Avi Lewis, New Socialist Leader of Canada's NDP: "Life Just Doesn't Have to Be S [0:00-5:01]

This is Democracy Now, democracynow.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzales. I'm in Toronto, Canada today, where special elections were held earlier this month, delivering a slim majority in the House of Commons to the Liberal Party and Prime Minister Mark Carney, who will now have more latitude to advance this political agenda. Last year, Canada's Liberal Party's Jordan popularity as President Trump intensified his threats to make Canada the 51st state and imposed tariffs. This is a video message released by Prime Minister Corny last week. Security can't be achieved by ignoring the obvious or downplaying the very real threats that we Canadians face. So here's the current situation. The world, as I said earlier, is more dangerous and divided. The U.S. has fundamentally changed its approach to trade, raising its tariffs to levels last seen during the Great Depression. Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become our weaknesses, weaknesses that we must correct. Workers in our industries most affected by U.S. tariffs, in autos, in steel, in lumber, are under threat. Businesses are holding back investments, restrained by the pall of uncertainty that's hanging over all of us. The U.S. has changed, and we must respond. Canada's strong is our plan to build Canada by Canadians, for Canadians. Meanwhile, Canada's main progressive party, the National Democratic Party, or NDP recently elected socialist activist, documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis, as its new party leader. The NDP was once the main opposition party, Canada, but now holds just five seats in the House of Commons. Lewis campaigned on a platform of affordability, equity, and higher wealth taxes. The NDP will now have to rebuild. Avi Lewis comes from a prominent political family. His grandfather, David Lewis, helped found the NDP and led the party. And Avi Lewis's father, Steven Lewis, led the Ontario NDP in the 70s. Steven Lewis was also a human rights advocate, broadcaster, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, and special UN envoy on HIV, AIDS, and Africa. Steven Lewis died of cancer at the age of 88, just two days after Avi's election vis-victory. This is Avi Lewis, speaking at his father's memorial on Sunday. Many of you know that the final months of Dad's journey coincided with my campaign for the leadership of Canada's NDP, our lifelong political home. And for those of you watching from around the world. It is a miracle to be able to tell you that the last thing he saw with open eyes in this life was our victory in that race and the passing of the political torch. To talk about his election, his father and more, were joined now by Avi Lewis in Ottawa. First of all, Avi, our condolences on the death of your father, Steven Lewis, a man we interviewed a number of times over the years. If you can talk about the trajectory of your family and what has brought you to this point as the new leader of Canada's new Democratic Party, the NDP. Good morning, Amy. Thank you so much for those kind words. It has been obviously the last month of my life has been just an extraordinary experience. I'm at a loss for words, which as you know, my family doesn't happen very often. Yeah, I grew up in the NDP of the 1970s. And in a way, the sort of last moment in the post-war boom of public ownership and build out in Canada of our social safety net, our universal healthcare system, which the NDP was the founding force in bringing it from Tommy Douglas and Saskatchewan to the national level. It's our pride and joy. It's one of the main things that makes us different from the United States. We don't have to be rich to get sick in Canada, although the privatization efforts have accelerated and our healthcare system is not what it used to be. It's really these kinds of accomplishments and that period of the 1970s was when I was, you know, I was a kid, but I grew up in the party. My life, as you know, because we've talked many times over the years, has been devoted to activism came up in the globalization movement when we were fighting these free trade deals that would integrate Canada's economy so tightly with the United States that now we're in an era of Trump stopping around the world, acting with impunity, shredding international norms, and attacking Canada, threatening to annex us and loving these massive economic attacks in the form of tariffs. We are, you know, we were always right to say that we should never integrate our economy so deeply with the United States, but now we have to figure out how to Trump proof