Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Wealth, privilege and champagne socialism： inside the NDP’s family business

00:00:00.260 Hello, my friends. I found an essay, a semi-autobiographical essay by Avi Lewis, the new NDP leader, that he wrote when he was in his early 20s.

00:00:10.620 And it was about himself and his time at Canada's fanciest private school.

00:00:15.420 And I think it's really relevant to his leadership of the NDP.

00:00:19.020 And I'd like to take you through his essay. It's quite interesting.

00:00:21.940 I also talk with Stockwell Day about the NDP, and I show a couple of funny videos from their conference.

00:00:26.660 Anyway, that's today's show.

00:00:27.560 But first, I want to invite you to get a subscription to Rebel News Plus.

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00:00:36.700 I think I've watched it four times.

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00:01:22.260 Tonight, let me tell you about Avi Lewis growing up as a rich socialist in Toronto.

00:01:29.800 It's March 31st, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:32.220 You're fighting for freedom!

00:01:35.400 Shame on you, you censorious bug! 0.88

00:01:46.980 Oh, hi, everybody.

00:01:48.500 There's so much going on in the news, and one of the things that I think is very important

00:01:52.100 to politics is the new leader of the NDP, Avi Lewis, who's actually the third generation in his

00:01:59.080 family to lead the NDP. There was his grandfather, David Lewis, who was the leader of the Ontario

00:02:05.520 NDP. There was his father, Stephen Lewis, who was the leader of the federal NDP. And now Avi Lewis

00:02:10.520 has the family job. Three generations. I think that's pretty rare. It's almost like it's some

00:02:15.160 sort of family business bequeathed from father to son, like they're kings or something. And that's

00:02:21.380 a funny thing because the NDP would tell you they're not about nepotism. They're not about

00:02:26.560 being born with a silver spoon. But I can say that Avi Lewis is exactly that. And I want to talk to

00:02:32.120 you a little bit about this book I found called Old Boys, The Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada

00:02:39.120 College by James Fitzgerald. And it's actually compiled by James Fitzgerald. It's written by 71

00:02:46.040 different alumni of Upper Canada College. Now, if you've never heard of Upper Canada College,

00:02:52.220 it is Canada's fanciest private school, certainly the most expensive. It's in Toronto.

00:02:57.680 And for almost two centuries, it has been graduating people who take high stations

00:03:03.880 in Canadian life, as much as that goes. I suppose it would be like Eaton, the fancy school in the

00:03:10.280 UK from which the vast majority of prime ministers flow. It's not quite that fancy. We don't have

00:03:15.300 the same aristocracy here, but it is the ruling class's favorite school in Toronto, and it's

00:03:21.680 extremely expensive. And wouldn't you know it, that a poor little socialist, Avi Lewis, went to

00:03:28.340 that school. And what did he have to say about it? Well, I think that's a very interesting thing,

00:03:32.740 because this book was published, I think, in 1990, so about 36 years ago. So, Avi Lewis would

00:03:38.280 have been in his early 20s. So, he would be a man graduated in the world, but he would still have

00:03:43.920 you know fairly close memories of what he had done at that school although he was only there for

00:03:50.280 i think three or four years starting when he was nine so it was when he was a fairly young kid i'm

00:03:57.340 going to get into the book in just a moment but i i think i just want to show you uh the party that

00:04:02.920 abby lewis is is leading and i know you've probably seen this about you're on twitter and i know some

00:04:07.220 of our other journalists have covered it let me just show you some of the absolute wackiness of

00:04:12.960 the NDP, you know, their, their different statuses, their race card, their gender card,

00:04:18.820 their equity seeking card. These are actually, they've made cards. When you and I talk about a

00:04:23.880 race card, you know, a generation ago that to play the race card would mean to say something about

00:04:29.360 race that is sort of a personal attack and say, well, as a black woman, this, or as a Jewish

00:04:35.420 person, that it's sort of an appeal to authority that you try and shut the other person up by

00:04:40.180 playing your race card. They actually have cards though in the NDP now where you can actually

00:04:45.920 play your race card to get ahead in the line to speak. So if there's a white person in line and

00:04:51.440 a black person's behind them, it's like a game. It's like Uno or something. You play your race 1.00

00:04:56.080 card and you get to jump in front of them. And then there's the women's card. And then there's

00:04:59.960 the trans card. Anyhow, take a look at this compendium. I'm just going to play a minute for

00:05:05.220 you, because I want to show you how far the party of unionized workers and the party of

00:05:11.680 farmers. I don't think there's any actual blue collar workers or farmers left in the

00:05:16.640 NDP. It's all the absolute nuts from the faculty lounge. Just take a quick look at this.

00:05:24.000 There's a point of privilege on microphone one, then we'll go to microphone three. Go

00:05:28.280 ahead, delegate. Yes. Hello. I was standing here with my gender equity card before you

00:05:33.500 called on the previous speaker.

00:05:35.540 That's my point of privilege that I would like to raise.

00:05:37.040 I will explain the speaking order, which is fixed,

00:05:39.680 that I cannot amend, which is the pro-con rotation.

00:05:42.800 You can move yourself up a line that you're standing in.

00:05:45.440 I am pro, and I was-

00:05:47.880 We went, um-

00:05:50.200 You went pro, con, pro.

00:05:51.440 We went pro-con, pro, and my plan was to go con.

00:05:54.840 The speaker at con mic three also has a speaking card.

00:05:58.520 Yesterday, this card was used in an inappropriate matter.

00:06:03.560 And while I understand in Ontario, we know this as equity, even if that, this was also used inappropriate in terms of gender.

00:06:11.600 I want everyone to be mindful that these cards for individuals like myself who identify as a black woman have no value outside of this space.

00:06:22.280 Yeah, I mean, wow. I don't think that Avi Lewis's grandfather, David Lewis, would even recognize the NDP. I should tell you that David Lewis, Avi Lewis's grandpa, who led the Ontario NDP, he took a hard line against communists.

00:06:40.820 I know you might think, what? An NDP or against communists? Yeah, he was a socialist, but he was a hard line against communists. And remember, you know, 100 years or so ago, there was a real worry about communist infiltration here. So you had David Lewis, the grandpa, taking a hard line against communism. David Lewis, very successful man politically, was a successful lawyer. He really opened up a lot of doors.

00:07:05.220 I mean, it's a small point, but he was a Jewish leader of the NDP, and he actually was fairly pro-Israel.

00:07:13.240 I wouldn't call him a full-bore Zionist, but he wasn't an anti-Zionist extremist like his grandson Avi.

00:07:20.980 By the way, Avi is a pretty Jewish name, isn't it?

00:07:24.060 Then there's the son, Stephen Lewis, the second generation to become political party leader.

00:07:30.500 He was at the federal level. Not only did he serve in the federal parliament, then he was appointed Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, if I'm not mistaken.

00:07:39.040 It was actually Brian Mulroney who did that. So two generations of extremely successful men, but each one progressively becoming more socialist.

00:07:49.060 And then, of course, there's Avi Lewis himself, who Danielle Smith, I think, accurately said, meets the test of communism.

00:07:56.960 He believes in the public ownership of the means of production.

00:08:00.220 Here's Danielle Smith saying this the other day, and it's tough to disagree with her.

00:08:04.160 Well, I don't think they can have a different policy, quite frankly.

00:08:07.380 If you look at their party constitution, it says that in any matter not dealt with in the constitution,

00:08:13.220 the constitution of the new democratic party of Canada shall prevail.

00:08:17.400 And it also says that the federal NDP says that even though they have autonomous federal provincial parties,

00:08:24.160 They can only do so if their constitution and principles are not in conflict with the federal party.

00:08:28.560 So we're getting a pretty clear idea of what the principles of the federal party are.

00:08:33.800 They're pretty communists.

00:08:35.440 They talk about nationalizing everything from food to building houses to construction companies.

00:08:40.820 You want everyone to have a heat pump and take an electric or an EV bus to work.

00:08:46.340 So I think it's up to the provincial NDP to talk about how they're going to square the circle.

00:08:51.820 If that's his federal policy and they're required to conform with it, what are they going to do to implement it?

00:08:57.320 And they can't hide behind we're a different party because they're not.

00:09:00.440 They share a constitution. They share a membership.

00:09:02.840 So I think that it's pretty clear from Abby Lewis and his activism over the last number of years with the Leap Manifesto,

00:09:09.040 which he repeated throughout the entire leadership campaign.

00:09:12.600 He wants to end all fossil fuels, and that includes LNG.

00:09:16.280 So he's got not just Alberta in the crosshairs. He's also got the British Columbia. He's got Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia who are trying to expand gas development and oil development. So I would say that it's pretty clear what the NDP position is federally. And it is opposed to any development of fossil fuels and any infrastructure that would facilitate it.

00:09:38.920 Anyway, you've got Avi Lewis and his wife, Naomi Klein, who's also a lifelong activist,

00:09:45.180 and her brother, Seth Klein, is a lifelong activist in BC.

00:09:48.720 It really is a socialist family.

00:09:51.840 The whole family business is socialism.

00:09:54.400 But at least the grandfather, Lewis, worked for a living.

00:09:58.960 He did some lawyering.

00:10:00.620 He did some actual work for clients.

00:10:03.840 He got his hands dirty.

00:10:05.720 it's been a long time since the family has had any that in a way it's sort of like

00:10:09.620 the nepotism of justin trudeau but it's one more generation back to the book i i discovered this

00:10:17.080 book uh in our library here at rebel news i don't know who would have bought it and avi lewis has

00:10:23.420 his essay remember this is 71 of the grads of um upper canada college they call it old boys oh

00:10:32.100 he's an old boy and let me just tell you some of the other names in here to show you that it is

00:10:37.300 quite a prestigious school um stanley ryerson after whom i presume ryerson hal jackman former

00:10:48.340 lieutenant governor conrad black is in here um you know michael ignatiev i mean these are not

00:10:57.140 stunningly famous names, but it is sort of the Canadian establishment.

00:11:01.200 And there he is on page 301, Avi Lewis.

00:11:04.380 Now, I'm not going to read the whole thing to you,

00:11:06.060 but I want to read some of it to you.

00:11:07.440 And the reason I think this is interesting is because, I mean,

00:11:11.340 Avi Lewis surely had politics in his blood his whole life.

00:11:14.720 In fact, he mentions that.

00:11:16.020 He mentions he was told that when he was three years old,

00:11:19.020 he was telling the neighbor to vote NDP.

00:11:20.900 I don't doubt it.

00:11:22.140 but he wasn't as careful as he would be if he was writing this book now.

00:11:27.320 So this is Avi Lewis captured 36 years ago when he was asked to write about his elite education

00:11:35.040 at Upper Canada.

00:11:37.620 And if you're a socialist who talks about the means of production and standing up for the poor,

00:11:45.040 how do you square the fact that your rich family sent you to the richest school in Canada

00:11:50.780 to hobnob with the richest families i'm not going to read the whole thing to you but i'm going to

00:11:56.120 take the liberty of maybe reading a total of five pages to you let me start obvi lewis 1976 to 1980

00:12:04.860 so he was at the school for three or four years i was in grade three at deer park public school

00:12:11.320 in toronto and i was going slowly insane the kids in grade three say that the academic program just

00:12:18.760 wasn't challenging or stimulating me. The principal's idea of gifted education was to give

00:12:23.980 me a balsa wood rubber band boat project. So my parents, Stephen Lewis and Michelle Landsberg,

00:12:29.280 reluctantly and against all of their tastes and proclivities, got me an entrance test at

00:12:33.860 Upper Canada College when I was nine. The school was very kind and gave it to me in the middle of

00:12:38.400 the year. So he's already mentioned how gifted he is. And I should tell you in the 10 pages that

00:12:44.700 follows. He must have repeated that five times. It's very important to him that you know just how

00:12:51.080 smart he is. Smarter than you, smart enough to be advanced to grade, and certainly smarter than the

00:12:56.080 other kids either at Deer Park Public School or even Upper Canada College. Although he did say

00:13:03.900 this, I didn't have any idea how to tie a necktie. I couldn't write. I was still printing and very

00:13:11.020 poorly. And then he has some weird theory. I'm left-handed with severe mixed brain dominance. 0.78

00:13:18.620 What? One of the explanations for left-handedness is that normally the right and left brain

00:13:23.540 functions control the opposite sides of your body. When those messages get crossed, it's one

00:13:28.020 of the theories to explain left-handedness. I think that is why lefties are lunatics and geniuses. 0.99

00:13:35.140 He's just making up these weird theories. And again, though, he wants to let you know, 0.98

00:13:40.240 he's a genius um he talks about his father having many honorary degrees his father stephen lewis

00:13:49.760 let me skip ahead i saw he's talking about his classmates now remember he went to school he was

00:13:57.660 nine as he just told us i saw the people who would run this world he's talking about his

00:14:02.860 classmates in upper canada i saw the people who would run this world in their purest and most

00:14:08.580 in an undiplomatic state of childhood and adolescence. I saw the thrustings and boastings

00:14:14.580 of power in their most naked form. I saw the savage cruelty of those with power exercised

00:14:21.800 against those who are defenseless. The schoolyard is an archetype for what people do to people when

00:14:28.640 they get to the boardroom. Um, brother, you were, you were nine. I found that the people who come

00:14:37.040 from the most wealth and power the thompsons the burtons the turners were the most ruthless 0.99

00:14:41.600 even at the young age they carried with them the great sense of entitlement not like you though

00:14:47.200 you don't have a great sense of entitlement you're at lewis they felt they deserved everything they

00:14:52.780 got they would be first in the natural order of things let me skip ahead this part just

00:14:58.280 let me read this part i learned early on that the most dangerous boys were not the thugs who

00:15:06.700 were actually beating me. He talks about being beat up a lot. That I actually do believe.

00:15:11.680 But the quiet, reserved and honored star pupils who never laid a hand on anyone,

00:15:15.800 the ringleaders, the guys who called the shots, never dirtied themselves with a business of

00:15:19.900 enforcement, but they were responsible for more suffering than anybody else. And that's something

00:15:25.080 I can see now at the world at large. They let it be known that someone was undesirable and they had

00:15:30.140 boys carry out their wishes some boys were anyway he he it's so clear to me that what he's doing is

00:15:37.440 he's trying to demonize the other people at the school for booing ruthless thugs but definitely

00:15:44.160 not him and the way to make sure that you don't think he's one of these elitist thugs is that

00:15:49.180 he's going to call everyone else an elitist thug first by the way do you believe any of it

00:15:54.160 i spent many an hour in the prep school locker rooms in heated arguments insisting that there

00:16:02.700 was a difference between socialism and communism which they did not accept now that's interesting

00:16:08.120 because i do believe that and he's still doing that some 36 years later the arbiter of those

00:16:13.300 arguments was always the fist really avi i wouldn't call these fights because fighting

00:16:19.220 conjures up the notion of two people facing off on roughly equal terms. I was abused regularly

00:16:24.860 and by crowds. You know, you have to understand that he's the victim. He went to a school that

00:16:32.600 today costs about 50,000 bucks a year for a nine-year-old kid, the most elite school in the

00:16:38.400 country. But you have to understand, he was a victim. He wasn't powerful. He was oppressed

00:16:44.080 like the ndp he leads i've never been in any atmosphere where there was more petty criminality

00:16:51.460 than when i was in the embrace of the privilege class brother your father and your grandfather

00:16:58.460 were ndp leaders lawyers world diplomats and you're saying that you were in the embrace of

00:17:05.840 the privilege class you were the privilege class no one's possessions were safe it didn't matter

00:17:12.340 if there was a jockstrap, textbook, a notebook, or a calculator watch. Some boys had collections

00:17:16.940 of calculator watches. It was theft for the thrill of it, pure and simple, because there was no

00:17:21.700 material need for it. I also saw more drug use in grade eight at Upper Canada College than I saw in

00:17:27.180 grade 12 at Jarvis Collegiate, which was known as a drug school. Many UCC kids had anything they

00:17:32.540 wanted. They had ready cash so they could buy or sell high quality drugs. I remember the one kid

00:17:38.640 who was too young to drive had his own collection of antique cars do you believe that i believe that

00:17:46.700 the lewis family had lots of cars i'm going to skip ahead i don't want to go through too much

00:17:52.120 of it it it really is so overwritten and and the and the goal is to me is so obvious it's for him

00:17:58.820 to show that he might have been at the most luxurious wealthy school in the country but you

00:18:03.380 have to understand he didn't like a minute of it i was oh get this he was in the embrace of the

00:18:09.420 privileged class you got to read this part i was at ucc during the school's sesquicentennial

00:18:15.520 celebrations in 1979 1980 prince philip the duke of edinburgh visited the school as he does on

00:18:22.120 occasion george dub and i were chosen to give him the tour of the prep oh really so out of all the

00:18:28.500 the kids. You were chosen to give the queen's husband the tour, and you're not part of the

00:18:33.840 privileged elite, and they hated you. I already had proper contempt for the monarchy, but I didn't

00:18:40.800 refuse the assignment. Isn't that accurate? I had contempt for wealth, but I bore my duty and I took

00:18:50.080 it. I hated this fancy school, but I went there. I certainly am not part of it, but I was part of

00:18:57.820 it how you know if he had contempt for the monarchy how about stand by your values and let someone

00:19:03.740 else uh tour the prince around let me read this part the only reason i put up with being stuffed

00:19:10.800 in every locker garbage can closet confined space and a reeking corner of the building

00:19:16.100 literally running for my life on a daily basis was because i was just exploding with learning

00:19:22.060 i was having incredible mutual relationships of respect and intellectual seriousness with great

00:19:26.920 teachers um i i do find it plausible that normal kids would just hate this pompous uh sneering 0.97

00:19:38.220 condescending uh hypocrite who says he hates it all but uh you know luxuriates in it that part i 0.96

00:19:46.360 do believe but he wants to make sure you know he didn't really like it i think all the teachers 0.98

00:19:54.300 were aware that i was being persecuted but any intervention on their part would have made me

00:19:58.620 even more despicable in the eyes of the crowd yeah i think that's probably true um

00:20:08.860 you know he talks about being beat up a bit and i'm not sure how i think there's some

00:20:13.420 exaggeration there i'll stop reading that he says i don't i don't deny that i was an obnoxious 0.98

00:20:18.620 mouthy little shit okay finally we're getting to it i was smarter i was jewish i was socialist 0.98

00:20:27.900 and i was two years younger than everyone else in my class i didn't know my place when i felt 0.99

00:20:32.380 someone was wrong i told them so which made me insufferable i was completely the other in every

00:20:38.200 respect at a place where there was absolute intolerance for any variation from a norm which

00:20:43.460 is mythological and destructive in the extreme that's obviously a lie he was treated as a first

00:20:48.240 class student he was given favors he was allowed in in the middle of the year he was chosen to

00:20:53.240 escort the prince he he just said he had a wonderful time with the teachers what a liar what a drama

00:20:59.100 king i also anyhow he explains that he left the school his choice he says i also started to get

00:21:05.780 interested in girls which is of course didn't exist at ucc my family and i had always been

00:21:10.760 uncomfortable with the idea of segregated education upper canada is only for boys

00:21:15.040 i never believed in it and they certainly don't believe in it well you got to stop lying i mean

00:21:21.820 how can you say that your family was against a boys only school if they sent you to a boys only

00:21:29.360 school how how can you say that i'll read one last uh uh sentence or two um he he was a young

00:21:37.420 man in his 20s now working for a tv station in toronto called city tv and when he wrote the

00:21:41.900 and he said at city tv a fellow reporter colin vaughn told me the only thing he didn't like

00:21:48.800 about me was that i went to a private school the simple fact was the ucc met my needs as a gifted

00:21:54.900 kid did i tell you i'm gifted hey have i mentioned that i'm smarter than anybody else i just want you

00:21:59.760 to know how gifted i am i didn't hobnob with the elite that's all you did brother you toured the 0.94

00:22:08.120 freaking king around i'm not a champagne or silk stocking socialist you literally are 0.84

00:22:16.360 you're the third generation in your family to lead the ndp you're a millionaire you were born 0.87

00:22:23.160 a millionaire hobnob with that is all you've done i'm a socialist who paid his way literally

00:22:31.000 in nosebleeds he didn't pay your way in nosebleeds your parents spent tens of thousands of dollars

00:22:36.180 putting you through school the fact that i went to an establishment private school is a favorite

00:22:41.660 detail of frank magazine and that whole journalistic crowd whole journalistically your

00:22:46.840 mother michelle landsberg was a journalist your father what crowd are you talking about you're

00:22:51.660 an author your wife's an author the journalistic crowd being seen as the son of stephen lewis and

00:22:57.280 michelle landsberg and having gone to ucc is a burden i'll carry to the grave but i don't regret

00:23:03.040 it for a moment i learned a lot about the world in my three and a half years at ucc a world which

00:23:08.120 i lament and which i will spend my life trying to change um i don't really think so i think that

00:23:15.420 avi lewis is exactly what he says he's not i don't think he's as smart as he claims he is but i think

00:23:22.480 he is the elite silk stocking champagne socialist three generations of high society um i think he

00:23:33.180 just realized that by having that on his resume it shows that he's a millionaire socialist

00:23:39.980 then again it worked for jagmeet singh didn't it anyhow it's a little bit of bobby lewis i maybe

00:23:45.320 didn't hear about stay with us after the break we'll talk with uh stockwell day about some of

00:23:51.160 Avi Lewis's socialist policies that obviously show he's never lived a moment in the real world.

00:24:04.960 Well, there's been so much news in Canadian politics and world politics that it's easy to

00:24:10.420 overlook the, I think it's the fourth party in parliament, the NDP, that Jagmeet Singh had taken

00:24:16.720 down to just 9% in the polls in the last election. In fact, I think that's the big story of the last

00:24:22.540 election. Pierre Polyev got a record turnout for the Conservatives, but in Canada, which is a bit

00:24:28.720 of a center-left country, if you don't have a strong NDP carving votes away from the Liberals,

00:24:34.400 you know, it's just not enough for the Conservatives to win. I think the collapse of the NDP was

00:24:38.660 really one of the main stories of the election, and their obedience to the Liberals throughout

00:24:44.140 their term in parliament i think was something to see now abby lewis i think is more ideological

00:24:50.020 more of a lifelong policy wonk on the left i think he'll be a little bit different what will it mean

00:24:56.000 will it strengthen the ndp if so at whose expense what will it mean for the other parties is canada

00:25:02.700 going to tilt towards the left and is abby lewis and his ndp too much of a radical group of woke

00:25:10.840 stirs as opposed to the party of the farmer and the working man joining me now to talk about it

00:25:15.360 is someone who knows a thing or two about politics having served both provincially in

00:25:19.140 the alberta government and federally his name is stockwell day he's an old friend of mine in fact

00:25:23.380 i used to briefly work for him out in ottawa and now he's a retired pundit and grandpa and he tells

00:25:29.940 me great grandfather stock great to see you again great to be with you thanks you know the ndp

00:25:35.600 comes from the West. They have

00:25:37.740 Western roots. They were the Farmers' Party.

00:25:40.200 They were the Workers' Party.

00:25:41.640 They actually had a Christian tradition, too,

00:25:43.640 Tommy Douglas.

00:25:45.280 They've certainly moved away from those roots, haven't they?

00:25:47.620 They're more the Transgender Party, judging 1.00

00:25:49.620 by their conference these days.

00:25:52.280 Yeah, they certainly are.

00:25:53.580 First, just let me acknowledge

00:25:55.300 condolences to Abby Lewis and his family

00:25:57.660 with the very recent passing of his

00:25:59.520 father, Stephen Lewis,

00:26:01.100 who is also a doctrinaire,

00:26:03.220 and I'm sure is very proud of his son right now.

00:26:05.600 Now, you're quite right, Ezra, in what you've characterized so far.

00:26:10.420 The thing I like about Abbie Lewis is he's a very honest socialist.

00:26:15.460 He has all of his thinking is significantly and severely left wing.

00:26:21.080 And I think that he may find some audience there.

00:26:23.880 He may find even some audience within some of the Liberal Party, which leans significantly socialist, but they don't want to admit it.

00:26:30.780 So, you know, I think he's I think he will predict just as I think you predicted a while ago and I predicted about six months ago.

00:26:39.520 I thought he would win this race. He did because of his strong ideological stance.

00:26:45.240 And I think some people are going to find that attractive.

00:26:48.660 You know, I saw a critique of capitalism by a Silicon Valley billionaire the other day.

00:26:53.320 He said most young people, their experience with capitalism is student loans that they have trouble paying off.

00:27:00.200 and the inability to buy a house because it's so expensive.

00:27:03.840 So they have a negative feeling towards capitalism that maybe a generation ago we didn't have.

00:27:09.820 A generation ago, we knew freedom and free economies were better.

00:27:14.280 And you look around the world and, you know, whether it's Zoran Mamdani,

00:27:18.900 who I think can be fairly called a true socialist,

00:27:21.820 or even in the UK, the rise of the Green Party, which is socialist,

00:27:26.100 I'm worried that there is a trend amongst young people to go full socialist or even communist.

00:27:33.160 I mean, some of the policies of Bobby Lewis, the state owning the means of production, that's literally the definition of communism.

00:27:40.200 And I think for a lot of young people who can't afford to get ahead, hate the big corporations, can't save for a home of their own, I think they'll find it appealing.

00:27:50.060 That's what I'm worried about.

00:27:51.420 this generation of voters, anywhere up to 30 or 35 years old, have been schooled for years. They

00:27:57.000 went from grades 1 to 12 under schooling, which is basically culturally Marxist. Then they went

00:28:02.640 into universities, which are bastions of culturally Marxist thought. So when they hear somebody

00:28:08.040 boldly proclaiming Marxist policies, as Avi Lewis does, it resonates with them. And who doesn't like

00:28:15.760 the sound of getting free stuff. So that's why certainly, as you said, in New York, Mayor Mondami

00:28:23.600 is unabashed in saying he's going to take over the grocery industry. The people that are going

00:28:29.860 to be voting in this younger cohort don't know that not only has that been tried in countries

00:28:36.720 around the world, from communism to heavily socialist countries, a number of cities in the

00:28:41.580 United States actually tried that, tried to get into the grocery business. And like government

00:28:46.180 getting into every business, it's always a dismal failure. But it looks appealing because you're

00:28:52.640 quite right also, this generation not realizing that the single greatest reason for their earned

00:29:00.660 dollar not being able to purchase as much as they'd like is governments borrowing and spending

00:29:07.400 spending borrowed money that's the single greatest reason for a dollar losing power but these this

00:29:15.220 young cohort doesn't realize that and they think the answer is let government control it even though

00:29:20.360 the history books are clear history they've never looked at that this leads to financial disaster

00:29:25.340 and more poverty for more people yeah hey i want to play a clip for you this is uh abby lewis right

00:29:30.940 after his win on the CBC so his natural in fact he used to work at the CBC a couple of decades ago

00:29:37.660 then he went on to work for Al Jazeera which is sort of a natural progression once you get hooked

00:29:42.940 on those state broadcasters there's no telling where you'll wind up here he is talking about

00:29:47.720 government-run grocery stores and I think of what it was like in Alberta when government-run

00:29:54.940 liquor stores. And in Ontario, they only very recently put beer in corner stores.

00:30:00.320 Government-run anything is terrible. But when you hate the man and want to smash capitalism,

00:30:06.040 it sounds good. Here's Avi Lewis pitching government-run groceries. Take a listen.

00:30:10.020 A good chunk of your platform, a platform you won on, involves nationalizing industries,

00:30:17.300 banking, groceries, construction. Clearly, due to your win, I think we can say that a majority

00:30:23.840 of NDP membership are on board, but how do you sell those ideas to the general public? Something

00:30:29.080 that many would argue you need to do in order to broaden the NDP and grow the NDP.

00:30:36.160 Oh, absolutely. That is the goal. I've been talking to NDP members for the last six months,

00:30:39.740 and I'm really looking forward to getting out and talking to Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

00:30:45.540 You use the word nationalizing, which is not a word that we use. We talk about a public option

00:30:50.420 for groceries and cell phones and stuff like that

00:30:53.240 because it's not about taking existing businesses

00:30:56.300 into the public sector,

00:30:58.060 although that is an option in certain cases.

00:31:00.300 We're talking about, for instance, with groceries,

00:31:02.520 developing a chain of 50 publicly owned

00:31:05.200 and operated grocery stores across the country

00:31:07.040 with six or seven regional distribution hubs

00:31:09.120 that would be able to provide groceries to Canadians

00:31:12.120 30 to 45% cheaper than what they're paying right now.

00:31:16.100 I think he's right that food is expensive.

00:31:19.080 I mean, inflation, shrinkflation, where you get smaller packages at the same price.

00:31:25.660 He's right that there's a problem, but his prescription, I mean, I just, I'm trying to

00:31:32.540 imagine a grocery store.

00:31:33.760 Of course, it's going to be unionized.

00:31:35.320 Of course, it's going to be government workers, civil servants.

00:31:38.320 How he thinks it's going to be 30 to 40% cheaper blows me away.

00:31:42.780 The margins in grocery stores are so thin, just a few percent.

00:31:47.100 And by the way, there are non-profit grocery stores now, the co-op, you know, sort of member owned.

00:31:53.540 I just think that this, I mean, he went to Upper Canada College, which is the most expensive private school in Canada.

00:31:59.620 I think he's sort of a limousine liberal champagne socialist who just doesn't know how things work.

00:32:06.680 And he's 58 and he's never tested his ideas.

00:32:10.760 And now he's the leader of a party.

00:32:12.680 I don't know, Stock.

00:32:13.300 i just can't i i mean i just don't know how he thinks he's going to get a grocery store 40

00:32:18.680 cheaper how well it won't be cheaper but by taxing people raising taxes across the board

00:32:27.520 that grocery store chain if it ever comes into being and i would just say heaven help us if it

00:32:32.600 does uh that will be groceries products that will be made to look less expensive because he will

00:32:39.820 simply tax everybody more across the board he'll take those taxes then and so the true cost let's

00:32:46.920 say of landing that loaf of bread in his store let's say it's five dollars the true cost by

00:32:53.560 confiscating money from other hard-working people he'll make it three dollars or two dollars he might

00:32:59.820 make it one dollar but you always pay more for it somewhere else it's always been a colossal

00:33:05.920 failure and he should know i'm sure uh looking at cuba and i've been there doing a mission work

00:33:12.480 in cuba they line up there are no groceries uh rum on on the shelves still sells for a dollar

00:33:20.440 that's about it everywhere these policies are practiced i went to ukraine in 1993 just when

00:33:27.260 the soviet empire was folding long lineups everywhere just for bread this is a disaster

00:33:34.400 But young people have not been informed of it. It sounds appealing. And another thing he knows, Ezra, having worked for Al Jazeera, that there is this growing nexus, this growing unhealthy joining of the socialist parties with parties that have significantly Muslim backing. 0.96

00:33:55.820 We've seen it in the UK, and they wind up knocking out more established parties.

00:34:01.380 So there's some appeal there.

00:34:03.480 And with a Muslim vote attaching, which they will because of this dangerous sort of new 1.00

00:34:08.300 phenomenon across the world of the Muslim vote and the socialist vote, they are actually 0.94

00:34:13.400 in a situation that could endanger Canada financially and in other ways also.

00:34:18.700 You know, it's very interesting.

00:34:20.000 I think he's going to get the socialist communist vote, and he definitely will get the Islamist 1.00

00:34:23.620 vote.

00:34:23.820 What was interesting is Avi Lewis is ethnically Jewish, but he and his wife are anti-Israel

00:34:30.780 Jews, which is a very small number of Jews. 0.63

00:34:33.520 That would be like an Italian who hates Italy. 0.77

00:34:36.180 It's just very rare and weird, but it's been political gold for him.

00:34:40.980 And I think that in that way, he could grow his party nibbling away from Mark Carney's

00:34:47.920 liberals.

00:34:48.580 Mark Carney claims he's going to be more businesslike than Justin Trudeau.

00:34:51.840 i don't know if we've seen proof of that yet but he certainly carries himself more moderately

00:34:55.840 if if mark carney is more moderate uh economically and if avi lewis is more radical against israel

00:35:04.040 avi lewis i think could grow the numbers i don't think he's going to form government

00:35:07.560 but i think he'll do much better than jagmeet singh's nine percent what do you think do you

00:35:11.480 think he's do you think he's got i mean certainly the media loves him that's for sure i agree 100

00:35:16.340 percent he's a media darling because he thinks as they do he's culturally marxist so everything he

00:35:20.880 says resonates when he says anything then mainstream media just goes amen and you mentioned

00:35:27.820 for instance if people want a good example i served ralph klein as his minister of finance

00:35:34.840 in alberta before i was in federal politics ralph klein was the first premier to really start

00:35:41.120 turning things upside down or make them back right side up and he said what is the government

00:35:46.700 doing in the business of selling alcohol? And that was all turned back to the private sector.

00:35:52.660 And what is government doing in any of these businesses? Government should be there to

00:35:57.060 regulate, to make sure things are safe. But taxing people, taking their taxpayer dollars

00:36:03.880 to prop up failing business practices, that is a road to poverty for many people and less

00:36:11.560 prosperity for all of us last question i see in the globe and mail a couple of reports that

00:36:17.600 um suggest mark carney's going to have an early election and it sort of felt that way for a while

00:36:23.540 but he's got a de facto majority because the bloc and the ndp typically support him on everything

00:36:29.080 there's a couple of by-elections coming up really soon um if there were a quick election

00:36:35.100 it could catch Avi Lewis you know without his feet under him he doesn't have a riding yet

00:36:41.980 he hasn't cemented control over his party they haven't nominated candidates

00:36:46.460 I think that the liberals moving quickly when they're ahead of the polls could be a way for

00:36:52.660 Mark Carney to get a serious majority I mean that anti-Trumpism has never been higher and I think

00:36:59.180 that scares a lot of Ontario and Quebec voters towards liberals first of all do you think there's

00:37:04.060 going to be an early election and if so do you think it'll go Carney's way as he hopes

00:37:08.260 before this leadership race i was saying i don't know if there'll be an early election especially

00:37:14.160 if he does well in these by-elections but uh mark Carney is smart enough to know that abby lewis

00:37:19.440 because he's honest about being a socialist he will attract the socialist vote which is now

00:37:25.520 hiding in liberal corridors and even hiding uh in with with liberal mps there's quite a few who

00:37:32.180 would lean in that direction so yeah for sure if these by-elections don't go well he's going to be

00:37:37.840 now he's worried about Pierre Polyev too Pierre Polyev is uh the the gap is not that great between

00:37:43.900 the conservatives and the liberals he's got some concern there but he is worried about losing

00:37:48.580 support to the true socialists rather than his sort of camouflage socialism and that's going to

00:37:55.080 be a concern for him you're right I think that may prompt the early election call very interesting

00:38:00.800 time. Stock, it's great to see you again. Thanks for spending some time with us. And I think we're

00:38:05.060 in for a very busy political season. We are. Thanks. Good to be with you. All right. There

00:38:10.020 he is. Stockwell Day. Stay with us. Your letters to me next. Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me

00:38:23.820 about the NDP. Jim Beasley said, I'm going to start carrying fluorescent pieces of paper,

00:38:28.560 so I'm always privileged.

00:38:29.760 Yeah, that idea of actually having physical race cards

00:38:32.220 is so funny.

00:38:32.900 Hey, can I show you something?

00:38:34.380 There's a guy I follow on Twitter.

00:38:36.000 He's so funny.

00:38:36.880 He goes by the name Lyle Culpepper.

00:38:38.760 I don't know if that's his real name.

00:38:40.300 And he does all these funny videos

00:38:41.960 where he sort of makes it look like

00:38:44.860 he's at a press conference that someone famous was at.

00:38:47.800 And he did one, he's an American,

00:38:49.660 but he did one pretending he was at the NDP.

00:38:52.560 And it's so convincing, a British Columbian I know,

00:38:55.980 said, I don't know if this is real or not.

00:38:57.600 it's so real feeling this is so funny this is lyle culpepper doing satire but you can't tell

00:39:05.320 take a look i'm gonna let this play for a couple minutes take a look point let's hear the point on

00:39:09.240 microphone one yes point of personal privilege i am lyle culpepper i am non-binary i am a person

00:39:15.280 of color which happens to be a white color uh egalitarian two-spirit furry um i'm also sex

00:39:22.420 positive most sex negative i'm also a muslim adjacent hamas supporter and i am disabled i 0.80

00:39:27.940 have a condition called sit me which is stress-induced premature ejaculation and i am uh

00:39:33.480 korean but not by blood and i have all my cards i have my race equity and gender card here so

00:39:39.700 uh pretty much top of the list and uh there are some been some comrades who have skipped in front

00:39:44.220 of me i've recently gotten my oppression graded uh at a 9.7 so uh in terms of being able to speak

00:39:50.560 I would like to ask for extended time to speak and perhaps I can come up on stage with you, Madam Emma Stone.

00:39:59.020 Or, sorry, Emma Stone.

00:40:01.180 Not right now.

00:40:02.060 Okay.

00:40:04.560 That stress-induced ejaculation part was...

00:40:09.820 I'm sorry, that was so funny.

00:40:11.640 That was too funny.

00:40:13.140 So, yeah, that's Lyle Culpepper making fun of our NDP.

00:40:16.200 We're famous.

00:40:17.240 Born Canadian says, the NDP needs to be rebranded to the NRP, the non-relevant party.

00:40:22.820 Tom Lee Douglas is rolling over in his grave.

00:40:24.780 Yeah, I mentioned how David Lewis was, you know, I mean, he was a socialist, it's true.

00:40:30.040 But he was an anti-communist, which tells you a little bit about his views on extremism, his foreign policy.

00:40:36.820 And it suggests he was a patriot.

00:40:38.520 He was a socialist, perhaps, but he was a patriot.

00:40:41.240 I don't think you can say that about today's NDP.

00:40:43.900 Avi Lewis is anti-American.

00:40:45.320 He's anti-Israel.

00:40:46.100 he's anti-canada and the only flag on the stage when he became leader was the palestinian flag

00:40:51.340 soul venting says notice there were no canadian flags wokeness has given all the mental cases 0.95

00:40:57.060 power and a voice the ndp doubling down on ridiculous sing tank the party this will be

00:41:02.280 the fine nail in the coffin was saying to stockwell day i'm not sure about that i think

00:41:06.800 jagmeet singh through the race just like a boxer might throw the match um sing i think purposefully

00:41:15.720 supported the liberals his whole uh tenure and then blew the election badly nine percent i think

00:41:23.380 abby lewis will move the party to the left he'll sop up the communist socialist youth vote and i 0.97

00:41:30.300 think he will get a lot of the islamist anti-semitic vote which mark carney was counting on and i just

00:41:35.920 find it hard to believe that abby lewis will get less than nine percent i'm not saying he's going

00:41:39.780 to get 20%, but he'll do, he'll sop up the Mamdani vote, the Olivia Chow vote. So I think

00:41:47.200 Avi Lewis is going to strengthen the NDP, but speaking purely strategically, if the Conservative

00:41:52.160 Party of Canada has a chance of winning, it's got to be through splitting, through the NDP splitting

00:41:57.700 the Liberal votes. We'll see how that goes. Anyways, that's the show for today. I hope you

00:42:01.480 didn't mind me reading that essay from Avi Lewis. Maybe I overstated things, but I've never read

00:42:06.980 anyone talk about how so so smart they are so repeatedly brother if you're smart i'll know it

00:42:12.980 i'll pick it up if you're smart um and about how he was at an elite institution and he was the elite

00:42:20.820 of the elite smarter than everyone chosen to escort prince philip um but take his word for it he 0.98

00:42:27.520 didn't like being there not one bit yeah what a hypocrite that's our show for the day until 0.97

00:42:33.160 tomorrow on behalf of all of us here at rebel world headquarters to you at home good night 0.98

00:42:36.720 and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - March 31, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Wealth, privilege and champagne socialism： inside the NDP’s family business

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