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Something deeply revealing is happening inside the NDP this week.

On one side, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is trying to convince Albertans that his party has "long advocated" for a Western pipeline and welcomes progress on getting Alberta's energy to market.

Alberta’s NDP has long advocated for a southern pipeline to safely deliver our products to market. We are glad to see progress on the southern line.

Canada works best when we collaborate with our provincial and federal partners to get the work done.

Read my full statement:…

— Naheed Nenshi (@nenshi) July 3, 2026

On the other side, federal NDP leader Avi Lewis is calling that very same project "nation burning."

This pipeline isn’t nation building.

It’s nation burning.

— Avi Lewis (@avilewis) July 3, 2026

Not nation-building. Nation burning.

Lewis says Canada's New Democrats "unequivocally oppose this pipeline project." He says it belongs in the courts, claims it violates Indigenous consultation, threatens endangered species, accelerates climate change and exists only to enrich oil company CEOs. Instead, he wants billions poured into heat pumps, green subsidies and a government-directed renewable economy.

L’annonce d’aujourd’hui montre ce que ce gouvernement fédéral protégera par-dessus tout : les profits des grandes compagnies pétrolières.

Alors que nous commémorons le cinquième anniversaire de la vague de chaleur qui a coûté la vie à 619 personnes en Colombie-Britannique – et…

— Avi Lewis (@avilewis) July 3, 2026

So which is it?

Is the pipeline good for Alberta, as Nenshi now claims?

Or is it a climate disaster that should never be built, as Avi Lewis insists?

The NDP can't seem to keep its story straight.

And here's why that matters.

The Alberta NDP likes to pretend it's completely separate from the federal NDP whenever the national party says something unpopular in Alberta. But the NDP's own constitution tells a different story. Provincial parties are constituent sections of the national party, sharing a common organization and constitutional framework. They're not two unrelated parties that happen to share the same name.

That makes this contradiction impossible to ignore.

If Avi Lewis is speaking for Canada's New Democrats, why is Naheed Nenshi saying the opposite?

Or perhaps the better question is this:

Nenshi, why haven't you called your leader?

If Alberta's NDP truly supports pipelines, tell Avi Lewis to stop trying to kill them.

Tell him Alberta's economy depends on responsible resource development.

Tell him the people who build pipelines aren't villains.

Tell him Alberta workers deserve better than being portrayed as climate criminals.

But he won't.

The Alberta NDP has spent years filled with activists who marched against pipelines, opposed oil sands development and attended protests designed to stop Alberta's energy industry. Many of the party's organizers, candidates and supporters built their political reputations in the anti-oil movement. Now they're asking Albertans to believe they've suddenly become champions of pipelines.

And let's not pretend this skepticism came out of nowhere. Albertans have long memories. They remember former Alberta NDP MLA David Eggen leading chants of "No new approvals!" at an anti-pipeline rally. They remember former NDP MLA Robin Luff protesting Alberta's "dirty oil" at an anti-Keystone XL demonstration. They remember NDP leader Rachel Notley standing alongside Greenpeace and the Sierra Club at climate rallies where protesters carried signs reading, "No Tarsands. No Tankers. No Pipelines. No Problem."

They remember NDP MLA Shannon Phillips co-authoring a book with Greenpeace activist Mike Hudema on using protest as a political tool, later appearing at demonstrations against the Northern Gateway pipeline and intervening before the National Energy Board in opposition to the project. And just before becoming premier, Notley herself acknowledged she had opposed both Northern Gateway and Keystone XL.

That's why Naheed Nenshi's sudden pipeline conversion is such a difficult sell. The Alberta NDP didn't develop its reputation by championing pipelines. It earned it through years of association with politicians and activists who opposed major oil and gas projects. So when the federal NDP leader calls a new pipeline "nation burning" while the Alberta NDP claims it has always supported pipelines, Albertans are entitled to wonder which version they're supposed to believe.

Albertans have watched too many years of mixed messages. The federal party campaigns against pipelines while the provincial party claims to support them. One audience gets fake pragmatism. The other gets climate absolutism.

It's political shape-shifting. One might even say misleading.

That's exactly why we launched AviLewis.com.

We'll document Avi Lewis's own words, speeches, interviews, social media posts and policy positions so Albertans can judge for themselves whether the Alberta NDP's election messaging bears any resemblance to the ideology of the federal party it belongs to.

Because if Naheed Nenshi wants Albertans to believe his party supports pipelines, he has one simple assignment: Call your leader.

Until he does — and we know he won't — Albertans have every reason to believe the Alberta NDP says one thing at home and something entirely different once the microphones are pointed east.