OTTAWA — New Democrats vying for the party’s top job offered competing visions for rebuilding the NDP during a cordial first debate in Montreal Thursday in which few tensions emerged.

Held just hours after Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a groundbreaking accord that endorsed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s pipeline proposal and upended hallmark climate policies, the debate mostly ignored the polarizing issue of the day and instead focused on big-picture ideas for the future of the New Democratic Party.

Taking aim at massive corporations, the wealthy one per cent and the Carney Liberals’ rightward shift, Heather McPherson, Avi Lewis, Rob Ashton, Tanille Johnston and Tony McQuail appeared to agree the NDP needed to win back working-class Canadians after it was reduced to just seven se

See Full Page