As the guy who presided over the New Democratic Party’s decline to fourth party status and a single digit seat count, Jagmeet Singh is a complete disaster as NDP leader by all available metrics except the one that matters. Because he ‘led’ in such a way as to make the Liberals look good enough to voters and deny the hated conservatives their shot at power, Singh ultimately understood the assignment. Like every other federal party leader who must atone for the crime of not joining the Liberal Party of Canada, Singh was permitted to make a show of opposing the Liberals for fundraising purposes, and for maintaining the pretense that we are not a one-party state. In return he was expected to support the Liberals when the chips were down and pretend that the crumbs they tossed him were big wins born of inter-party collaboration. 

Avi Lewis, the new elected federal NDP leader, doesn’t understand the assignment. His father, the recently-deceased Stephen Lewis, and his father’s father David Lewis before him certainly did, which is why they have public schools named after them and why Stephen represented Canada to the United Nations. Former NDP MP for Nunavut, now the Liberal MP for Nunavut, Lori Idlout, understood the assignment which is why she crossed the floor to the Liberals after endorsing Avi Lewis. Former NDP MPP and soon-to-be Liberal MP for Scarborough Southwest Holy Begum understood the assignment. Former CPC MPs Chris D’Entremont, Matt Jeneroux, and Michael Ma all understood the assignment- literally, in Ma’s case, acting under instructions from Beijing. And the stampede of NDP voters to the Liberals, endorsing a central banker in the last election because Donald Trump gave them an excuse to, all understood the assignment. 

What’s left of the NDP, the people who still don’t quite get how things are done around these parts, gathered in Winnipeg to elect Lewis. 56% of their votes went to a graduate of posh all-boys school Upper Canada College, a two-time unsuccessful candidate for the party he currently leads, and a much less convincing and influential speaker than his own wife Naomi Klein. He defeated ‘establishment’ MP Heather McPherson, who probably lost votes by not referring to Canada as a “militarized petro-state” the way Lewis did. All throughout the interminable race Lewis did a Borscht Belt comedian’s impression of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was last seen disavowing Palestinian commentators who believe referring to Jews as parasites is a valid form of resisting oppression.

Apparently Lewis’ candidacy could not have been complete without glazing the repulsive Hasan Piker, another man with no distinguishable skills beyond being attractive (to some) and identifying people who are not as radical as he is and calling them pedophiles from behind the safety of his computer monitor. And, like Singh before him, Lewis falls neatly into the designed-by-consultant model for the New Democratic Party’s new model minority. Namely an anti-Zionist Jew who can appeal to those who look at the actions of the government of Iran, such as putting 12-year-olds on the front line against America and Israel, and call it a principled fightback against the “Epstein class“, with all the dog-whistly implications that phrase takes in. (Maybe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps thinks the soldiers will be too overcome with desire to fight?)    

To have credibility with today’s left, which the pro-Palestine movement wears like a skinsuit, Lewis must lick the boots of Mamdani and Piker, who recently returned from a junket to Cuba where he and banned-from-Canada Irish rappers Kneecap dressed for a red carpet and partied it up while the island suffered blackouts. It’s a very similar act to that of Pierre Poilievre circa 2024, who engaged in similar colouring-outside-the-lines monkeyshines until he, too, was brought to heel by his betters in the Liberal Party. Like Lewis, Poilievre’s brain trust thought that there was a wide open lane on one ideological flank and that running hard in that direction would bring in more voters than they would drive away. They were spectacularly wrong, because this is Canada, and there is only one lane, and that one lane is perpetually occupied by the Liberal Party of Canada. 

Predictably Lewis’ Jewish surrogates have gone on the attack against anyone who would dare point out the obvious, from Jewish groups to Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi. Well, lefty Tribe members, let me submit to you that Lewis’ leadership presents a unique challenge for the Jewish community in the way that Poilievre’s never could. Because when Lewis disappoints—and he, like every other person in the history of this country who challenged the status quo, will disappoint—the people whom he disappoints are not going to take that disappointment well. They’re not going to be satisfied with an NDP that gets back to 15% of the vote when they could be forcing Mark Carney to do their bidding. They’re not going to be satisfied with a Jew who says the right things on Palestine, because that’s “doing the bare minimum.” And they will wonder why they bothered to prop up a Jew when they can ably get the job done themselves, anti-Zionism notwithstanding. 

And that is why Avi Lewis’s failure to turn whatever momentum he thinks he has into electoral success, and his inevitable retreat back towards the centre, will lead to more, not less, antisemitism, and you won’t be able to blame Israel when it does. 

Josh Lieblein can be reached at [email protected] for your response to Doorstep Postings. You can also submit a Letter to the Editor, in response to Doorstep Postings or any other content from The CJN, here.

Josh LiebleinJosh Lieblein lives in Toronto. Read more of his writing at looniepolitics.com. View all posts

Josh Lieblein lives in Toronto. Read more of his writing at looniepolitics.com.

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