John Ivison: The disturbingly powerful allure of Avi Lewis’s ‘gen Z socialism’

Leader of NDP Avi Lewis speaks during a press conference at the West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK /Postmedia

Article content

Article content

“Canada, mark your calendar. The NDP comeback starts now,” he said.

Article content

Article content

But it turns out, he was right. A Liaison Strategies poll released on Monday had NDP support at 15 per cent, with the party leading among 18–34 year olds. To put that in context, the NDP won the support of 1.2-million voters in the 2025 election. If a vote were held tomorrow, with a similar turnout, at this level of polling, the party would win nearly three million votes.

Article content

Article content

Since May 15, nine opinion polls have the NDP in double-digit territory, in large part because of a cooling in sentiment on the left for the Liberals.

Article content

Article content

The polls suggest that Lewis is becoming more familiar to Canadians and a lot of them apparently quite like what they are seeing: ostensibly, an articulate, telegenic, bilingual leader, arguing for a better deal for workers and the young, particularly when it comes to the adoption of artificial intelligence.

Article content

He has not acclimatized to national politics yet, as he showed in his press conference when asked about the Alberta separatist movement. “The separatist movement in Alberta has no point of comparison with the historic sovereignty movement in Quebec,” he said. “It’s a MAGA-aligned, potentially funded, disruptive movement… It’s not the same thing.” He could hardly have done more for the separatists in Alberta if he had called them “deplorables.”

Article content

However, his “humans-first AI strategy”, his proposed ban on surveillance pricing (where companies use personal data to determine prices), and his call to remove the Canadian Labour Code’s article 107 (which gives the minister discretionary authority to order striking workers back to work) have all positioned Lewis as being well within the parameters of NDP convention as a pragmatic democratic socialist.

Article content

Article content

Last week, he promised the Liberals “a very hot summer” if they limit the right to strike, which he said is “under attack” after the government held consultations on the Labour Code.

Article content

Article content

Lewis said the Liberals have been “flooding the zone” with legislation attacking environmental, worker and Indigenous rights since they gained their majority.

Article content

“There is a reasonable fear that they’re going after the right to strike as a whole, or at least on major projects,” he said.

Article content

This is a smart position that any NDP leader in the last 40 years, from Ed Broadbent to Jack Layton, would likely have taken.

Article content

But voters should not be fooled. Lewis is not Broadbent or Layton; he is an unabashed proponent of what The Economist this week labelled “Gen Z socialism.” As his leadership platform revealed, Lewis wants to remake the economy with price controls on groceries and rent, impose hefty wealth taxes and nationalize grocery, telecom and pharma companies. He would pause the expansion of AI data centres and place an export tax on U.S.-bound fossil fuels.

Article content

“This country is awash with wealth,” he said in his platform, “a fountain of wealth… but it’s not trickling down to working people. It’s stuck at the top, being hoarded by the corporate welfare bums.”