Avi Lewis Victory Speech

Delivered after Avi’s historic victory at the 2026 NDP convention in Winnipeg.

Thank you everyone, thank you. This is a tremendous result.

But even more important than the results of this leadership vote is the unity in our party.

To that end, in my first act as leader, I want to invite our heroic caucus, my wonderful fellow candidates, and the labour leaders representing millions of workers, who are the heart, soul, past and future of our party — to all join me onstage.

Let’s show the country what solidarity looks like.

Thank you, thank you.

Let me start by thanking the greatest campaign team ever — led by campaign manager Savhanna Wilson and powered by an extraordinary group of young people who have changed this convention, changed this party, and will go on to change politics in Canada.

Come on out here!

Friends, if it isn’t already obvious, we are building a new foundation for our party, and we are ready to come roaring back on the Canadian political stage!

After seven months of campaigning across this country, and speaking to thousands upon thousands of Canadians, here is one thing I know for sure — and I want to say it out loud.

Canada: mark your calendar. The NDP comeback starts now.

Et au Québec aussi : notez bien la date. Le retour du NPD commence aujourd’hui.

You can see it in the lineup featured in this race. 4 other candidates, all deep New Democrats, all making a unique and powerful contribution.

Tanille, you’re a sensation and a rising star. You’ve redefined what politics in our party can look like – funny, honest, and rooted in Indigenous ways.

Tony, you have made sure that we never forget the importance of changing our undemocratic first-past-the-post system.

Rob, you’re the real deal. I can’t wait to see you walk into parliament in your work boots.

Workers will always be at the heart of the NDP — the one and only original workers’ party.

And Heather, You know how to win, you help others win, and you get things done in Ottawa.

Your leadership in the House denouncing the genocide in Gaza has been profoundly important.

The NDP family is bursting with talent. Premier Kinew, you’re just a natural born political powerhouse and wow are we lucky to be doing this in Manitoba.

Thank you for providing such a welcoming home to all of us at this convention. On a personal note, our family’s friendship spanning two generations means the world to me.

And of course I look forward to connecting with Premier Eby when I’m back in BC, and continuing a conversation with other provincial leaders, the premiers-in-waiting across the country.

Everywhere in Canada, this party is united in our commitment to working people. And no, we will not always agree on every single issue.

But here’s the thing: our debates are another sign that our party is back and our tent is growing. It’s big enough to hold some differences of opinion within it.

The NDP comeback has arrived just in time. Our party has never been more needed.

Friends, Canadians are living on the edge.

We’re under economic attack from the US, while Donald Trump stomps around the globe grabbing foreign leaders and oil fields and starting wars he has no idea how to stop.

And at the kitchen table in Canada, there’s an even bigger crisis: the everyday emergency of just trying to get by in an impossible economy.

Whether you’re on a single salary, hustling with multiple gig jobs, or taking care of loved ones, working hard no longer earns you a living.

Look, I know every politician says they feel your pain, and claim to be outraged by the sky high price of everything.

But what they won’t talk about is why — an economy that’s rigged for the rich, leaving the vast majority of us behind.

Écoutez, je sais que tous les politiciens prétendent comprendre votre détresse et se disent scandalisés par les prix exorbitants. Mais ils ne vous en disent jamais la raison: une économie truquée au profit des riches, qui abandonne la grande majorité de nous.

And what they definitely won’t talk about is who — a tiny group of billionaires that control every part of our economy, enabled by their friends among both Liberals and Conservatives.

They’ll blame Trump. They’ll blame immigrants. They’ll blame Indigenous land rights. They’ll blame anyone but the CEOs — the corner office class to whom they feel accountable.

Only the NDP will tell the truth: the cost of living emergency is driven by extreme wealth and power in the hands of the 1%.

Six grandes banques qui réalisent des profits astronomiques. Cinq grandes compagnies pétrolières qui se réjouissent d’une nouvelle vague de superprofits grâce à une nouvelle guerre illégale.

Five grocery giants who collude and price-gouge and gorge on profits — they fixed the price of bread for 15 years for heaven’s sake.

3 telecoms corporations with mobile data rates that can cost a thousand times what people pay in Finland!

And let’s not forget the Tech oligarchs and their global digital empires: spying on us from every device and jamming generative AI into every platform.

This is more than a rigged economy — it’s a war on working people.

And it’s why you are in shock at the checkout, in tears looking at your bills at the end of the month. It’s because the wealth of this country is being hoovered up by a corporate elite who are extracting it from you every single day.

It’s immoral, it’s unreasonable, and it’s un-Canadian. And we cannot let it stand.

Friends, we’re at a crossroads in our history.

In our world — with what remains of the international order being torn to shreds by Donald Trump.

In this moment of intense uncertainty our country needs a vision to guide the path we take — one that makes us safer and more secure. One shaped by values shared by most Canadians: fairness, compassion, equality, international solidarity, and love for the natural world.

En cette période de si grande incertitude, nous méritons une vision qui illuminera la voie à suivre. Une vision façonnée par les valeurs de grands nombres de Canadien·nes et Québécois·es : l’équité, la compassion, l’égalité, la solidarité internationale et l’amour de l’environnement.

