Avi Lewis, elected to lead Canada’s New Democratic party, promises ‘NDP comeback’

Canada’s embattled New Democratic party (NDP) has elected the former broadcaster and self-proclaimed socialist Avi Lewis as its new leader, as it looks to rebuild following a devastating federal election last year that saw it lose official party status.A record number of members voted in the three-day NDP leadership convention, giving Lewis a first-ballot win that underscored widespread support. Lewis pledged to convert the “tremendous momentum” of the convention into an “NDP comeback”.Speaking to supporters on Sunday after his win, the 58-year-old documentary film-maker and former television host pledged to centre the party around the pursuit of equity, promising higher wealth taxes, green energy and tuition-free education.“We can already hear the howls from the establishment: ‘But how will you pay for all this?’ It is time, far past time, to properly tax the corporations and billionaires that have been riding a tidal wave of profits while the 99% have been suffering and struggling,” he told a cheering crowd in Winnipeg.Lewis took aim at the moral failings of the governing Liberals, telling energised supporters that an NDP government would challenge the dominance of oil companies and “grocery baron[s]” that enjoy billions in profits.“The NDP will start winning again because we will become that beacon to the 99%, illuminating the darkening sky of these terrifying times with the energising light of collective struggle.”Lewis, the grandson of the former party leader David Lewis and son of the former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis, was joined on stage by supporters and his wife, the acclaimed author Naomi Klein.He faces a daunting set of tasks in rebuilding a party that has just six MPs, weak polling and about C$13m in debt. That effort will probably be complicated by the fact that he has never held political office and does not hold a seat in parliament.In winning at the leadership convention, he beat the former MP Heather McPherson, who placed second, the union organiser Rob Ashton, the British Columbia city councillor Tanille Johnston and the farmer Tony McQuail.The prime minister, Mark Carney, and the Conservative party leader, Pierre Poilievre, each issued statements of congratulations to Lewis, saying they looked forward to working with the newly appointed leader. Both Carney’s Liberals and Tories were beneficiaries of the party’s collapse in the last election, which saw the NDP lose 17 of its 24 seats, as well as official party status. The then leader Jagmeet Singh resigned after losing his own riding.Now polling at about 6% federally, the party was dealt another blow earlier this month when the MP Lori Ildout crossed over to the Liberals, leaving it far short of the 12 MPs needed for official party status.In 2011, under former leader Jack Layton, the party won 103 seats in parliament.Unlike other federal parties, the NDP has deep ties with its provincial counterparts. Lewis appeared on stage with the Manitoba premier, Wab Kinew, whose NDP party won a strong majority in the province in 2023, and who consistently polls as the country’s most popular premier.But reactions from some provincial leaders following Lewis’s victory underscore the challenges he faces in unifying the party. While British Columbia’s NDP premier, David Eby, applauded Lewis’s win, he also noted his government’s aim of increasing jobs in the technology and mining sectors – both industries criticised by Lewis. “Our priority is lifting up working people and growing prosperity,” said Eby.Lewis has looked to bolster the party’s environmental credentials, calling for a green energy deal and an export tax to be placed on oil and gas shipped to the US. He also wants to invest 2% of Canada’s gross domestic product in the fight against the effects of the climate crisis.Alberta’s NDP leader, Naheed Nenshi, who has clashed with Lewis over oil and gas development, warned that a perceived ideological shift in the federal party would not be helpful to its provincial version in Alberta.“It is clear that the direction of the federal party under this new leader, someone who openly cheered for the defeat of the Alberta NDP government, is not in the interests of Alberta,” he said.In Saskatchewan, the NDP leader, Carla Beck, said she had declined to meet with Lewis, calling his positions “ideological and unrealistic”. She pointed to a video Lewis had posted in which he opposes new pipeline projects.The interim leader, Don Davies, said the party was ready to rebuild after a devastating result last April, telling convention attenders that he believed voters were concerned that Carney was becoming increasingly conservative.“There is something I’d like to clear up arising from my speech at the press-gallery dinner,” Davies said on Sunday. “I erroneously said, when Prime Minister Carney played hockey, that he was a goalie. I was mistaken. He’s clearly a rightwinger.”