NDP hopeful Rob Ashton wants to be the guy you'd get a beer — or a cup of tea — with
OTTAWA — British Columbia union leader Rob Ashton says he’s happy to take NDP icon Jack Layton’s mantle of the guy you’d have a beer with, but there’s one important caveat.
“It doesn’t have to be over a beer because we have a lot of people in this country who are in recovery and can’t do alcohol. I’m happy to meet anyone over a coffee, too — I kind of like tea myself,” said Ashton in an interview with the National Post.
Ashton, a burly career dock worker who heads up the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada, said that genuine one-on-one conversations will be key to rebuilding the NDP from the ground up, after the party had its worst result ever in April’s federal election.
“We’ve forgotten how to communicate with workers, for whatever reason, and that’s something we’ll have to re-learn,” said Ashton.
The NDP bled seats in blue-collar strongholds like Hamilton and Windsor, Ont., retaining just seven MPs, five short of the number needed for official party status.
Ashton became the third official candidate to enter the NDP leadership race on Wednesday, joining filmmaker Avi Lewis and Edmonton MP Heather McPherson.
He said in a short launch video that he wanted to make the NDP a workers’ party again.
“I’m running because I want our party to get back to its roots, putting regular working Canadians first,” says Ashton, speaking from a dock in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.
Ashton told the National Post that he hoped his blue-collar bona fides would make up for his lack of name recognition relative to the other two contenders.
“The difference between me and the other candidates is I’ve been a longshoreman for 30 years (and) I’ve represented workers for the last 20 years,” said Ashton.
He added that the first step to reconnecting with workers will be to stop talking down to them.
“Look, every industry has its type of language, whether it’s, let’s call it colourful language or parliamentary language, and I don’t think you fault workers for speaking a way in which they were brought up in their workplace,” said Ashton.
I was honoured to have Marty Warren, the National Director for Canada, from @SteelworkersCA with me at our campaign launch.This campaign is about bringing @NDP back to its labour roots and putting working people at the centre of our politics. But we can’t do it without you.… pic.twitter.com/ixQ6HLE5Lw
— Rob Ashton (@Rob_T_E_Ashton) October 2, 2025
Even so, Ashton says he rejects the notion that there’s any inherent tension between plain language and inclusive language, pointing to the media’s recent fixation on the use of the term “cis man” in the NDP’s leadership rules .
“I’ve had this exact conversation with people, about the ‘cis man’ thing, and I’ve never had any trouble getting the concept across: ‘cis man’ means you were born with a penis and identify as a male. That’s it,” said Ashton.
He added that he announces his pronouns when he speaks at conferences because “everybody should feel welcome in the house of labour.”
Ashton conceded that conservatives like Ontario Premier Doug Ford and U.S. President Donald Trump have eaten into the left’s traditional blue-collar base in recent years, but said it would be a mistake for the NDP to follow the populist right’s lead into performative “anti-woke” politics.
“(Conservatives) rule on fear, and they rule on the unknown … They say, because that person doesn’t look like you, they’re stealing your jobs, and I’m going to make it better when I get elected. But when you actually look at what happens when they get into power, they don’t make anything better,” said Ashton.
“Division is the weapon of the boss, and any division always creates chaos and havoc within the working class,” he added.
Former NDP strategist Erin Morrison, now a vice-president at Texture Communications , said that Ashton’s everyman appeal could be a huge asset for him in what’s shaping up to be a wide-open race.
”Authenticity matters. Feeling like the person who is speaking is telling you the truth about who they are, where they come from, and what they are going to do for you is very important in politics. You want to feel like the person who is speaking understands what you’re going through,” said Morrison.
Ashton will make his debut on the national stage at the NDP’s first leadership candidate forum, set for later this month.
National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com
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