Avi Lewis leads NDP race with bold reforms and strong Quebec support
WINNIPEG - It all comes down to this.
With all eyes on front-runner Avi Lewis as the final ballots are cast, NDP leadership contenders made their last pitches to party faithful Saturday.
To Lewis, the self-declared democratic socialist, it was a chance to preview his vision of a bolder party to a room of New Democrats with mixed views on his ascent to power.
"We're so close to the finish line and the start of a much bigger race, to bring our party back from the wilderness and into the heart of Canadian political life once again," Lewis said in a speech to delegates gathered at the RBC Convention Centre ahead of Sunday's result announcement.
A Lewis-led NDP, he said, would "stay laser-focused on the cost of living crisis" as "the only party that can tell Canadians the truth about why everything is so expensive.
"A handful of giant corporations dominate every sector of our economy. These co-operative cartels fix prices, control markets, and profit from the crisis of the cost of living," Lewis said. "In the face of inequality at an all-time high, we are done nibbling around the edges.
"That means fighting for solutions that are actually as big as the crises we face," like "head-to-toe health care to fare-free transit, to tuition-free education," Lewis declared.
Polling analyst Phillipe Fournier, editor-in-chief of 338Canada, told the Star he expects Lewis "not only should win, but should win on a first ballot.
"Mr. Lewis has a huge advantage in fundraising, not only in the money, but also in the number of donors. He went to places that other candidates did not go," said Fournier, highlighting Lewis's outreach in Quebec.
"Now the question is, how big of a win, because first ballot could mean 52 per cent but it also could mean 70."
