Avi Lewis Takes Over NDP But He Will Be Nothing Like His Father & Grandfather

 

This morning, Avi Lewis was announced as the new leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP).

Lewis succeeds Jagmeet Singh who resigned nearly a year ago after losing his seat in the 2025 Canadian election. He won 56% of the vote on the first ballot nearly doubling the total of his closest rival Heather McPherson who is one of only 6 current NDP Members of Parliament. Last month, Lori Idlout crossed the floor to join Mark Carney's Liberals who may soon have a majority government. 

Lewis is part of the first family of Canadian socialism. His grandfather David led the NDP from 1971 to 1975 while his father Stephen led the Ontario NDP from 1970 to 1978. Between 1972 and 1974, David Lewis led NDP held the balance of power keeping Pierre Trudeau's Liberals afloat. Between 1975 and 1977, Stephen Lewis was the leader of the Official Opposition against the Progressive Conservative dynasty led by Bill Davis. It was the closest the NDP would come to power until winning the 1990 Ontario election under Bob Rae.

Somehow, I don't think Avi Lewis will be anything like his father or grandfather.

However, before I go any further, some disclosure. When I was active with the Ontario NDP about 30 years ago, I was acquainted with Michael Lewis (Avi's uncle) who was working with the United Steelworkers of America. On one occasion, he was nice enough to invite me out for lunch.

When I say Avi Lewis won't be anything like his father and grandfather, I mean that he lacks pragmatism. When his father and grandfather sought their respective party leaderships, they had to deal with the Waffle Movement which wanted to nationalize all industry and were essentially a party within a party. Both father and son purged the Waffle from the NDP. 

Fast forward to a decade ago, the NDP was faced with the Leap Manifesto, essentially a modern-day version of the Waffle. Unlike his father and grandfather, Avi Lewis was a key figure with the Leap Manifesto along his wife author Naomi Klein.

One of the key platforms of the Leap Manifesto is for Canada to have 100% clean energy by 2050. Needless to say, Lewis' ascension to the NDP leadership has been met with a less than enthusiastic response by the Alberta NDP and Saskatchewan NDP led by Naheed Nenshi and Carla Beck, respectively. Nenshi stated that Lewis' victory "is not in the interest of Albertans" while Beck stated she will not meet with Lewis unless he "publicly reverses" his position against fossil fuels.

Another key area where Avi Lewis differs from his father and grandfather is Israel. The younger Lewis is virulently anti-Israel and an enthusiastic supporter of the BDS Movement who has seen fit to shame and shun those who support Israel. This presumably would have included his father and grandfather. Although David Lewis could not be characterized as a Zionist per se, he did forge strong relationships with fellow Israeli socialists like Golda Meir and Shimon Peres while Stephen Lewis, during his tenure as Ontario NDP leader, demanded the UN cancel a conference to be held to Toronto due to presence of PLO members. Although I should note that Avi Lewis now claims his father, now 88, regards Israel as "a rogue state". Perhaps this is the case now, but when Lewis was in a position of actual responsibility, he, well, acted responsibly.

Of course, when it comes to Israel, it wouldn't matter much who leads the NDP. All five candidates who sought the party's leadership claim Israel is committing genocide. McPherson wore a keffiyeh in the House of Commons and introduced a petition to criminally investigate any Canadian who served with the IDF. But with Lewis being Jewish, he and his supporters can say, 'Even a Jew is saying Israel is committing genocide,' and 'Criticizing Israel isn't anti-Semitic,', etc.

Yet truth be told, the governing Liberals aren't much better with their concerted effort to remove tax exempt status from various Jewish non-profit organizations thus shunning Jewish institutions from Canadian civil society.

As it stands now, Lewis does not have a seat in the House of Commons. He ran for office twice before and was soundly defeated. The best-case scenario would be for the NDP to win zero seats in the next federal election. In which case, the NDP could be put out of its misery or perhaps a responsible social democratic party could rise in its place. Such a party could keep the Liberals and Tories honest in creating a more equitable Canada while eschewing more impractical notions such as living without fossil fuels and without legitimizing anti-Semitism.