The $20 dream

Back in the mid 1970s youthful me did some volunteer work for a political campaign. Don’t ask me who the candidate was in my riding. I have no idea. The reason I was knocking on doors for whoever it was had nothing to do with them and everything to do with the leader of their party. The party was the New Democratic Party and the leader at the time was Stephen Lewis.

I’d heard him speak at least twice and really wanted this man with his vision of government’s job being to help people to become the next premier of Ontario. He didn’t, but the NDP doubled its seats in the Ontario legislature, reducing the governing Conservatives to a minority and forcing them to bring in rent control to stay in power. (Oh, look, I’ve just checked and the NDP candidate in my riding was Marion Bryden, who did in fact win. I can’t claim that was all down to my door knocking.)

At the same time that Stephen Lewis was inspiring me in Ontario, his father David was doing the same job (head of the NDP) federally and was himself pretty inspiring. As was the previous NDP leader, Tommy Douglas, one of the founding fathers of democratic socialism in Canada. In 2004 Douglas was voted the greatest Canadian in the country’s history. No, the NDP hasn’t ever formed a federal government in Canada, but anyone who’s paid any attention at all (and cares) can tell you Tommy Douglas and his party are the reason we have nationalised health care and a social safety net. And, more recently, the NDP is the only reason I (and millions of other Canadians) now have access to subsidised dental care.

Various Liberal governments have either outright stolen NDP policies because they were so popular or agreed to adopt progressive measures in return for the NDP keeping their minority governments in power.

Stephen Lewis and his wife, pioneering feminist journalist Michele Landsberg, had three children, one of whom is their son Avi. Despite his paternal political heritage, Avi followed his mother’s path into journalism and documentary filmmaking. And was happy to do so often along with his (let’s face it) more famous wife, Naomi Klein. That was before the 2025 federal election.

Last year was the year of strategic voting. The thing the vast majority of Canadians wanted out of the federal election was for Pierre Poilievre to NOT be the Prime Minister. The upshot was that a lot of people who would otherwise have voted for their NDP candidate instead voted Liberal. The party was devastated, reduced to seven MPs across the country and lost its official party status. Not surprisingly Jagmeet Singh, the leader at the time, stepped down.

The federal NDP has had some amazing leaders, up to and very much including Jack Layton, who led them to Official Opposition in 2011. Personally, I think they’ve got it badly wrong the last couple of times.

The one that got away in 2012, following Jack’s tragic death, was Nathan Cullen.

The one that got away in 2017 (after not-Nathan failed to inspire in an election) was firebrand NDP MP Charlie Angus.

Here we are again. And into the ring steps Avi Lewis. (Okay, he’s not exactly a neophyte. He’s twice run unsuccessfully as the NDP candidate for Parliament. No shame in those losses and bravo for trying, but not exactly new to the game.)

Yesterday he was here on the island.

Well, my goodness, he is a personable young(ish) man, ready to smile, ready and able to make his audience smile. It wasn’t exactly like listening to his dad 50 years ago, but it wasn’t bad. He spoke well.

For an hour I listened to him describe the Canada his father (and I) envisaged, the Canada that should and (more importantly, he emphasised confidently) could still be. A country whose government’s primary job is lifting up those on the bottom, not protecting the bottom line of corporations and billionaires.

Yeah, it was a sweet hour. And after his campaign manager (or perhaps fundraising organiser) spoke (for rather too long) at the end of the meeting about the need to get involved and to donate, I stuck a $20 bill in the bucket – the maximum allowable cash donation. It seemed a reasonable price for a dream.

When I left the building, I was feeling pretty good. Dare I say ever so slightly optimistic? By the time I got home whatever that little flicker that was had dimmed.

Call me a cynic (it’s a fair cop), but I fear that moment – if it ever existed – has gone, choked to death by media moguls and greedy billionaires. Is all that 50-year-old, long ago idealism of mine dead and buried. Oddly enough, no. (Why else would I have put $20 in the pot?)

Cynical idealist? Believe it or not, it’s a genuine psychological thing.

Is Avi Lewis the person to revitalise the NDP and get it back to doing its job of getting the Liberals to do the right thing? I don’t know.

There are several candidates. I need to do a fair bit of research to figure out if any of them has a dream worth more $20 dream for me.