Former New Democrat MP Charlie Angus didn’t hold back in his assessment of the NDP’s performance in the last federal election, calling the April 28 result an “unmitigated disaster” and blaming the party’s focus on leader-centric campaigning and social media popularity over grassroots engagement.
Speaking at a press conference on Parliament Hill on Wednesday, Angus said the NDP veered away from its traditional identity and lost touch with its base. “People feel that the party lost touch by becoming very much a leader-focused group as opposed to the New Democratic Party of Canada,” Angus said. “We have to be a democratic party from the grassroots. We have to re-engage with people. We lost touch and we have to be honest about that.”
The party suffered its worst-ever defeat, securing just seven seats and losing official party status. Leader Jagmeet Singh was among those defeated, failing to hold his British Columbia seat. Angus, who chose not to run again after representing the northern Ontario riding of Timmins—James Bay since 2004, said he had not spoken with Singh since the election.
Angus believes the NDP must reconnect with its roots by ditching its reliance on digital tools and virtual meetings, and instead rebuild through face-to-face community engagement—what he calls a return to “bean dinner politics.”
“We became a party very focused on TikTok likes. I’m sure that helps, but TikTok didn’t get us elected,” he said. “We became focused on data. Data is very important. But to be a social democratic movement, you need to go back to reinvigorating the riding associations.”
Interim NDP Leader Don Davies offered a more cautious take. While acknowledging the electoral blow, he said he does not believe the party lost touch with its supporters. Davies emphasized the need for a broad, grassroots review of what went wrong and how to rebuild, saying, “The key thing is to engage in a really authentic visioning process with our membership… to chart a better path forward.”
Though Angus was critical of the party’s direction, he clarified he has no intention of running for the leadership.
At the same press conference, Angus shifted his attention to the upcoming G7 summit in Alberta and issued strong warnings about U.S. President Donald Trump’s looming visit. Angus referred to Trump as a “gangster president” and accused his administration of embodying “full-on police state tyranny.”
He was especially critical of Trump’s recent decision to deploy National Guard troops to Los Angeles without the California governor’s consent in response to protests against immigration raids, calling the move “authoritarian” and a threat to Canadian democracy.
“This is not creeping fascism,” Angus said. “This is the real thing.”
With the NDP facing internal reckoning and international tensions rising ahead of the G7, Angus’s comments underscored both domestic frustrations and broader geopolitical anxieties.