Juno News - NDP select Avi Lewis as leader, what does it mean for Canada？

00:00:00.000 Okay, so the big event happened over the weekend, and the NDP now has what I would say is a serious

00:00:06.900 leader. Avi Lewis is a national figure. He is well known to Canadians, especially of an older

00:00:11.800 generation. I think boomers probably remember him fondly from his time on the CBC. He used to host

00:00:17.440 a political show called Counterspin, and he's a prominent figure, a prominent Canadian. And so

00:00:22.520 the fact that the NDP now has what you would call a serious leader does that change. Avi Lewis won

00:00:28.260 handily. He got 56% of the votes on the first ballot. There was some 100,000 members who voted

00:00:35.660 in this party. So this is a serious segment of the Canadian population. Keep in mind that most

00:00:40.240 people aren't members of a party, right? So 100,000 members. You had about, what, 68,000 of

00:00:46.560 them voting online, 1,200 by phone, and the rest were in person at the convention. So again,

00:00:51.360 Abby Lewis got 56%. NDP MP Heather McPherson came in second place with 29%. Abby's not a member

00:00:58.120 parliament. He does not hold a seat. He ran in the last election in West Vancouver, but he lost. So

00:01:03.760 he doesn't have a seat. So, Hamish, what do you make of all this? Well, look, I think it's, frankly,

00:01:10.140 a lot of people are saying it's bad for the NDP. I think it's actually quite good for the NDP

00:01:13.160 to have a leader who will bring some energy to things and will also be, he's a doctrinaire

00:01:19.720 leftist. This guy is, you know, if you come up with a left-wing stereotype, you're going to find

00:01:24.600 whatever you believe a left-wing stereotype is it's abby lewis this guy believes on every single

00:01:29.320 issue he will take the most left-wing thing imaginable they're going to have government

00:01:33.080 run grocery stores it's going to be you know they'll probably de-recognize israel and recognize

00:01:38.520 palestine i mean you name it that's what that's what this guy's for

Juno News - March 31, 2026