On the final day of the NDP convention in Winnipeg it was announced that Avi Lewis had won the NDP leadership race comfortably.
Receiving 56 per cent of the vote, Lewis received nearly twice as many votes as his next nearest competitor, Edmonton-Strathcona MP Heather McPherson.
The final tally of the vote saw nearly 71,000 votes cast, the vast majority of which were online.
The NDP uses a ranked ballot system in their leadership election, where each voter ranks their preference of candidates. Lewis was the most preferred choice by the majority of the voting members.
The breakdown of that vote saw Lewis finish with 39,734 votes, Heather McPherson received 20,899 votes, Tanille Johnston got 5,159 votes, Rob Ashton came in fourth with 4,193 votes, and finally, Tony McQuail received 945 votes.
In his victory speech, Lewis quickly laid out his vision for the party and the country.
“The prime minister is very confident, he is a smart guy and most Canadians want to give him the benefit of the doubt. That’s fair. But I think when you connect the dots, his moves do not add up to the vision Canadians truly want and deserve in this perilous moment,” said Lewis.
He took aim at several policies of the Mark Carney Liberal government.
A vision for public power to address societal problems
“Half a trillion dollars in a decade to make Canada a major arms exporter in a war-torn world; slashing our cherished public services; sweeping aside Indigenous rights; full-steam ahead, no regulations on AI, and pipelines,” he said. “In the last federal election, Canadians voted to say no to Trump and Trumpism. What they are getting instead is our government following the US into a future of wars, fossil fuels and job killing generative AI.”
Lewis said that an NDP government would focus on public alternatives to the problems he sees as plaguing Canadian society.
“Our NDP has a different offer for this country. We plan 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.
He promised public alternatives for groceries, internet, phones, and housing. He also promised “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.”
To pay for his ambitious social program, Lewis talked about another part of his campaign platform: a wealth tax.
“It is time, far past time, to properly tax corporations and billionaires that have been riding a tidal wave of profits,” he said. “The money is there. We need a government with the courage to go and get it for all of us.”
Moral clarity on the international stage
Lewis also slammed Carney’s failure to stand-up to US president Donald Trump and the actions of the Israeli government.
“We need a government that doesn’t just talk about Canadian values on the world stage, we need one that acts with moral clarity when it matters,” he said. “When bombs and missiles are falling on schools and hospitals, when Israel commits a genocide in Gaza, we call it by its name and we do everything in our power to bring it to an end.”
Dr. Yipeng Ge has been vocal and active in the movement to end the genocide in Gaza. Ge endorsed Lewis early in the leadership campaign and said that the moral clarity expressed by him is part of what drew him to his campaign.
“Avi’s views on Palestine and being very clear about his language at a time where apartheid and genocide are being committed by Israel and Canada continues to support Israel in that endeavour, it is really important that we see Avi be successful in the leadership of the NDP so he can be a counterweight to the Conservatives and Liberals who continue to support Israel,” said Ge in an interview with rabble.ca.
“We’ve got to start winning now”
In his closing remarks, Lewis said he was proud to take on the leadership of the NDP which had been held by so many other great party leaders, including his grandfather David Lewis. Avi Lewis spoke about his grandfather’s commitment to the party, and his own father, Stephen Lewis’ legacy as a former leader of the Ontario NDP.
“He told me something kind of heartbreaking that his father, David, said to him once,” said Lewis to the convention. “David said ‘son, not in my lifetime, but maybe in yours.’ Recently, my dad said the same thing to me ‘not in my lifetime, but maybe in yours.’ Well dad, I refuse to tell that to my kid.”
Avi Lewis said that the nation needed a strong NDP and that it was time for the NDP to form government.
