Stephen Lewis, former leader of the Ontario NDP and later Canada's Ambassador to the UN, passed away today following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 88.
Lewis' death comes only 48 hours after his son Avi was chosen the new leader of Canada's NDP. His father David served in that same role between 1971 and 1975.
Elected to the Ontario legislature when he was only 26, Lewis would become leader of the Ontario NDP seven years later. In 1975, Ontario voters gave the NDP official opposition status. Lewis was a formidable foe to Ontario Premier Bill Davis who was at the zenith of the four decade plus long Tory dynasty in Canada's largest province.
Perhaps Lewis' most notable achievement in his 15 years as a provincial parliamentarian and as the leader of his party occurred in 1974 amid the wildcat strike of uranium miners in Elliot Lake, a community in Northeastern Ontario situated between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. The miners walked off the job in protest of dangerous working conditions which caused many of them to be diagnosed with silicosis, an incurable lung disease. Lewis' efforts pressured the provincial government to create a commission on mine safety which later resulted in the passage of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
A decade later, Lewis would be appointed Canada's Ambassador to the UN. The most surprising aspect of this appointment was that it was issued by Brian Mulroney, a Tory. It would be like President Trump appointing Hillary Clinton to be his Ambassador to the UN. Although political rivals, the pair presented a common front in the fight to impose international sanctions on South Africa's Apartheid system. In this century, Lewis spent many years campaigning to eradicate HIV/AIDS in Africa as a UN special envoy. After leaving the UN, Lewis established his own organization dedicated to this very mission.
In short, Stephen Lewis left both Canada and the world a better place than he found it. R.I.P.
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