The NDP will have a new leader by Sunday afternoon — and whoever comes out of the party’s convention in Winnipeg with the top job will be tasked with bringing the party back from a historic low.

Five candidates — MP Heather McPherson, activist and filmmaker Avi Lewis, union leader Rob Ashton, farmer Tony McQuail and social worker and municipal councillor Tanille Johnston — are looking to replace former leader Jagmeet Singh.

Singh resigned last year after leading the party to its worst election result since its founding in 1961.

Just seven NDP MPs returned to Ottawa after last year’s election — a massive drop considering Jack Layton led the party to Official Opposition in 2011 and had been a contender to form government in 2015.

The NDP caucus has since been reduced to six after Nunavut MP Lori Idlout joined the governing Liberals — and may be reduced further with Quebec MP Alexandre Boulerice mulling a switch to provincial politics.

The party says its membership increased to approximately 100,000 people, up from 60,000 in September 2025, when the leadership race began.

Despite having the energy of a leadership race behind it, recent polls suggests the NDP may still be struggling to find relevance in the current political context.

The non-profit Angus Reid Institute surveyed roughly 4,000 voters this month — 1,164 of which said they had voted NDP in the past decade.

Of those past NDP voters, about a quarter said the party is irrelevant and almost 40 per cent said the party’s best days are behind it.

The same survey suggests that voters aren’t paying attention to the leadership contest — 21 per cent of past NDP voters said they don’t know who of the five candidates would be the best choice for leader and 44 per cent said they didn’t recognize any of the contestants.

Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, told CBC’s Power & Politics that the challenge the party is facing is the definition of an uphill battle.

“This is going to be some hard slogging for the party to not only reintroduce itself to the country — that’s a big enough task — [but] they’ve got to do the work of reintroducing themselves to people who voted for them over the past decade,” Kurl told guest host John Paul Tasker.

Another survey of just over 1,500 Canadians found that less than half of all voters view the NDP as relevant — and less than a third said they held a positive view of the party.

Brad Lavigne, who led Layton’s 2011 campaign, suggested that there are reasons why Canadians might not be as tuned into the leadership race as they have in the past.

“There’s no question there’s been a lot going on in the world over the last number of months during this leadership race. And the NDP, with reduced resources, has had to fight and claw into the public’s view,” he told CBC News.

Lavigne said that whoever takes the reins of the party should have time to slowly introduce themselves to voters.

“There’s quite a bit of runway … the next federal election isn’t around the corner. There’s time to build and we need to use that time smartly,” he said.

Lewis appears to be in the best position to become the new leader, having out-fundraised the other candidates.

The son of former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis and grandson of former federal leader David Lewis, he’s described his campaign as an “anti-capitalist movement” — proposing things like a national cap on rent, a wealth tax on the top one per cent of income earners and public option for groceries and telecoms.

But Lewis has faced questions about how he could impact the NDP’s provincial wings if he wins the federal job.

Ashton took a shot at Lewis during the English leadership debate, suggesting that he had “destroyed” former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley’s chances of getting re-elected after he championed the Leap Manifesto at the federal level.

Even though some provincial New Democrats worry conservatives will weaponize Lewis’s continued stance against fossil fuel expansion against them, he has stood by his policies.

McPherson, in contrast, has pitched herself as a pragmatist who is focused on bringing the party together and leaning on the electoral successes of the provincial parties.

The Alberta MP has promised to decentralize the party, handing more power to riding associations.

First elected in 2019, McPherson has touted herself as a winner — pointing out that she is the only leadership contender “that has beat Conservatives three times.” (Lewis has twice unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the House.)

McPherson has also argued that having a seat means she will be able to hold Prime Minister Mark Carney to account in the House of Commons on day one.

Ashton has largely argued that the party needs to be brought back to its labour roots.

The federal Conservatives have swayed some union voters into their camp when those voters have typically sided with the NDP.

Ashton, national president of the International Longshore Workers Union, is promising an NDP lead by him would push for a “worker-powered economy” with a job for “everyone who wants one.”

The dockworker has snagged some big union endorsements, including from the United Steelworkers.

Johnston, a social worker, city councillor and member of the We Wai Kai First Nation, is the youngest in the race, pitching herself as a fresh and new voice for the future of the NDP. She’s the first Indigenous woman to seek the top job with the federal New Democrats.

Johnston is pushing social policies like a universal basic income, a national rent-control program and more investments in health care and child care.

McQuail, known for the distinct straw hat he wore during the debates, is an organic farmer from southwestern Ontario who says the party needs to take a holistic approach to policies, including tackling the climate crisis.

New policies on the table

New Democrats won’t just be reflecting on who they want to lead their party this weekend — they’ll also debate dozens of new policy proposals.

The topics range from economics, environment, electoral reform and changes to the party’s constitution.

A key labour proposal calls on the party to push for the removal of Section 107 from the Labour Code, which gives the federal government broad powers to intervene in labour disputes.

Other proposals include making federal election days a statutory holiday, opposing Canada joining the U.S.’s Golden Dome and pushing for more AI regulations.