Observer, published Oct. 20, 2022, with the headline: “The desperate disqualification of Anjali Appadurai.”

“The people who joined the NDP to vote for a climate justice champion are entirely real,” wrote Lewis.

“Simply put, the party is disqualifying Appadurai because if the leadership race went to a vote of party members, there is every likelihood that she would win.

“A 32-year-old climate justice champ and a handful of climate campaigners just out-organized the B.C. NDP establishment, an impressive and accomplished government minister, and a caucus full of MLAs who support him.

“At a certain point,” wrote Lewis, “it must have become clear that there were simply too many thousands of new members to fix the math and quell the insurgency. So instead of trying to purge thousands in a short time, they simply disqualified one: the one that inspired all the rest.”

The result was a “badly bruised position for Eby,” concluded Lewis, and a lesson to be learned for activists for next time.

For as Lewis saw it, the Appadurai campaign was the latest, “important chapter in the long fight for the soul of the NDP.

“This was the most successful and electrifying electoral intervention by the climate movement in Canadian political history” he wrote.

“That’s the thundering power of social movement organizing. And Appadurai’s meteoric run should be seen as a portent by movement millennials toiling away in the issue silos of the non-profit industrial complex: this was a flex. Getting into the mess of party politics is, sure, messy. There is also power here. Moving at the speed of trust can also be a rush.”

This time the method worked to the benefit of Lewis himself. He and his organizers — Appadurai returned the favour by working for him — signed up members in droves, raised record amounts of cash and brushed by what was left of the NDP old guard as if it were standing still.

On Monday, Lewis discounted the criticisms from Nenshi, Beck and others as disagreements within “the NDP family.”

In that regard, I would note that Lewis is married to activist author Naomi Klein. Her brother, Seth, also a climate activist and critic of LNG developments (“carbon bombs”), is married to Christine Boyle, housing minister in the Eby government.

Boyle is best friends with Cailey Lynch, Eby’s spouse, and godmother to their son. Lynch helped Boyle win an NDP nomination in the last provincial election.

So, if ever there’s a family dinner with the Lewis-Klein, Klein-Boyle and Lynch-Eby households, they could have lively discussion on their respective involvement in “the fight for the soul of the NDP.”

vpalmer@postmedia.com 

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