For this first time since stepping into the role of federal NDP leader, Avi Lewis made a stop in Saskatoon.
“It’s been thrilling…On a long weekend, we just had the Roxy [theatre] absolutely jammed to the rafters. And we’ve had big crowds wherever we go, and there’s a lot of excitement,” Lewis said.
Lewis was elected to lead the New Democrats at the end of a March leadership convention, where he garnered 56 per cent of the vote.
He’s taking the helm at a critical juncture for the party.
Former leader Jagmeet Singh stepped down after a resounding defeat in the 2025 federal election where Singh lost his Burnaby Central seat to Liberal MP Wade Chang.
“Obviously we don’t have any federal seats here. We have a provincial party, which is thriving. And I very much expect that the Saskatchewan NDP will be the next government of this province. When the next election is called, I think the people in Saskatchewan are ready for a change. And I think they’re ready for refocusing on the public health care system, against the backroom deals,” Lewis said.
Hosted at Saskatoon’s Roxy Theatre, a rally provided an opportunity for Lewis to address the topics he felt were relevant to those in Saskatchewan.
“Agricultural policy…it’s just been turned into a corporatization. Family farms, it was an endangered species, and now it’s almost extinct,” he said.
“And now farming is all big business, and they’re mostly crops for export. We’re sending them into other countries. Meanwhile, Canadians are under attack from the United States economically and even threats of annexation.”
Lewis said he believes food sovereignty, and Saskatchewan’s potential role in achieving it, in that goal has not been talked about enough in Ottawa.
“How do we have an independent food system where our incredible farmers on this arable land all over the country, but especially here in the heartland, actually grows food for local Canadians that local Canadians can afford?” Lewis asked.
The federal NDP has not held a seat in the province for some time. Lewis hopes to see his party make a comeback in Saskatchewan, where for several decades riding boundaries split the province’s urban centres, favouring rural voters who have tended Conservative.
When voters in Saskatoon sent Sheri Benson to Ottawa for the NDP in 2015, it was the first NDP MP elected in Saskatchewan since 2000. Not incidentally, it was also a year that saw the return of all-urban ridings.
As he makes his way to across the province, the party leader told media the now non-existent Saskatchewan Transit Company (STC) has become a recurring topic of discussion among those he speaks with.
“It was just eliminated for ideological reasons almost a generation ago now. And then ten years ago, when Greyhound decided to just abandon the prairies for sale. Suddenly, if you don’t have a private car or if you’re suffering under $2 a liter gas and can’t afford to get to see your grandparents, or you can’t get to get to a cancer appointment, this is scandalous,” Lewis said.
At the rally, many attendees showed up to sign one or both of two petitions. One petition was against surveillance pricing, which is the practice of companies using artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor consumer data such as search histories to determine price changes.
“Big tech and big retail teaming up to use algorithms to jack up prices for you individually to whatever the algorithm thinks you can pay, which we’ve called for it to be banned across the country and here in Saskatchewan,” Lewis said.
The second petition was against the plans for Bell Canada’s AI data centre outside of Regina in the Sherwood area.
“While Bell Canada and the Government of Canada talk about data sovereignty, what I’ve learned here in Saskatoon is that people are really concerned about the government’s ‘all in on AI’ policy, and these job killing technologies that are being embraced wholesale, no brakes, no guardrails, no regulation by the Government of Canada and by provinces like the Scott Moe Government — and people in Saskatchewan and right here in Saskatoon are really concerned about the impact of this technology,” Lewis said.
CTV has reached out the province and federal government for a response but heard nothing by publication time.
“We’re calling for a pause on the building of AI data centers until we have some guardrails and regulation on the surveillance of big tech in our lives, and the extraction of our local energy and water, and putting data centers in our neighborhoods,”
Lewis believes government policy needs to catch up to the technology before starting projects like this one.
“We’re not saying we can put the toothpaste back in the tube. This technology can be used for the public good, but we have a government that is just rushing for it, and it’s putting communities in danger, and people in Saskatoon are really concerned about it,” Lewis said.