Poll
Do you have any plans on Valentine’s Day?
- No (81%, 331 Votes)
- Yes (19%, 79 Votes)
Total Voters: 410
Loading ...Sponsored
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.
22-21
Don’t see anything about the first failed recall. Keep pumping those NDP tires.
Shannon supported Spearman in his bid for the Liberals in the last Federal election. Flipped back to the NDP now?
I would never vote for someone who ignores the atrocities of terrorists against Israel, but instead is actively pursuing actions against those who served in the IDF who fought against the terrorists who moved into Gaza after over 240 people were kidnapped from Israel after an attack that saw unarmed civilians at a music festival gunned down like animals, and small communities attacked, women raped and tortured, babies ripped out from the womb and in one case, a mother had to watch as her baby was cooked in an oven. Hamas had pages of documented war crimes against them, but this NDP leadership candidate choses to go after members of the IDF who were there to fight for their very existence. The Palestinians openly state that they will annahilate every Jew, yet this NDP member ignores true genocide and for some reason has decided to go after Israelis.
So that begs the question who is funding her campaign? Often when there are issues you follow the money trail.
She says she has a great relationship with NDP leader Nenshi, who is also Ismaili Muslim, so is there some connection there as to her stance.
She is on what one media called a witchhunt, ignoring true genocide and following the Muslim Brotherhood funded propaganda that has been allowed to blossom on campuses and the streets of Canada where our flag was burned and “Death te Canada” and “Death to Jews” were called out.
She has been actively promoting her pro-Palestinian views as well!
Yet she wants to lead a Canadian political party?
Military experts who observed the Gazan war applauded the IDF for the low Gazan casualty rates with urban warfare usually seeing civilian casualties at rates of 9-1, in Gaza the levels were as low as 2-1, which was unheard of in urban warfare, They also acknowledged that during war, at no time has any military warned civilians to move because their building is going to be struck or allowed food and supplies to enter the area to feed the people.
This candidate lacks the truth in accuses IDF soldiers in Canada, fails to see the true perpetrators of genocide! Instead, she follows the well funded propaganda spread by terrorists, who were funded by Qatar, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood using groups who are active on campuses across North America, for one reason, to push Islam and degrade the West and their allies. At this time the US is moving to label some of those organizations as terrorist groups.
“The Muslim Brotherhood has declared war on the western values of secularism, freedom and democracy. The Islamic Revolution mobilized by the Mullahs in Iran in 1979 sought to wipe out the “Great Satan” (America) and the “Little Satan” (Israel). Instead, what we are seeing is a backlash by its own people rejecting their fundamentalist religious movement.”
The tide is turning on this move to wipe out Western values and even the people of Iran have had enough. Iran was a major funder of Hamas, who brutally kills Gazans who oppose their rule, and in the last 2 years have repeated allowed Gazans to die, to gain international support. Hamas is a terrorist organization.
So why has Heather McPherson decided to take this stance? Is it funding? Can she really not see the true perpetrators of genocide? Is she that easily blinded by the well funded propaganda machine we saw across North America? If so, is that a true leader?
Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer by Phyllis Bennis
The Question of Palestine by Edward W. Said
The End of the Peace Process by Edward W. Said
Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic by Ilan Pappe
A History of Modern Palestine: one land, two peoples by Ilan Pappe
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe
The Biggest Prison on Earth by Ilan Pappe
Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe
The “ten myths”–repeated endlessly in the media, enforced by the military, and accepted without question by the world’s governments–reinforce the regional status quo and include: *Palestine was an empty land at the time of the Balfour Declaration. *The Jews were a people without a land. *There is no difference between Zionism and Judaism. *Zionism is not a colonial project of occupation. *The Palestinians left their Homeland voluntarily in 1948. *The June 1967 War was a war of ‘No Choice’. *Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East. *The Oslo Mythologies. *The Gaza Mythologies. *The Two-State Solution.
https://echoesandreflections.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/011-02-07_StudentHandout_ABriefHistoryofIsrael.pdf
In the first century, when the Jewish civilization in Israel was already over 1,000 years old, Rome destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and conquered the Jewish nation. At this time, the Romans renamed the region “Palestine” and exiled a portion of the population. However, some Jews remained. For the two millennia after the Roman conquest, no other state or unique groups developed in the region. Instead, different empires and people came, colonized, ruled, and disappeared. Jews remained in Palestine during these changes. Throughout these 2,000 years, Jews, regardless of their current country of residence, continued to view a return to their ancient homeland as an essential part of their identify and a source of hope. Between 1517 and 1917, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. The region, initially prospered under the Ottomans, but during the Empire’s decline, it was reduced into a sparsely populated, impoverished, barren area. Meanwhile, the Zionist movement was emerging in Europe in the late nineteenth century, generated by increasing antisemitism and violence against Jews in Europe as well as the rising nationalism throughout the continent. The Zionists, whose goal was the return of the Jewish people to a sovereign state in the Land of Israel, fostered increased Jewish immigration to Palestine and sought international political recognition of the Jewish right to independence in Palestine. When the Ottoman Empire was defeated in World War I (1914–1918), its lands were ceded to the victorious Allies who carved the land into new nations, which included Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria.
Archaeological digs across the region continue to prove the Jewish people have existed in the land for thousands of years! There always was a remnant of the Jewish people in the area after repeated attempts to displace them or annihialate them! You can’t argue with tangible proof!
NOTE: The comment was against the NDP leadership candidate regarding her antiemitic stance, who involvement in supporting the pro-Palestinian movement, and attacking the Canadian Israeli community and the IDF for serving and supporting Israel! The accusations of IDF war crimes are unproven!
But more importantly, she ignores the atrocities, the vile, heinous inhumane attacks of October 7th! Hamas committed hundreds of acts of war crimes, if not thousands! No mention of that though!
The so-called ‘peaceful’ religion of Islam keeps showing that it is not really peaceful. Instead, it acts like a terrorist group that doesn’t care about its own people. For example, in Gaza, they take 70-80% of the food and supplies meant for the people, leaving them hungry. They also shoot people in the streets to create fear.
In Iran, when more than 30,000 Iranians were killed, the government brought in terrorists to harm their own citizens. This left over 300,000 people hurt and many others arrested, who might be killed just for protesting.
These are the people that those who support Palestinians back, the ones who harm their own citizens. You never see these supporters stand up for the Iranians who are being shot at in crowds!
It looks like we are calling good evil and evil good.
God will bring bad things to those who go against Israel and good things to those who support Israel.
My husband and I have served in Israel and the surrounding area, and those who back Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, which gives them money, are backing evil!
The groups from Qatar, Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas have tricked people in the West. Even the news from the Associated Press has been affected by this. The AP couldn’t cover Hamas unless they cleared their reports first, meaning Hamas had control over what got told. There were even members of Hamas on the teams of reporters for the AP.
Hamas was in charge of the Gaza Health Authority, which means the numbers of people hurt or killed were made to seem larger than they were!
When someone who is vying for a leadership position of a political party fails to seek the truth, but is easily swayed by propaganda, they do not deserve to lead!