But that’s not where we’re headed now.

The Prime Minister is very popular at the moment — he’s a smart guy and most Canadians still want to give him the benefit of the doubt. That’s fair.

But I think when you connect the dots, his moves do not add up to the vision that Canadians truly want and deserve in this perilous moment.

Half a trillion dollars for weapons to make Canada a major arms exporter in a war-torn world. Slashing our cherished public services. Sweeping aside Indigenous rights. Full steam ahead on AI. And pipelines.

In the last federal election, Canadians voted to say no to Trump and Trumpism. What they’re getting instead is our government following the US into a future of wars, fossil fuels, austerity, and job-killing, generative AI.

Our NDP has a different offer for this country.

Our plan is to Trump-proof the economy by investing massively in Canadian economic independence, using the unmatched power of public ownership to ensure the fundamentals of a good life.

A network of public providers for food, phones and internet.

A public housing developer and public construction companies to build millions of non-market homes.

A 21st century electrical grid, an EV bus revolution, and a heat pump in every home — all built with Canadian steel, creating tens of thousands of unionized jobs.

Investing in the care economy as true nation-building. The education, healthcare, elder and childcare that holds our social fabric together.

And finishing Tommy Douglas’s dream. Eyes, teeth, mental health, medicine. They’re all part of your health: they must all be part of our universal, public health care system.

If we want Canadians to feel more secure then we have to invest in our security. And we can.

Là, je veux m’adresser directement au peuple québécois — et mon français n’est peut-être pas parfait — mais je tiens à vous dire que l’histoire des luttes du Québec brille fort au sein de notre parti.

Les Québécois et Québecoises ont soif de vraies solutions progressistes. Ils veulent de l’audace : des options publiques pour l’épicerie, le logement, les cellulaires. Ils veulent du clair : plus de pipelines sales, ni ici ni ailleurs.

Et ils veulent de la solidarité, plutôt que de blâmer les plus vulnérables.

Je veux que ce NPD soit votre foyer. Nous allons bâtir ce mouvement ensemble et faire un retour en force au Québec.

Of course, we can already hear the howls from the establishment: but how will you pay for all this?

Well, this country is awash in wealth. We can have nice things. Banks made $70 billion in profits last year. Oil companies are expecting a new windfall in the tens of billions.

Grocery baron Galen Weston alone is worth $20 billion.

It’s time to properly tax the corporations and billionaires that have been riding a tidal wave of profits while the 99% have been suffering and struggling — and use it to directly improve the lives of Canadians.

The money is there. We need a government with the courage to go and get it for all of us.

And we need a government that doesn’t just talk about Canadian values on the world stage — we need one that ACTS with moral clarity when it matters, when missiles are falling on schools and hospitals.

When Israel commits genocide in Gaza, we call it by its name and we do everything in our power to bring it to an end.

When the US and Israel start an illegal and reprehensible war against Iran that sets the world on fire, we say: Canada should have absolutely no role in it whatsoever.

It is humbling to pick up the mantle of leadership from the long line of NDP leaders before me. My grandfather David Lewis, who took over from Tommy Douglas, gave his life to the CCF and then the NDP — working tirelessly for the party from the 1930s til the 1970s.

And friends, a lot of you know that my Dad, Stephen Lewis, isn’t doing too well.

But he’s still with us and hanging on to see the next chapter of our movement.

Ever the political fanatic, he has demanded daily updates about our organizing delivered to his hospital bed — a veritable IV drip of campaign data.

At age 88, he is more passionate about the promise of democratic socialism than he has ever been.

But he told me something kinda heartbreaking that David, his father, said to him once.

David said: not in my lifetime son, but maybe in yours.

Recently, my Dad told me the same thing: not in my lifetime, maybe in yours.

Well Dad: I refuse to tell that to my kid.

We can’t wait another generation. We’ve got to start winning now.

We can live in a country built on a foundation of care and connection.

Where you don’t have to fight every day just for the basics.

Where hard work earns you a living — and if you can’t work, you’re not abandoned.

And where our kids know we are doing everything we can to protect the air and water and their right to a liveable future.

That is why the NDP is coming back. Because we know that a thriving world is possible – and we know who is standing in our way.

There are way more of us than there are of them. We just have to find each other.

And that’s what we’ve started on this campaign.

I want to thank again my incredible team and every single volunteer, donor, voter who has powered this history-making movement over the past seven months.

You have flung open the doors to this party. Your energy and passion is the fuel for all the work ahead.

And it’s not going to stop just because the campaign is over.

Organizing can no longer be something we do when the writ drops — it’s year round work, with the NDP fighting alongside labour unions, and social movements, showing up where we are needed, part of a common front.

The NDP will start winning again because we will become that beacon to the 99%, illuminating the darkening sky of these terrifying times with the energizing light of collective struggle.

This is about all of us coming together to find our place and our power in the thrilling work of building a shared future: a government that works for the many, not the money.

Thank you, let’s get to work.