Joe Byrne has stepped down as leader of the New Democratic Party of P.E.I.
In an interview Wednesday, Byrne expressed a “sense of thankfulness” for his time working with members of the party and candidates.
His resignation comes at a time when the party is polling at four per cent popular support, based on recent polling from Narrative Research.
However, with rising public interest in racial inequality, spurred on by recent Black Lives Matter and Indigenous Lives Matter protests in P.E.I., Byrne believes that a change in leadership could be an opportunity for the left-leaning party.
"Politically speaking, we need a change in what leadership of a political party looks like,” Byrne told the Guardian. “It's a good time to bring in women, people of colour, Indigenous people. That's an opportunity for the party.”
Byrne became leader of the party in 2018 in the midst of near-constant rumours of an election call by then-Liberal Premier Wade MacLauchlan. He adopted a political tone that resembled that of left populist leaders elsewhere, such as Bernie Sanders in the United States and then-U.K. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Byrne led party members in chants of “for the many, not the few” during his nomination meeting as candidate for Charlottetown-Victoria Park during the summer of 2018. The slogan was a mainstay of the Corbyn Labour Party at the time.
But faced with the rising popularity of the P.E.I. Green party during the 2019 provincial election, the P.E.I. NDP failed to win a seat. The party gained three per cent of the popular vote. NDP candidate Herb Dickieson came the closest in O’Leary-Inverness but was bested by Liberal MLA Robert Henderson by 204 votes.
Today, Byrne still believes there is an important place for the NDP in P.E.I.’s political landscape. He said the party can play a role in advocating for a greener, less carbon intensive economy.
He also said the party can continue to advocate for electoral reform and for changes that would reduce the concentration of farmland into fewer hands.
"There's a sense that a few people that have enough wealth and are well-connected can do well. But the (res)] of us that aren't, it's a struggle,” Byrne said. “In a country as rich as Canada, in a province as rich as P.E.I., nobody should be left out."
Byrne said he would not rule out running as a candidate for the party in the future.
The party’s constitution allows for a period of time without either an interim leader or a leader. NDP P.E.I. president Jason Alward will act as a party spokesperson until the P.E.I. NDP executive and council meet on Sept. 13.
