Why party supporters think Marit Stiles, the NDP’s new leader, can take down Doug Ford

From a small family farm on the East Coast where goats ran around the living room to a fashionable house in the Annex, incoming NDP leader Marit Stiles has lived in very different worlds.

And while her Newfoundland lilt may have faded, the lessons of her bucolic youth have not.

I learned about hard work and responsibility - everyone plays a role and has a responsibility no matter how small you are," she told the Star. And you can't live in Newfoundland without knowing both the power and fragility of nature. Fishermen, farmers, hunters - anyone who lives and relies so closely on the land and the sea knows we can never take it for granted."

As Stiles took the helm of the Ontario NDP on Saturday, she also became leader of the Official Opposition and potentially the next premier of the province in 2026 - but only if she can widen the appeal of a party that lost ground in the last election under former leader Andrea Horwath.

Supporters say her appeal and leadership style will move the party forward and bring in new interest - and party insiders consider her their best shot. But her detractors will accuse her of being a downtown Toronto elite and leader of a perennial opposition party that has been unwilling to make any meaningful change.

As Premier Ford demonstrated when he recently stood with (now Hamilton) Mayor Horwath to welcome new investments and jobs in Hamilton, he's willing and able to work with anyone of any political stripe to get things done for the people of Ontario," said Ford spokesperson Caitlin Clark.

In the same spirit of collaboration, we sincerely hope that Ms. Stiles puts aside her blind ideology and turns the page on her long history of saying no' to work with us as we continue to build Ontario."

A veteran Queen's Park observer said that because Stiles was the lone candidate for the top NDP job, there was no debate, there was no discussion of any ideas. It's going to be tough for the party to go outside of what they already have, and how they are structured, it's very hard - this is where we stand, this is it - take it or leave it.'"

And unlike Horwath who stepped down as leader after 13 years, Stiles is not known. That is going to make it very hard."

Stiles has already begun a tour of the province to boost her profile and talk to supporters.

In a recent interview in the dining room of her three-storey home in downtown Toronto, and as Stevie Licks and Hobbes, the family's two rescue dogs scurried under foot, Stiles first spoke of her past - born and raised in Long Pond and Logy Bay (near St. John's), in a modest house on a property where her parents kept a small organic farm, growing vegetables and raising goats, chickens, geese, rabbits and pigs.

On the table was a pile of photos she'd dug up for her father's upcoming 80th birthday celebrations. One black-and-white shot shows a four-year-old Stiles, crouched and hugging one goat with another alongside her - in the living room.

My parents were very worried about the baby goats being too cold in the barn with their mother, which they then realized was absolutely ridiculous," she said, laughing. We literally had goats in the house for a few nights."

But that family farm gave Stiles and her younger sister Enid - now an accomplished veterinarian who runs her own clinic outside of Montreal - an appreciation for animal welfare, and for the environment. Her childhood also gave her a front-row seat to devastating loss as fishery resources dwindled on the East Coast and families were left impoverished - although she also witnessed their resilience.

To Stiles's family, those early life experiences gave her exposure to issues that resonate today.

I wouldn't say we were a political family, but we would have interesting conversations," said Enid. Our father is a social anthropologist, so social equity and anything that surrounds the aspect of justice and community and diversity and inclusiveness was always brought up at the table - by my mother as well, especially on the environmental side of things."

Geoff Stiles, an anthropology professor at Memorial University who later became a consultant in energy conservation in both Canada and Africa, and Kathy Stiles, who worked as an environmental educator and program manager, moved to Canada in 1967 from Pennsylvania. They said that U.S. politics and the tumult of the day - the fight for civil rights, opposition to the Vietnam War - were fodder for dinnertime discussions, along with local issues.

They recall their daughter as determined, pointing to how, at age six, she pushed herself to learn to read newspapers when the family spent some time in Scotland, where students were much further ahead, and later was a competitive synchronized swimmer on the Newfoundland team.

Her parents had turned to family friends to help them name their first-born in 1969, after they were stumped on girls' names.

They were convinced I was going to be a boy, and they were going to call me Colin," said Stiles. Their best buddies at the time were a Norwegian couple and they asked them for good Norwegian names, and they said, Oh yes, Marit.'

So that's how my name came about - which is the bane of my existence. Even though it doesn't seem like it, it's a hard one to figure out how to pronounce, but also because the next thing people say is, Is it Norwegian? Oh you're Norwegian?' No, no. It's just hilarious, but at least I didn't get Rainbow,' which was a big thing with some of our friends at the time."

(Marit is pronounced mar-it, like car, and not merit," although mispronunciations no longer faze her. Her parents affectionately call her Smurfette.)

