As expected, perceived frontrunner Avi Lewis took the brunt of the attacks, which he shrugged off as “dim sparks” in his closing statement. Edmonton MP Heather McPherson and union leader Rob Ashton also looked to break through in what’s widely considered a three-way race. The 2016 Leap Manifesto debacle has left lasting scars with some in the Alberta NDP. Shannon Phillips, who was Alberta’s environment minister at the time, called the Leap Manifesto an “exercise in privileged political vanity” and “piece of self-indulgent posturing” in a recent blog post. ‘Violent agreement’ on electoral reformAll five candidates said they favoured changing Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system, with Lewis trotting out 2012 NDP leadership candidate Nathan Cullen’s old “violent agreement” line to characterize the consensus.

Source: National Post February 20, 2026 05:05 UTC