(LifeSiteNews) — The New Democratic Party’s March 27-29 convention in Winnipeg came at a historic low point for the once-proud standard-bearer of Canadian progressivism — a mere six MPs in the House of Commons, a whopping $13 million in debt, and rock-bottom polling numbers. Members hoped to both elect a leader and draw the eyes of the country to their party. And, boy, did they ever.

Video after video coming out of the NDP convention went viral not just in Canada but internationally as members came up to the microphones to speak, waving official “equity cards” that marked their status as members of “equity-seeking groups,” which according to the party are “racialized members,” indigenous members, “2SLGBTQ+ community” members, people with disabilities, and women/”non-cis men.”

Each member that matched one of these categories received a color-coded card at registration that allowed them to be prioritized at the mics during debates. Some members, of course, had overlapping identities and thus had more than one card, and this led to squabbling and rebukes in an SNL-style Oppression Olympics.

The convention was chaired by Adrienne Smith, a Vancouver activist and lawyer who identifies as “non-binary” and at one point rebuked a keffiyeh-wearing speaker who referred to Smith as “madame” for “misgendering”:

HAPPENING NOW: More from the 2026 NDP leadership convention. A young woman wearing an oversized keffiyeh makes an impassioned speech against involvement in the Iran conflict, but is quickly rebuked and reprimanded for misgendering the chair who self-identifies as “non-binary.” pic.twitter.com/TEl4RhKg20

— Alex Zoltan (@AmazingZoltan) March 29, 2026

“I’ll again thank delegates not to call me madame chair. I’m a non-binary person, my pronouns are they/them, and ‘chair’ is sufficient,” Smith said sourly to immediate applause from the audience. That might seem funny until you recall that Smith successfully procured a $30,000 payout at the BC Human Rights Tribunal for a restaurant employee who was fired after insisting on “they/them” pronouns.

In fact, after videos of Smith at the NDP convention went viral, Billboard Chris posted a video of the activists claiming that “transphobia is a pattern of negative conduct towards trans people that begins with misgendering and can end with violence and murder”:

The NDP Convention Chair who became famous this weekend after complaining about being misgendered is lucky to be alive.

She says “transphobia is a pattern of negative conduct towards trans people that begins with misgendering and can end with violence and murder.” pic.twitter.com/5JOEe12rkK

— Billboard Chris 🌎 (@BillboardChris) March 30, 2026

The convention got more farcical as it went on. Here, for example, is an NDP “transgender” delegate complaining that a “cis woman” go to speak before he did, when his “equity card” should have given him precedence — it truly has to be seen to be believed:

HAPPENING NOW: Thus ends Day One of the 2026 NDP leadership election convention. The party delegates’ primary concern — up to the very last speaker — remained the “equity cards.” I am excited to see what modifications are made to the system and how this unfolds on Day Two. pic.twitter.com/J1AnkMud92

— Alex Zoltan (@AmazingZoltan) March 29, 2026

But there’s more:

HAPPENING NOW: There’s surprising amount of disagreement and intellectual diversity at the 2026 NDP leadership convention, but one matter everyone seems to agree on is that they hate the “equity cards.” pic.twitter.com/BL6yMqFksx

— Alex Zoltan (@AmazingZoltan) March 29, 2026

That’s not even to mention leadership candidate Rob Ashton screaming “eat the d**n rich!” and a half-dozen other truly wild speeches. The NDP convention was like a far-left student union on one of Canada’s worst campuses that identifies as a serious political party.

Hilariously, after all of the equity-card waving, pronoun-ing, “points of personal privilege,” socialism, and intersectional speech-making, the NDP still elected as their leader the most privileged establishment guy the party could get its hands on: Avi Lewis, a member of a prominent Canadian political family whose grandfather David Lewis was leader of the federal NDP from 1971 to 1975 and whose father Stephen was Ontario NDP leader from 1970 to 1978 and then Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988.

Watching the video clips coming out of the convention, however, I found myself thinking that it all seems amusing until you consider that these are the kinds of people who take themselves so seriously that they are willing to imprison their opponents for speech and do terrible things while absolutely believing that they are in the right. This kind of fanaticism is only funny until the people who hold it are in charge — then they are the sort who happily send people off to re-education camps.

For now, the NDP is still the fringe, and their convention videos gave millions of people a chuckle or two. With polling that bad, not even a third generation “NDP royalty” can make them electorally viable. But there are plenty of people in places of power and influence in Canada who think just like the folks in those videos — on school boards, university administrations, human rights tribunals, and yes, the Liberal government and certainly the Senate. That explains precisely why Canada has become an experiment in wokeness — and it is no laughing matter.