Charlie Angus brings the punk energy the NDP needs in a leader

With Jagmeet Singh out and the federal NDP’s seat count now so low that the party is begging for official party status, the choice for the party’s next leader could make the difference between death and survival.

Canada’s social democratic party needs someone who can recapture the loyalty of blue-collar voters snatched by Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in the most recent election. It will take a leader who can excite the public. Someone who can attract new members and clearly differentiate the party from the ruling Liberals who under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a left turn and stole the NDP’s thunder and vote share.

New Democrats should look no further than Charlie Angus, the rabble-rousing former MP for Timmins-James Bay. Since announcing his intent to bow out of party politics a year ago, the punk rocker turned politician is having a Bernie Sanders/AOC moment. Senator Sanders, occasionally joined by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is hosting national Fighting Oligarchy rallies urging Americans to fight back against the “corporate interests” taking over America. 

Angus has set out to do the same. He’s started The Resistance, a social movement to push back against what he sees as growing facism in the US and the Maple MAGA machine in Canada led by “troll-in-chief,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. 

What began as a substack, where Angus posts essays on politics of the day, has morphed into a cross-country tour. From Vancouver Island to Edmonton and Toronto, Angus criss-crossed the country during the election, speaking out against Trump and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

 “We can’t let the haters tell us that we are broken and divided,” Angus said at a rally five days before the election in Cumberland, BC alongside  Courteny-Alberni MP Gord Johns, who was in a tight race against the Conservatives. It’s hard to credit any single factor, including Angus, but it is noteworthy that Johns was the only Vancouver Island NDP candidate to win. 

Angus amplifies his message with fiery videos excoriating US President Donald Trump and so-called MAGA and his message is being heard — his travel warning urging Canadians to stop visiting the US was viewed 225,000 times. A petition Angus launched, calling for Canada to revoke the citizenship of Elon Musk, the billionaire appointed by Trump to slash the US civil service, made the New York Times. 

And although Angus opted not to run this time round, perhaps sensing correctly the party was headed for near obliteration that might sink his own reelection chances, he did stick his hand up for the NDP leadership once before in 2017. He lost to Singh on the first ballot.

At that time, the NDP weren’t looking for an old-school socialist and corporation basher who fondly quotes Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci and rails against Suncor and Imperial as “oligarchs in a trenchcoat” who get “all the money all the time.” Many in the party establishment may still not want that now. But judging by Sanders’ popularity in the US, Angus’ defiant approach could be a win for the flagging party.

Over recent decades, the New Democrats “slowly accommodated themselves to the ascendent neoliberalism of the age,” journalist and author Martin Lukacs recently wrote in a piece dissecting Poilievre’s success in capturing NDP voters. Singh was partly to blame, even eschewing NDP touch phrases like “establishment” and “elite,” Lukacs said. But the drift to the centre started much earlier. “For years, the NDP had stopped trying to tell a compelling story that made sense of the grievances of the working class.”

That’s a huge problem for a party whose very mission is to fight against inequality and corporate control. Angus is still working on his French and while many Canadian voters would find him too far left to endorse him as prime minister, they might embrace him as leader of a non-ruling party. 

He has his share of detractors; journalist and author Mark Bourrie describes him as a “self-serving political hack” whose biggest political accomplishment was contributing to the pile-on that brought down WE Charity. He also takes issue with the profane barbs Angus hurls at his political opponents, which Bourrie believes increases divisiveness and lowers the level of political discourse. But for others, Angus’ blunt talk is part of his charm.

Granted, Canada might not want Prime Minister Charlie Angus blowing a gasket in a meeting with Trump. But it’s time the NDP stop running as potential governors, accept that their power lies in winning enough seats to gain the balance of power, and strategize accordingly. 

Canada inched dangerously closer to an American two-party system this election as support for the NDP, and Bloc Quebecois and Greens slid. And with the Conservatives capturing a greater share of the popular vote, progressive voters might well fear an NDP resurgence could set the stage for Conservative wins going forward. But that is Prime Minister Mark Carney’s problem to solve, which he could with electoral reform. The NDP’s only concern should be finding a leader who can rebuild the party.

Angus is tapped into the zeitgeist of today’s left-leaning voters who may feel the NDP has let slip some of the issues they care about. He would push the government hard for greater progressive taxation and social services, less corporate influence, and stricter climate policy (he grilled the government on Trans Mountain pipeline financing and wants to ban fossil fuel advertising). He is comfortable in front of a camera, a whiz with social media and his populist style is similar to Sanders, who appeals to left Democrats and younger voters. 

Angus insists 21 years in elected public office was enough and he has no future leadership aspirations. His focus hereon, he says, will be growing The Resistance. But politics, like music, runs in his veins. With a little arm-twisting, you’ve got to think a change of heart could be possible.