Former MPs launch volunteer effort to renew NDP ahead of leadership race

Former NDP MP for New Westminster-Burnaby Peter Julian, flanked by former Hamilton Centre MP Matthew Green (right) and former campaign volunteer Doris Mah, speaks during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

OTTAWA — Two former New Democrat MPs who lost their seats in the April election are launching a six-month project to renew the NDP and chart its future, ahead of the March convention.

Peter Julian and Matthew Green said they are volunteering to lead the effort, which they said will both complement and go beyond the party’s formal election post-mortem and leadership race.

“The NDP is needed now more than ever,” Julian said at a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday.

“What we’ve seen over the summer is more and more voters’ remorse about the Carney government.”

The NDP lost official party status when it elected only seven members in April, its worst performance in any federal election.

The party has tasked lawyer and former candidate Emilie Taman with conducting a campaign post-mortem.

Jagmeet Singh stepped down as leader after losing his own seat on election night. A leadership race is underway and members are set to choose the next leader at a convention in Winnipeg in March.

Green said New Democrats can’t afford to wait until then to launch a larger review.

“The rebuild of the party cannot rest on the shoulders of one person alone, which is why we’ve been working with, over the last several months, a coalition of grassroots groups,” Green said.

He said it will take work to identify and engage with people who have supported the NDP in the past, “those who perhaps held their nose and voted Liberal because they thought they had to save the country against Donald Trump.”

Green and Julian said they won’t be endorsing a candidate in the leadership race.

Doris Mah, who volunteered on Julian’s campaign, said the April election results were shocking and disheartening. She told reporters the party needs to listen to its members.

“We need to make sure everybody’s voices are being heard and everybody should have a seat at the table to contribute their ideas. That’s including how a campaign is run and, moving forward, how do we build the party,” she said.

Julian and Green have the support of a grassroots group calling itself Reclaim Canada’s NDP. Reclaim said it was founded by local riding associations, former candidates and volunteers and is working to make the NDP “a viable political option for the average Canadian.”

It has been urging people to redirect donations away from the federal party and give them instead to local riding associations as a way of sending a message.

Reclaim said in a media statement Thursday it’s looking forward to working with Julian and Green “on our shared essential mission of reinvigorating the federal NDP across the country.”

Julian noted the NDP has been down this road before. In 1993, after the party lost official party status, he was asked to lead a renewal effort that culminated in the adoption of significant constitutional changes at the party’s 1995 convention.

“The interesting byproduct was the party actually ended up being in the best financial position of any of the political parties afterwards. When you engage people in a meaningful way, people step up,” he said.

But he and Green agreed that with the Liberals leading a minority government, the NDP doesn’t have two years to rebuild this time.

“I’m going to use this process to re-engage and to signal to our community in Hamilton Centre that we are going to be election-ready, effective immediately,” Green said.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press