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Uncle Joe

(65,364 posts) Tue Apr 28, 2026, 02:56 PM Yesterday

Avi Lewis, New Socialist Leader of Canada's NDP: "Life Just Doesn't Have to Be So Grindingly Unfair"

As Democracy Now! broadcasts from Toronto, we speak with Avi Lewis, the new head of Canada’s progressive New Democratic Party. Lewis was elected leader in a landslide last month, winning over party members on a democratic socialist platform that vowed to prioritize affordability, address the climate crisis, fight the Trump administration’s attacks on Canada and more. Lewis takes over as the NDP has only five seats in Parliament and just as Prime Minister Mark Carney secured a majority for his Liberal government following three special elections in April.

Lewis acknowledges that “the NDP has a lot of rebuilding to do,” but says there is “wide-open political space” in Canada for a populist left-wing agenda. “I think young people in particular are really responding to a vision where life just doesn’t have to be so grindingly unfair,” Lewis says. “We need nonmarket solutions to a time of market failure.”

Lewis is a longtime activist and filmmaker whose late father Stephen Lewis led the Ontario NDP in the 1970s. He is married to the acclaimed author Naomi Klein.

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Avi Lewis, New Socialist Leader of Canada's NDP: "Life Just Doesn't Have to Be So Grindingly Unfair" (Original Post) Uncle Joe Yesterday OP

Avi's father & grand father...quite the pedigree! OneBlueDotS-Carolina Yesterday #1

OneBlueDotS-Carolina

(1,489 posts)

1. Avi's father & grand father...quite the pedigree!

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Tue Apr 28, 2026, 04:02 PM

Yesterday

David Lewis, Grand Father

David Lewis CC QC (born David Losz; June 23 or October 1909 – May 23, 1981) was a Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1936 to 1950 and one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961. In 1962, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP), in the House of Commons of Canada, for York South. While an MP, he was elected the NDP's national leader and served from 1971 until 1975.

Lewis's politics were heavily influenced by the Jewish Labour Bund, which contributed to his support of parliamentary democracy. He was an avowed anti-communist, and while a Rhodes Scholar prevented communist domination of the Oxford University Labour Club. In Canada, he played a major role in removing communist influence from the labour movement.

In the CCF, he took the role of disciplinarian and dealt with internal organizational problems. He helped draft the Winnipeg Declaration, which moderated the CCF's economic policies to include acceptance of capitalism, albeit subject to stringent government regulation. As the United Steelworkers of America (USW)'s legal counsel in Canada, he helped them take over the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (Mine-Mill). His involvement with the USW also led to a central role in the creation of the Canadian Labour Congress in 1956.

much more...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lewis_(Canadian_politician)

Stephen Lewis, Father

Stephen Henry Lewis CC (November 11, 1937 – March 31, 2026) was a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster and diplomat who served as leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) from 1970 to 1978. Elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1963 at the age of 26, he became the province's leader of the Official Opposition in 1975. He later served as the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Lewis

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