Is Avi Lewis doomed? Nope.
- Apr 1
- 2 min read
Years ago, back when CBC TV still valued debate, I used to appear on a panel show called Counterspin. Its host was Avi Lewis.
Counterspin was on every day, and it had some other hosts, but I don’t remember any of them. I remember Avi, though.
We’d sit around an elevated table and debate stuff. Usually, we’d yap about the news of the day, from the Left or the Right or whatever. I don’t remember any of that, either.
But I remember Avi.
He was really, really smart. He was charming. He kept the discussion going, and he knew how to make us feel comfortable. He’d challenge us and all that, but he wasn’t a jerk. Even though we all knew he was a New Democrat - his father and grandfather had been leaders of different New Democratic parties - Avi didn’t jam copies of Das Kapital down our throats.
And he was really quick on his feet. Sometimes, I’d tease him. Once, I looked at him and said: “You’re an angry young man.”
Without pause, deadpan, Avi said: “I’m not young.” CBC turned that exchange into a commercial.
Anyway, this all to say that I think people are really underestimating Avi Lewis. Since his party’s leadership convention in Winnipeg, the NDP has been the butt of many jokes. There have been lots of columns and podcasts pronouncing the NDP as dead as a DoDo.
There have been clips of NDP bouncing around the Internet, yes, which strongly recall the bar scene in Star Wars, but weirder. The NDP convention was like this giant gathering of the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, except with a bunch of humourless people completely incapable of self-awareness or laughter. At the end, they waved around a Palestinian flag, not Canada’s. Figures.
So, because the NDP convention was basically a televised three-ring circus, a lot of people are assuming that Avi Lewis is crazy or stupid. They’re wrong. He isn’t. And I think there’s three reasons why he needs to be taken seriously.
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Doomed - no not yet, I agree. However, his history of silly far-left statements (as well as those of his even more radical wife, who Lewis has used to curry favor with the left) will be something he now has to work against with the broader Canadian voting public. A different NDP leader might not have had that added challenge. Being well spoken and charismatic only gets you so far.
Lewis will need to campaign very hard to convince people he is no longer the radical he used to be, not that long ago. And the Libs and Conservatives will campaign hard to remind Canadians of what Lewis has said and done.
Because in the end, the only thing that…
I know he’s bright and telegenic. I liked his show when I used to watch it, but I think they’d have been better off with somebody who has a history of winning elections, and grew up in a working family.
Warren,
Only stupid Liberals and dumbass Conservatives would write him off just getting out of the gate. His initial instincts are to do what it takes to get a breakout in the next election. I also think people are fools to underestimate him. He's going places, the NDP in AB and SK not so much. Lewis wants dialogue between the various NDP parties. Pretty smart in my book.