By David Baxter Three of the five NDP leadership candidates had their first face-to-face encounter, which serves as a preview for next month’s French debate. Rob Ashton, Avi Lewis and Heather McPherson took part in a forum at the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation gala in Ottawa, while Tanille Johnston and Tony McQuail were not able to attend. The three contenders saw degrees of agreement on issues like the need to speak more plainly about issues and put greater emphasis on riding associations. Some differences are emerging: Lewis said that Canada cannot expand fossil fuel production and that the party has not been straightforward enough in communicating energy policy. “Thomas Mulcair supported the pipeline. Jagmeet (Singh) sent a lot of mixed messages on pipelines, and I think that hurt us,” Lewis…
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