After winning a decisive victory in the federal NDP leadership race in March 2026, Avi Lewis is now the head of a party that’s been experiencing hard times. The NDP hit rock bottom in the last federal election and were reduced to just 7 seats in the House of Commons, losing official party status – the worst result in its history.

As the new leader, Avi Lewis’ challenge is to reorient and revive the NDP by organizing new and old supporters… and lapsed ones too. A former CBC, Al Jazeera and City TV journalist, filmmaker and activist, Avi Lewis comes from a gilded pedigree. He’s NDP royalty. His grandfather David Lewis was leader of the federal New Democratic Party in the early 1970s. His father, Stephen Lewis, lead the Ontario NDP for nearly 8 years, was Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, and was one of the country’s most renowned orators and respected statesmen. His mother Michelle Landsberg was an influential journalist and pioneering feminist social activist, and his wife Naomi Klein is an internationally acclaimed journalist, public intellectual and best-selling author. Avi Lewis’ leadership of the federal NDP signals an unapologetic shift to the left for a social democratic party that veered to the political centre in the last decade, particularly during the tenure of former leader Tom Mulcair.

Under the leadership of Lewis’s predecessor, Jagmeet Singh, the NDP propped up a minority Liberal government in exchange for the passing of progressive legislation including a landmark national dental care plan and an anti-scab law in federally regulated industries. Yet, despite these legislative successes, the NDP saw its seat count collapse in the April 2025 federal election. The beleaguered party has been floundering ever since. Joining me now to talk about his plan to revitalize, reorganize and rebuild the federal NDP, and transform Canadian politics is NDP leader Avi Lewis.

JDM Stewart is an acclaimed educator and historian. His first book is called Being Prime Minister. His most recent effort is a sweeping account of Canada’s 24 prime ministers, from John A. Macdonald, a Scottish born immigrant, to Mark Carney, a native of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. The book is entitled The Prime Ministers: Canada’s Leaders and the Nation they Shaped.