Alberta MP looking for federal NDP leadership title

By Lethbridge Herald on January 20, 2026.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Federal NDP leadership candidate Heather McPherson, stands with current and former Lethbridge West MLAs Rob Miyashiro and Shannon Phillips, as she receives their support during a campaign stop in Lethbridge Monday night.

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

The New Democratic Party is looking for a federal leader and Heather McPherson is representing Alberta in the race. 

McPherson is the NDP Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona and is now a candidate for the NDP Federal leadership race. 

She spoke with the Herald Monday hours before a campaign event and said she decided to run for the federal title because she believes that at this moment in time, it is urgent to have a strong Progressive Party in this country. 

“In April we lost so many Members of Parliament, we lost so many seats, which was devastating, and now Mark Carney takes huge swings to the right and we don’t have a voice in Ottawa at the moment fighting for working class Canadians,” said McPherson. 

She said Canadians need a voice in Ottawa fighting for a public health care system, for meaningful action on housing, on cost of living, on protecting workers rights in law. 

“We need a strong Progressive Party. I’m the only candidate that has a seat in the House of Commons, and I think I can build this party back,” said McPherson. 

She said she is looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity to represent Alberta as one of the five candidates that put their name forward in the leadership race. 

“Of those five, I am the only one who is elected. I have won my seat three times, I have beat conservatives, I have been doing the work of rebuilding our party and I have the ability to hit the ground running on day one,” said McPherson. 

When speaking about the support she has received so far, McPherson said it has been fantastic. She has been traveling across the country and said that people are excited about building the NDP party back and she is excited to lead that. 

“In Alberta people know me a little bit better. People know some of the work I did to stop coal mining in the Eastern Slopes, some of the work that I’ve done to protect Albertans from Danielle Smith’s attack on our healthcare,” said McPherson. 

She said she has also done work to defend Albertans against Smith’s attack on the Canadian Pension Plan. McPherson added that she has written legislation to stop Alberta from leaving the CPP and people around the country are getting to know her as she visits various cities. 

When talking about the disconnection between the Alberta NDP and the federal NDP, McPherson said she will be working on mending that relationship. 

“When I was elected in 2019, the leader of the Alberta NDP Rachel Notley was not certain that she could even vote for the federal NDP because of some of the things that have happened, including the use of the Leap Manifesto,” said McPherson. “But I worked really hard to rebuild that relationship and Rachel Notley has now endorsed my campaign.” 

She said she has a great relationship with all the provincial NDP leaders including Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi. 

“I think that’s an important part of my campaign, rebuilding those relationships by having communications, making sure that we’re lifting up our very successful provincial parties, and not giving the conservatives ammunition,” said McPherson. 

She said she knows they will not always agree with one another, that Canada is a big country and there are regional disparities, but she believes that by keeping those lines of communication open, convening meetings, looking at ways of supporting each other that they can not only rebuild the federal NDP, but they can work together to defend Canadians across the country from Conservatives attacks. 

“We all believe that we have to protect our communities, make them safer, make sure that everyone has access to housing. All those things that we all want, that the Democrats have been fighting for such a long time, and those are the things that we should be working on together,” said McPherson. 

Those wishing to vote in the federal leadership race, are asked to either renew or purchase their membership by Jan. 28 

“I hope that folks in Lethbridge get their memberships, so they can vote in this election,” said McPherson.