Federal NDP leadership hopeful Heather McPherson was in Prince Albert two days ago. (submitted)

By Susan McNeil

NDP leadership race

Federal NDP leadership candidate makes stop in northern Saskatchewan

Jan 8, 2026 | 3:33 PM

Heather McPherson was in Prince Albert recently as part of her campaign to take the spot left vacant by Jagmeet Singh as leader of the federal NDP.

During her recent travels, she said she found a lot of local support and heard some of the same concerns here that she hears elsewhere.

“We had a full room. It was packed and people had come out to speak to their neighbours, speak to fellow New Democrats, but also to meet one of the leadership candidates,” McPherson said.

McPherson, who sits in the riding of Edmonton – Strathcona, is one of five candidates running to lead the party. She is running against labour union leader Robert Tyler Earle Ashton, journalist Avi Lewis, Tanille Johnston and Tony McQuail.

She said she will likely be the only one to stop in Prince Albert.

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“I talked a little about my vision for rebuilding the party, my vision for what a strong New Democratic Party looks like,” she said.

“I talked about, you know, the way we used a model in Alberta to get me elected and to make my seat in Edmonton the safest NDP seat in the country, and that’s a model I want to replicate in other parts of Canada, particularly in Saskatchewan.”

She said that NDP voters, many of whom voted Liberal in the election, are not particularly happy with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governance.

“Mark Carney and the Liberals promised a different sort of government than they’ve delivered,” she said.

“I know in Prince Albert, that is a huge problem when we look at the correctional facilities that are in the region, that are such a huge employer and look at other sectors where people are not able to access the services they need.”

Connected to that is worker rights, with the NDP voicing concerns over the frequency of governments using legislation to force striking workers into settlements or back to work, rather than reaching agreements at the negotiating table.

McPherson is proud of her party’s ability to influence things such as the start of the federal dental care program. Last year, she said, six million Canadians were able to see dentists when they could not do so before because of affordability.

“That expansion of our healthcare system, that’s what Canadians want. That’s what Canadians need, not the shrinking down that we see with Conservative premiers like Scott Moe.”

McPherson said that another point of discussion was the creep of privatized health care. The Alberta government has introduced a bill that would create a two-tiered health care system, and in Saskatchewan, Moe has discussed doing something similar, she said.

McPherson called for stronger NDP representation in the House of Commons. In the May election, the party went from 24 seats to seven.

“So I think there is a real need for a strong New Democratic Party. There’s a real need for us to be back in the House of Commons pushing the government, holding them accountable, making sure that they’re doing the things that they promised to Canadians,” she said.

While she acknowledges a few steps need to happen before she’d represent Canada on the international stage, she did say events south of the Canadian border are concerning.

“Listen, the threat of Donald Trump is existential for our country, of course it is. For a long time, we have not invested in our own industry, in our own manufacturing,” she said. “Building things in Canada for Canadians….we saw that during COVID when we weren’t able to make our own vaccines anymore.”

While she likes the idea of Carney’s focus on nation-building projects, the NDP would make sure that those projects created jobs for Canadians and would not limit them to the natural resource industry or roads.

“Some of the big projects that we should be working on are things like our hospitals and our health care centres. That’s a nation-building project,” she said.

Externally, she agrees with Carney’s actions in developing stronger trade with countries other than the United States.

“We’ve got to be able to sell our products overseas, and if it’s not going to be with the U.S. because that trade relationship has fundamentally changed, then we have to find other partners.”

McPherson has been the foreign affairs critic for the NDP for the last six years and has gone to the Ukraine and the West Bank.

She hopes to see locals buy memberships to the party; the deadline is the end of the month and voting for the federal NDP leadership takes place in March. McPherson knows, however, in Saskatchewan she’ll have her work cut out for her. While the NDP is the official opposition provincially, federally, the party does not hold a seat in Saskatchewan.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social