By Grant Warkentin
The federal NDP has selected filmmaker, former broadcaster, and LEAP manifesto co-author Avi Lewis as its new leader.
Campbell River’s Tanille Johnston, who was in the running for the NDP’s top job at the party convention in Winnipeg this weekend, came in third with seven per cent of the votes (5,159).
In his victory speech, Lewis positioned himself and the NDP as the champion of the “99%,” taking aim at what he called “a tiny group of billionaires that control every part of our economy enabled by their friends among both liberals and conservatives.”
He condemned US President Donald Trump, Canadian billionaires and CEOs, Canadian grocery store chains, Canadian telecom companies, and “tech oligarchs” for creating a cost of living crisis in Canada.
“This is more than a rigged economy, it’s a war on working people,” he said.
He outlined what he plans to do about it as party leader, which is mostly nationalizing as many services and private enterprise as possible and getting the “1%” to pay for it.
“Our plan is to Trump-proof the economy by investing massively in Canadian economic independence using the unmatched power of public ownership to ensure the fundamentals of a good life,” he said. “A network of public providers for food, phones, and Internet. Of public housing developer and public construction companies to build millions of non-market homes. A 21st century electrical grid, an EV bus revolution, and a heat pump in every home built with Canadian steel creating tens of thousands of unionized jobs.”
He also said he plans to expand the public health care system to cover vision care, dental care, and more mental health supports.
He said it will all be paid for by raising taxes on corporations and billionaires.
He also took the time in his victory speech to accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and to proudly refer to his family history with the NDP. His grandfather David Lewis was the federal NDP leader from 1971 to 1975 His father Stephen Lewis led the Ontario NDP from 1970 to 1978.
Lewis is married to anti-capitalist author Naomi Klein, who helped him co-author the LEAP manifesto, a document published in 2015 outlining the pathway to a collectivist utopia.
Lewis said he has no immediate plans to seek a seat in parliament, and will continue as party leader without one for the time being.
“We have all agreed, and I heard from the caucus speaking with one voice, that they’ve got the work in Ottawa, and they would like to see me continue,” he said. “I’ve been meeting with New Democrats for almost seven months and they asked me to continue, now I’m meeting with Canadians from coast to coast to coast. We’re going to keep going, we’re going to meet Canadians where they work on the shop floor, where they live in communities. We’re going to keep touring and travelling the country.
“The caucus was unanimous that they don’t see a need for me to be in Parliament immediately, and that’s something that I had already determined. So our plan from day one is to fan out and meet Canadians where they live, and that includes the fundamental constituency for the NDP as a worker’s party, and that is the workers of Canada.”
His entire victory speech can be viewed here.
Lewis won the leadership contest with 56% of the vote. Sitting MP for Edmonton-Strathcona Heather McPherson was second, with 29% of the vote. Tanille Johnston was third with 7%, Rob Ashton was fourth with 5.9%, and Tony McQuail was fifth with 1% of the vote.
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