'The Engler bus is coming': Activist vows to fight on after getting rejected from NDP leadership race

OTTAWA — Activist Yves Engler says he has no plans to step aside after the NDP rejected his bid to join the party’s ongoing leadership race.

“We’re not stopping, we’re demanding the (NDP’s) federal council overturn this,” Engler said on Wednesday.

The party told Engler on Nov. 25 that his application to stand as an NDP leadership candidate was rejected, a ruling he made public in a lengthy social media post on Tuesday evening.

A Dec. 3 follow-up email viewed by National Post outlined several “relevant factors” leading to the rejection, including “credible evidence of harassment, intimidation, and physical confrontation.” The email includes a link to an April 2023 clip of Engler ambushing then-NDP leader Jagmeet Singh over his comments on alleged Chinese election interference .

Engler, a self-described “agitator” , is known to shout questions at politicians in public, regularly posting footage from these confrontations to social media.

One clip, uploaded by Engler on Apr. 4 , shows him following visibly shaken Liberal MP Anna Gainey to her car. A nearby security guard tells Engler, “that’s enough!” in the final seconds.

Engler dismissed Gainey’s distress as “manufactured Zio(nist) tears” in the accompanying caption.

The email didn’t directly mention Engler’s ongoing criminal trial involving the alleged harassment of a detective investigating a prior claim against him.

Other factors cited in the decision were Engler’s “promotion of authoritarian and anti-democratic narratives,” “comments consistent with anti-Semitic attitudes” and “unclear commitment to the NDP.”

Engler’s lawyer, Dimitri Lascaris, sent the party a point-by-point rebuttal of these claims in a lengthy Dec. 3 letter shared with National Post, but was unable to get the decision reversed. A final rejection note was sent on Monday evening.

Engler said the NDP’s federal council can still overturn the decision with a two-thirds vote.

“It’s obviously a long shot,” said Engler.

In the meantime, he said he’ll be hitting the road for a cross-city tour “challenging (the party’s) lack of democracy and putting forward new ideas.”

Engler said he plans to do 20 speaking events across the country, starting in January, and hopes to charter a bus to the NDP’s late-March convention in Winnipeg.

“The Engler bus is coming!” he joked in reference to Vengaboys’ 1998 Eurodance hit We Like to Party .

Engler said he has a sizeable war chest after raising more than $100,000 in campaign donations, estimating he has about $70,000 cash-on-hand.

He added that he offered to refund donations after National Post reported in October that contributions to his unauthorized campaign were non-tax deductible, as indicated on his website , but says this has been a “moot point.”

“One single person contacted us asking for their $50 donation back, and then we explained the situation to them and they were fine with it,” said Engler.

He added that he’s already seen a groundswell of support since word of his disqualification broke, including from people who don’t plan to vote for him.

Engler shared a public letter asking for the NDP to reconsider the decision co-signed by two dozen Jewish Canadians, including David Mivasair, an activist rabbi affiliated with anti-Israel group Independent Jewish Voices and brothers Aaron and Daniel Maté, sons of physician and writer Gabor Maté.

Inquiries to each of the five approved NDP leadership candidates went unanswered by press time.

One, Edmonton MP Heather McPherson, told National Post in October that she wouldn’t stand in the way of Engler’s candidacy.

The other contenders are filmmaker Avi Lewis, union leader Rob Ashton, Vancouver Island city councillor Tanille Johnston and organic farmer Tony McQuail. Nominations are open until the end of January.

The next major event on the leadership campaign calendar is February’s English debate in the Vancouver area, which is coincidentally where Engler grew up.

National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com

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