For many decades, the New Democratic Party (NDP) stood strong for the wellbeing of Canadians. Formed as a partnership between the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the NDP emerged on the scene in 1961 to advocate for public services, employment rights, economic equality, and other important issues. Today, though, the party’s reputation is sinking fast thanks to its new leader and his penchant for populist politics.
Avi Lewis was selected in March 2026 to take the helm of the NDP, after former leader Jagmeet Singh lost in Canada’s 2025 federal election. Lewis was a curious choice, because he had never earned a seat as an elected politician. He did try twice to become a Member of Parliament – but lost both times. In his political races of 2021 and 2025, he came in third behind Liberal and Conservative candidates.
Lewis’s career includes television host, political commentator, documentary filmmaker, educator, and an activist. In the latter, he is known for trying to be all things to all people – often taking multiple complex issues such as climate, labour, and race relations and trying to connect them all together. It’s the kind of approach that lends itself well to rage-baiting, which is a skill he is carrying forward into his political career.
Perhaps Avi Lewis stepped into politics because of his pedigree. He is the third generation of a prominent political family, with his grandfather David Lewis a former leader of the federal NDP, and his father Stephen Lewis once heading up Ontario’s provincial NDP. But descending from politicians does not mean you’re going to be good at it. In fact, if Avi is to be judged by his actions so far, he’s proving to be pretty bad at it.
For starters, instead of collaborating with the governing party, he is choosing to play the blame-game. Just like his federal colleague Pierre Poilievre, Lewis is showing up as an ever-flowing fountain of fault. It doesn’t matter how significant the issue is, how precarious the situation, or how difficult the negotiation… in Lewis’s estimation, Prime Minister Mark Carney is wrong… is bad… is out to get us.
Just like Poilievre, Lewis is savvy at amplifying fallacy over fact. He regularly accuses Carney of things like putting ‘big business’ ahead of Canadians. His latest flurry of misinformation declares that Carney is “fast-tracking corporate Canada while Canadians struggle.” He is using language indicative of the ‘populist’ approach to politics – an approach Poilievre specializes in.
On the rare occasion when Lewis does support something that Carney’s government has done, instead of commending the Prime Minister, he is quick to take credit. For example, in response to Trump’s tariffs, Lewis made this statement after a phone call with Carney: “I reiterated the NDP’s support for Canada walking away from a bad deal and welcomed the relief measures announced today as a first step…”
Like a true Poilievre understudy, Lewis framed NDP interventions as having forced Carney’s hand. As well, by referring to his own party in what was supposed to be a statement of support, Lewis chose to bring partisanship into the picture. At a time when Canadians want and need elected officials to choose country over party, Lewis is making it clear he is putting his own political career first. The same way that Poilievre does, too.
Most concerning, though, is how Lewis is choosing to actively work against our government when it comes to the stability of our economic future – and we are seeing this play out in real time.
Carney has invited international investors to gather in Toronto on September 14 and 15 – a bold and clever strategy that could result in billions of dollars being invested in Canada. Instead of recognizing that Mark Carney is one of the world’s most renowned and highly respected economists, and acknowledging that Carney might know what he is doing… Lewis is encouraging Canadians to “protest” the investment summit. Instead of working collaboratively to ensure that good trade deals are made to exponentially grow our economy, Lewis is choosing to fearmonger by telling Canadians lies about our Prime Minister.
He regularly makes accusations like Carney is ‘putting corporations first’, that ‘big manly projects’ will endanger women, and that Carney doesn’t care about the ‘environmental protections’. He uses alarmist rhetoric at every turn – just like Poilievre does. One can conclude that when it comes to rage-bait politics, Lewis is now in a race with Poilievre for first place.
It’s baffling to understand why Lewis is choosing to emulate Pierre Poilievre – a proven expert at blaming, rage-baiting, double-talking, and stoking division, who also happens to be sinking in the polls. Politics is the only job that Poilievre has ever had, and being two-faced is the only one he has ever shown.
If Avi Lewis has real aspirations to be Prime Minister one day, wouldn’t it make more sense to learn from the guy the guy who is an expert at global economies and international trade? Wouldn’t it benefit him to understand at a deeper level how diplomacy and partnerships work?
There’s no doubt we are living in unprecedented geopolitical times, where our once closest ally is now our biggest threat. Reality is such that our country needs to diversity and strengthen new partnerships. Fortunately that is one of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s specialties, and it’s unfortunate that Avi Lewis can’t see that.
It’s a shame that Lewis won’t put his political aspirations aside enough to support what Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to do. Canadians can see that he is working hard to establish long-term economic stability for all of us – as well as for our country.
It’s a waste that instead of uniting to help strengthen economic opportunities for Canada’s sake, Lewis is choosing to protest and obstruct an international investment summit. From this, Canadians can only conclude that he is working hard to establish short-term political gain – for himself.
