What We Knew
While Lewis’ campaign narrative has normally been framed in terms of his family history in the NDP, the aspect of his track record that strikes me as more significant is his time as a journalist. While it’s been some time since I found political panel and interview shows to be worth much attention, Lewis’ intelligence and insight on CounterSpin both made for worthwhile watching, and earned him credibility with all kinds of political actors.
It’s always a challenge for an NDP leader to both earn attention and be taken seriously within the broader political scene - and Lewis’ track record gives him a major head start on that front, even as he also laps the field in progressive movement credibility.
The challenge for Lewis has been to translate those traits within the membership, particularly when they haven’t yet resulted in riding-level electoral success, and when much of the party establishment seems fairly determined to stop him.
What We’ve Learned
In another field of candidates, Lewis might have been vulnerable to being beaten out in personability or French language skills. In this one, he’s been the standout in both communications and organizational strength - while also giving NDP members plenty of intriguing ideas to work with. And while he’s taken the few barbs that have been launched during the course of the campaign, he’s responded with messages of unity without sacrificing principle in the process.
What He’s Proposing
Maybe most ambitiously - if also most optimistically - Lewis’ plan to turn constituency associations into community organizing hubs on a systematic basis looks to be an ideal fit for the political moment. We can count on the next few years featuring plenty more abuses from the Trump regime as well as inspiring responses at the community level; the path toward rebuilding involves turning increases outrage and awareness into lasting involvement.
What to Watch For
While it’s rightly been pointed out that Lewis’ fund-raising prowess (in both donors and dollars) likely signals a lead in the campaign, it’s also worth noting that he doesn’t seem to have an advantage on the same scale as Jack Layton or Jagmeet Singh in the campaigns where they cruised to victory.
At this point, the race seems likely to take more than one ballot to decide, which would require Lewis to earn down-ballot support to come out ahead. And if the next candidates in line end up seeing their support go to each other, Lewis may need to count on a push from Johnston and McQuail supporters to put him over the top.
[Edit: corrected name of Lewis’ show.]
I'm voting for Avi Lewis. I've liked him since back when he ran Counterspin, perhaps the only genuinely progressive TV news show ever aired on CBC. I liked his documentary "The Take" about Argentinian workers taking over factories and running them. I liked the Leap Manifesto. And I like his current political ideas.
ReplyDeleteWhile all the candidates are good people who like mom, apple pie, not being racist and so on, Lewis seems to me by far the strongest on saying what he wants to actually do to change the trajectory of the country to make things categorically better. And he has both the knowledge, the self-confidence and the experience to be hard to push away from his program by people saying "But you have to be realistic!"