NDP campaign review cites 'brutal environment' for worst-ever election result

The federal NDP released its internal campaign review Friday, largely avoiding casting blame on senior party officials and instead citing issues that were beyond the control of New Democrats for its worst election loss.

"The overall verdict from campaign staff was that the NDP ran a technically solid campaign in a brutal environment," the report said. "Most agreed that even significantly better decisions would likely not have changed the overall outcome in terms of seats."

The report bases its findings on the views of former and current members and does not offer a path forward.

The report cites a basket of external forces that were working against New Democrats, including a political landscape that framed the election as a binary on who was best to take on U.S. President Donald Trump and journalists following the campaign who didn't stop asking New Democrats about the party's dismal polling prospects.

In April's election the NDP lost all but seven of its 24 seats. Even leader Jagmeet Singh could not hold on to his B.C. seat and resigned before all the results were counted on election night.

"Voters adopted a 'Trump/Poilievre/Carney' mindset long before the election began. We heard that the NDP did not effectively counter this frame, failed to articulate its own theory of change and did not manage to assert its message on priorities like housing and affordability," the report states.

Even in that landscape some said the campaign did not seem like a disaster, even though the polling and crowd sizes at events were dismal.

"The campaign did not 'look' like a losing operation: the tour was professional, events were generally well executed, the leader performed strongly given the circumstances and many battleground campaigns were well funded and able to hit or approach their spending ceilings," the report states.

In some places it does look inward and suggests room for improvement.

Need for 'unapologetically progressive campaign'

The report shows many who were interviewed thought the party didn't have clear messaging before, or going into, the election and felt "the 2025 election was lost before it began."

"Messaging in general … was almost universally seen as weak and confusing," the report said.

Messaging was muddled around the confidence and supply agreement the party signed with the Liberals, which "led to missed opportunities for the party to demonstrate its value as a strong progressive opposition and, more importantly, a future government," the report said.

And when the ballot question became about Trump, it found, the party wasn't nimble enough to respond.

Labour and human rights lawyer and former NDP candidate Emilie Taman facilitated the report. In an interview with CBC News, she spoke about the tone members wanted to see.

"People just want to see an energetic, bold, unapologetically progressive campaign" and some of the people included in the report felt the campaign "fell a little short," Taman said.

The report also said that many candidates thought the party was too focused on the leader, and didn't spend enough time or energy on local candidates in lesser-known ridings.

The report notes though that some candidates complained about the lack of resources and felt abandoned once they were nominated.

"In speaking with many of these candidates, it became apparent that their expectations were unrealistic," the report said. "Many thought they would be provided with campaign managers, staff, volunteers and money."

"Some of them were overcome with emotion when describing the anxiety they felt upon being launched into an election campaign (in many cases a campaign which was already underway) with virtually no support."

The report calls on local executives on riding associations and the party to be honest and reasonable with candidates and to set modest goals.

'Defeatist' fundraising attitudes

The report also said there's an overall feeling among the New Democrat base that is averse to fundraising and often adopts a "defeatist" attitude.

"'Many New Democrats are allergic to fundraising'" the report said, quoting someone who participated in the review. Others said it was a "critical structural weakness" for the federal party.

Because of that many participants in the review felt they were "leaving substantial money on the table" and called for the party to professionalize this aspect which was described as "inefficient, outdated and under-resourced."

The report noted New Democrats often finance their campaigns by taking on debt and as result they are "stuck in a cycle of deploying endless resources to pay back loans."

It also said some felt the party spent too much on traditional television advertising and not enough on digital. That advertising, some said, focused too much on Singh's personal qualities and lacked meaningful political content.

"Many local campaigns complained that the central messaging failed to adequately respond to voters' primary preoccupation: Trump, the tariffs and threats to Canadian sovereignty," it said.

This harkens back to a criticism seen in previous campaign reviews that the NDP runs election campaigns that are too focused on the leader.

Notably although Canada's labour movement remains institutionally committed to the NDP, a gap is widening among rank-and-file union members.

The NDP's language was often perceived as "exclusionary, academic or moralizing" and workers did not hear a clear plan on affordability, tariffs and industrial policy, the report said.

The party is currently in the midst of a leadership campaign and will select its new head in March.