Stephen Lewis’s Complicated Legacy for the Canadian Left
Stephen Lewis, leader of the Ontario NDP, son of founding NDP member David, and father of current leader Avi, has died. He leaves a complex legacy: he helped bring the NDP into the mainstream but at the cost of expelling a socialist faction from the party.
Stephen Lewis, who died this week at 88, was leader of Ontario’s New Democratic Party and father of Avi Lewis, current leader of the federal NDP. For some on Canada’s left, he did his best work after he left politics, as a humanitarian and global advocate. (Boris Spremo / Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Stephen Lewis may be the best ex-politician Canada ever had.
Lewis passed away aged eighty-eight on March 31 after a long battle with cancer. News of his death came just two days after his son Avi Lewis won a majority of votes at the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) leadership convention in Winnipeg.
Stephen Lewis led the provincial branch of the NDP to official opposition status in Ontario in the mid-1970s, a considerable feat for a relatively new party in a province long dominated by “big tent” conservatives.
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