Edmonton MP Heather McPherson enters NDP leadership race

Heather McPherson entered the NDP leadership race on Sunday afternoon, telling supporters that she intends to unite her party and lead them out of their worst federal election performance ever.

McPherson is the second major name to publicly announce they're running after former leader Jagmeet Singh resigned following the April election results. Joining her is activist and well-known journalist Avi Lewis, who launched his campaign a little over a week ago.

While McPherson may not have the same name recognition as Lewis, she assumes unofficial front runner status, as she is the only candidate who currently holds a seat in the House of Commons.

Rob Ashton is also among the leadership candidates listed on the Elections Canada website, and political activist Yves Engler announced he's planning on running as well.

The Edmonton-Strathcona MP chose to launch her campaign in her electoral district focusing on a new vision for a federal New Democratic Party that is a big political family.

CBC News obtained an early copy of her speech.

McPherson began the speech by speaking about her roots, including her stay-at-home mom and truck-driver dad and their "loud and chaotic" family dinners where no one was turned away.

To make a seat for everyone inside their home, she recalled how they would "take the doors off the hinges" and turn them into makeshift tables.

Inclusion was a running theme throughout McPherson's speech, which noted the current atmosphere of fractured communities and divisive politics.

McPherson said she is running to bring people together.

Though it didn't outline any new policy direction the party might take under her leadership, McPherson's speech reiterated her commitment to fight for fair wages that rise with the cost of living, as well as affordable housing, cutting grocery prices and public health care and education.

For years, McPherson has served as the NDP's foreign policy critic — a record she referred to in the speech — mentioning how she fought for justice in "Ukraine and Palestine." She said she'd taken on those and other battles "out of a belief in fairness," which she noted also meant "condemning genocide wherever we see it."

Former Alberta premier Rachel Notley was on hand to lend her support. 

"I have been in rooms with [Heather] where people were frustrated, they were divided and the issues were complex, and where the easy thing would have been to fake a phone call and duck out of the room," Notley said. 

"But she doesn't do that. She never does that. She listens. She rolls up her sleeves. She does the hard work.… And my friends, that is the kind of leadership that we need right now in our party and in our country."

McPherson alluded to Prime Minister Mark Carney in her speech, calling him "a conservative Prime Minister in a Liberal jersey."

But she name-checked Conservative leaders several times, including Alberta's premier and the federal Opposition leader.

"Danielle Smith, Pierre Poilievre and others across the political spectrum thrive on division. They turn politics into an us versus them, a rural versus urban, workers versus the environment," McPherson said.

"We don't grow by pushing people out. We grow by bringing people together."

Notley said the same, noting she thinks Smith is "playing political games with our national unity and our future."

"Like so many of the best NDP leaders before her, Heather speaks truth to power. She challenges the status quo and she challenges those ... who would have us believe the lie that Canada is somehow broken," Notley said.

"She knows that Canada is worth fighting for and she will never back down from that fight. So these things are why I know Heather will grow our movement. She will grow our party. She will build it. She'll connect with people across the country and remind Canadians who we are and what we will do."

McPherson also said the recent election should remind the NDP movement that it needs to do better, referring to candidates who were defeated in the last election, like former Edmonton MP Blake Desjarlais and Edmonton Centre candidate Trisha Estabrooks, saying they should be sitting in the House of Commons on the NDP benches.

"We need to change," she said. "Not what we believe but how we talk about it and who we talk to."

Early on in her speech, McPherson noted the party needs to be inspired again by the big ideas that drove successful NDP leaders like Tommy Douglas and Jack Layton, as opposed to "shrinking into some sort of purity test" and pushing people away.

"We need to stop pushing people away and we need to invite people in. We need to have more people at the table and we need to listen to them," she said, noting the key to building a winning campaign was in "communities, not in back rooms in Ottawa."

She called for "more resources for the grassroots," saying the party needs to "invest in our members and trust our base again."

McPherson ended the speech by saying an election "could come as early as this spring," and noted the party needs a leader who is ready to campaign and organize.