Manitoba MP makes bid for NDP leadership

Wearing democratic socialist badge, Niki Ashton vows to challenge Canada’s elites

OTTAWA— Sensing the same disaffection in Canada that helped lift Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Manitoba MP Niki Ashton pulled from the populist phrase book to launch her decidedly left-wing bid for the federal NDP leadership.

Ashton, the fourth MP to enter the race to succeed Thomas Mulcair, kicked off her campaign Tuesday with a speech that denounced “unfair trade deals” and vowed to “challenge the power of Canada’s elites.”

But she made clear that — in her policy proposals and ideological inclinations — she’s more Bernie Sanders than Trump. She described herself as a “proud democratic socialist” who will fight for free post-secondary tuition, institute universal child care and “nationalize” assets like the deep sea port in Churchill, Man.

“It is time to call out a system that is rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many. It’s time to take back our country,” Ashton told journalists and campaign workers at an Ottawa community centre.

“We must challenge the power of Canada’s elites, the rich and powerful who are benefitting from growing inequality in our country.”

The 34-year-old Ashton (Churchill-Keewatinook) ran unsuccessfully for the NDP leadership in 2012, when she argued that the party would be wrong to drift to the centre in an attempt to broaden its appeal. In an interview with the Star on Tuesday, Ashton said the party needs to reconnect with progressive-minded voters who turned out in the last election, but didn’t support the NDP.

Ashton joins fellow MPs Peter Julian, Charlie Angus and Guy Caron in the race to replace Mulcair at a leadership convention in October.