The family moved to Africa when Stiles was 17, but she stayed alone in Newfoundland to attend university - a decision her sister thought brave, considering her age - later switching from Memorial to Carleton in Ottawa.

In those days, we didn't have cheap long distance calls or emails or FaceTime or anything like that," said Stiles, so I was very much on the other side of the world for my family for many years," with her parents only returning in 2010.

While at Carleton - where she studied political science - she ran into a childhood friend, Jordan Berger, who handed her an NDP pamphlet. They later began dating, and have been partners for almost 35 years, raising two daughters who are now in university.

Jordan was the one who really got me interested in the NDP, and the first time I ever canvassed with him was in the 1990 election, for Evelyn Gigantes" in Ottawa Centre, she said.

Berger said the two attended French immersion and were in the same circle friends in Newfoundland, although he was a year ahead.

Their first date was an anti-apartheid concert on campus.

I was an NDP warrior on campus, and our main weapon was a pamphlet - we handed out thousands," he said. I remember Marit letting us use her residence room to store our leaflets.

It was pretty clear that we had a shared interest in politics and progressive activism so in a way, the party brought us together 35 years ago," he said. We've remained loyal to the NDP, and to each other, ever since."

After travelling abroad separately, the two ended up in Toronto, landing jobs with Ontario's NDP government in the early 1990s.

Stiles also travelled a lot as a staffer, and said she started to think all these things that I've been interested in for so many years that are international, but there's all this happening in our own backyard."

She later worked at Canadian Policy Research Networks as a researcher for the NDP, then at performers' union ACTRA, while she and Jordan raised their two girls. She worked with the federal NDP riding association in Davenport to help elect Andrew Cash, and in 2014 ran for trustee with the Toronto District School Board.

She also served as president of the federal NDP, taking over just as Thomas Mulcair was turfed as leader.

Stiles has now won two back-to-back provincial elections - with the help of her partner and parents, who made signs, helped with child care and even provided policy suggestions - and served as the highly visible education critic up until her leadership bid.

Unlike her sometimes abrasive predecessor as leader, it is hard to find anyone with a bad word to say about her.

Well, she's excellent at the door," said former ACTRA president Ferne Downey, who worked with Stiles and later canvassed for her. I mean, that's what she and Jordan do for date nights. They go out and knock on doors.

She's a natural - you get the thrill of her right away. People have a phenomenally positive reaction to her. She's smart, she's positive, she has a great sense of humour."

Toronto Centre MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam said Stiles was constantly in touch during last spring's election campaign and was actually on the ground with me in my community on the day of my campaign launch, even though she had a meeting to attend - a very important meeting for her own community. She still made time - she actually ended up having to do a meeting call in our campaign office while we were still at the launch party, because she didn't want to miss being with me and my community."

While the lack of a leadership race has caused concern for the party - no one rallied," lamented one insider - Stiles provided some levity to the caucus while being welcomed as the incoming leader at Queen's Park last December. As she thanked interim leader Peter Tabuns for helping us keep this ship moving forward," everyone started laughing - she did, too - because it sounded like she'd said keep this s-t moving forward."

And that she will have to do. Although the NDP won 31 seats in 2022 compared to the Liberals' eight, Elections Ontario figures show Grits garnered a 23.9 per cent share of the popular vote to the NDP's 23.7, while the Tories hit almost 41 per cent and increased their majority to 83 seats.

With Stiles as leader, hopes are high for a fresh start. While there is pressure to move the party closer to the centre, where the votes are, Stiles signalled that isn't her intention.

I really do think that people are coming to us," she said. If you look at where the Liberals have actually succeeded in winning, federally for example, it's because they have adopted a lot of things that we have been fighting for for years ... Hopefully people are going to see my energy and leadership as an opportunity to come together to do something different in this province."

The key will be to listen - especially to those voters the NDP lost or didn't inspire enough to get out to vote last time around - surround herself with strong staff, and focus on a couple of winnable issues such as the Greenbelt and health care, one NDP insider said.

If that's something she could develop a genuine and consistent message around and really build bridges ... and paint a vision of a future, there's a huge opportunity there to make inroads," the insider said. I have a real strong sense there's a deep unease right now."

Berger - whose pandemic project was to construct a wooden little library" out front of their home that offers books and sometimes non-perishable foods - said he's part of Stiles's support group" now that she has a bigger team around her.

I mean, I'm a New Democrat, but I'm also her partner," he said. We have a shared history together, but we also have a shared passion for a progressive government, progressive politics and she's always been focused on getting things done, as opposed to just standing on a soapbox."

Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy