Avi Lewis, NDP Leadership contestant, launches town hall tour on Vancouver Island
Lewis started his campaign in September of last year, and he said he has been hearing from NDP supporters that it is time for the party to undertake some change. (Jesse Woodward/CHLY 101.7fm)
Nanaimo was the second stop on a town hall for federal NDP leader hopeful Avi Lewis, where he spoke about affordability, health care, and a Canadian Green New Deal.
After kicking off his multi-stop Canadian tour in Victoria, Lewis hosted a packed room in Nanaimo on January 8 at White Sails Brewing.
Lewis is campaigning to become the next leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. The race, which started in September, will see federal NDP members vote for their new leader during the dates of their party convention to be held March 27-29 in Winnipeg.
CHLY spoke with Lewis at the event.
The former journalist and documentarian said his campaign is running on ideas and finding solutions to the everyday crises Canadians are facing.
“These town halls are really about confronting the everyday emergency of just trying to get by in a rigged and impossible economy, and that is the cost-of-living emergency,” Lewis said. “So we've been talking about public options for groceries, public options for cell phones, and a role for the federal government to step up and goddamn govern.”
Lewis started his campaign in September of last year, and he said he has been hearing from NDP supporters that it is time for the party to undertake some change.
“Members of the federal NDP feel neglected; they feel abandoned; they feel disrespected by the party. They feel like they've been treated like a cash machine, like an ATM,” Lewis said. “They want to regain their own agency in really being the power behind the party and the mood for democratizing the NDP, for restoring the power in the agency at the grassroots, to have 343 riding associations across the country be genuine community organizing hubs where people work around the year and not just at election time.”
His campaign is emphasizing a Green New Deal for Canada, and if elected, he would have the NDP prioritize it.
The Green New Deal is a framework for government policy-making to address climate change while also strengthening economic prosperity.
“A Canadian Green New Deal is an approach to the climate emergency that actually says we can lower the cost of your food and your housing and your transportation and your bills at the same time as we cut emissions, if we actually have a government that's serious about it,” he said.
Lewis said this approach would mean upgrading Canada’s electrical grid, which could create jobs and use Canadian steel, which would lower emissions while increasing economic activity.
“Nobody ever invaded a country for their sunshine. That means there's no powerful corporate lobby behind renewables because they're more affordable, because the energy itself is free forever,” he said. “That's why we don't have a political conversation in Canada that's dominated by ‘big solar,’ it's never going to be that way. The government has to do it, and we need it because the smoke is filling our lungs every summer, because the seas are rising, but also because life is unaffordable and impossible, and we have to take these things on in a generational way.”
Climate change is a top concern for Lisa Pierce, who came from Denman Island to see Lewis.
“It was just so great to hear a politician being so real and speaking bluntly and plainly about issues like what happens at the grocery store and about Palestine and about just the real things and the real angst that we're all feeling,” Pierce said. “It feels crazy making because nobody's talking about it.”
Pierce said she has never been a member of a political party before, but after learning about what Lewis wants to do with the federal NDP if elected, she knew she just had to sign up.
“I just became an NDP member last week. That is my motivation, so I can vote for [Avi Lewis]. Other than that, I had no interest in joining a political party at all,” Pierce said.
With other leadership campaigns having not yet released their end of 2025 fundraising totals, Lewis appears to be leading in fundraising, the campaign reporting to have raised [Audio: approximately $783,000) $782,9545, well above the $100,000 leadership entrance fee.
Lewis is currently competing for the NDP leadership role against union leader Rob Ashton, Campbell River City Councillor Tanille Johnston, green progressive Tony McQuail, and sitting MP for Edmonton Strathcona, Heather McPherson.
Only registered members of the federal New Democratic Party can vote for the next party leader and must be members by January 28 to be eligible to vote in March
After the membership deadline, an English language leadership debate is scheduled for February 19th in Metro Vancouver.
Produced with files from Jesse Woodward.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.