Toronto/CMEDIA: New Democrats have reportedly chosen Avi Lewis as their next leader to chart a path back to federal success.
After securing 56 pe cent support with 39,734 members’ votes, Lewis from the podium said “Our party is back and our tent is growing,’
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who leads his province’s NDP, also stood behind him onstage.
“Canadians are living on the edge. We’re under economic attack by the U.S., while Donald Trump stomps around the globe grabbing foreign leaders and oil fields and starting wars he has no idea how to stop,” said the new leader.
Accusing the Liberal and Conservative parties of bending to the wills of “a tiny group of billionaires who control every part of our economy…they’ll blame Trump. They’ll blame immigrants. They’ll blame Indigenous land rights. They’ll blame anyone but the CEOs, the corner-office class, to whom they feel accountable.”Lewis pitched himself as a leader who could bring the NDP to form a government “that serves the many, not the money.”
Having won the support of the party Lewis faces an uphill battle to expand its reach to the rest of the country.
A Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker and author by trade, Lewis pitched himself as a leader who could bring the NDP to form a government “that serves the many, not the money”
Lewis, a Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker and author by trade, pitched himself as a leader who could bring the NDP to form a government “that serves the many, not the money.” and pledged to disrupt Canada’s wealth concentration among the country’s highest earners.
His major policy ideas included a wealth tax he estimates could bring in $40 billion in revenue from Canada’s richest, ending government subsidies to the fossil fuel sector, reviving the digital services tax, and rebuilding the party’s relationship with local riding associations.
His policy plans centred around advancing solutions to the crises faced by working Canadians included rising inequality, climate change, collapsing health care and growing fascism.
With his seven pillars in his campaign platform Lewis focused around party renewal, tax fairness, the digital age, affordable housing, health care, public options “to stop price gouging” and his environmental plan called a “Green New Deal.”
“There’s no question that this is a challenging time for New Democrats. But our campaign believes that we can build back stronger than we ever have before,” Lewis’ platform reads. “The NDP’s best days are still ahead of us.”
