Nationalizing Groceries and Drilling the North Sea

The federal NDP just elected a documentary filmmaker on a platform of nationalizing groceries, telecoms, and home construction — and the provincial NDP leaders started running for the exits within minutes.

This week on Craft Politics, Joseph Lavoie and Andrew Percy break down Avi Lewis's first-ballot win, then cross the Atlantic to a North Sea oil row that's putting Keir Starmer in an impossible position.

We discuss:
- Avi Lewis on the first ballot — Leap Manifesto co-creator, a nationalize-everything platform, and 56% of the vote. Joseph and Andrew can't agree on whether this is a brilliant move or a spectacular miscalculation
- The Corbyn parallel — the part of the 2017-to-2019 story people forget is that Corbyn nearly won before he got crushed, and the question nobody can answer yet about whether there's a market for left-populism in Canada
- "Go get your own oil" — Trump singling out the UK by name, Hegseth mocking the Royal Navy, and Ed Miliband's North Sea exploration ban running into a question Reform and the Conservatives can ask in five words: why won't you let us use our own?
- What Europe and Canada left on the table — Andrew on Western allies spending more energy punching Trump than engaging the chance to confront Iran, and the bill that's now landing at the pump

00:00 Welcome
00:42 Avi Lewis wins NDP leadership on first ballot
02:29 The radical policy platform — nationalizing groceries and beyond
03:50 Brilliant move or epic mistake? The strategic gamble
05:03 The Jeremy Corbyn comparison — hard left populism's track record
10:17 Provincial NDP leaders immediately distance themselves
13:14 The metropolitan progressive strategy — who is Lewis targeting?
14:52 The seat problem and debt crisis facing the new leader
16:27 Does Carney's big lead actually help the NDP?
19:24 Get your own oil — Trump's message to Europe on Iran
19:40 The North Sea drilling debate — Ed Miliband vs energy reality
23:44 Political power trumps facts — why North Sea oil matters electorally
26:58 The Iran opportunity — why didn't Europe join the fight?
29:48 Europe's diplomatic failure — poking the bear unnecessarily
33:30 The breakdown of the Western alliance — everyone's lost their heads
35:20 Wrap and preview of Iran coverage to come