{"id":520455,"date":"2026-03-07T13:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T13:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/520455\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T13:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T13:20:12","slug":"ndp-leader-hopeful-avi-lewis-calls-carneys-iran-response-incoherent-rules-out-byelection-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/520455\/","title":{"rendered":"NDP leader hopeful Avi Lewis calls Carney’s Iran response ‘incoherent,’ rules out byelection run"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A front-runner for the federal NDP leadership is suggesting if he wins, he’d wait to run for a seat in Parliament and instead focus on rebuilding the party.<\/p>\n

Avi Lewis made the comments to reporters following a campaign event on Thursday night in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

“The new leader has to get in there, actually look at the books, find out what the debt is, figure out how to be election ready as quickly as possible,” Lewis said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a transition that is more important, in our case, than if we had party status and had more staff and had more resources in Parliament.”<\/p>\n

The New Democrats had their worst election showing ever last April, with only seven MPs surviving in the House of Commons. Leader Jagmeet Singh lost his own seat and resigned.<\/p>\n

Lewis, who has never held public office and ran twice unsuccessfully for a federal seat, also ruled out running in any upcoming byelections, including ones in the Greater Toronto Area where he grew up.<\/p>\n

Online voting for a new NDP leader begins on Monday. The winner will be announced March 29.<\/p>\n

Also contending for NDP leader is Heather McPherson, the only sitting MP in the race, Rob Ashton, a national union leader, Tanille Johnston, a social worker and first Indigenous woman to run for the job and Tony McQuail, a farmer and environmentalist.<\/p>\n

\"TheTanille Johnston, Tony McQuail, Avi Lewis, Heather McPherson and Rob Ashton are seen at an NDP leadership debate last month. (Ethan Cairns\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

McPherson, who Lewis said he has “tremendous respect and love for,” has pitched herself as the candidate with political experience and a seat in the House of Commons that would enable her to get to work right away.<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t be the first leader to come in and not have a seat,” Lewis said. “The bigger task for us is to rebuild the party.”<\/p>\n

Lewis calls Carney’s Iran comments ‘all over the place’<\/p>\n

Of all the candidates, Lewis has been campaigning the most aggressively, holding regular events throughout Canada and garnering support from big names like David Suzuki.<\/p>\n

He’s also been heavily fundraising \u2014 something the indebted party desperately needs. His event Thursday included a QR code for supporters to scan to make a donation. At several points, an image of a large thermometer was put on a screen, similar to those used for charity drives, tracking funds collected that evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his 45-minute speech to a crowd of 500 supporters, Lewis said the NDP could “build a party for the 99 per cent.”<\/p>\n

Lewis said his campaign has gained momentum because “we’ve just been indulging in a little straight talk.”<\/p>\n

He said his positions have a “moral clarity” and that he’s not “trying to find the magic words that won’t offend anybody, but actually saying such things that need saying.”<\/p>\n

One of those most important things, Lewis said, is clearly stating “the genocide in Gaza is a horror that has ripped open this world.”<\/p>\n

\"ALewis says voters are responding well to his ‘straight talk.’ (Spencer Colby\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

Lewis also took on prime minister Mark Carney’s recent comments about the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

“It’s nice [for me] to be able to say straightforward things like: Canada shouldn’t support any illegal war of aggression anywhere,” Lewis said.<\/p>\n

“Let’s think it through. You’re not ruling out the possibility of sending Canadian troops to be vulnerable to prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity \u2026 Canada can’t be flirting with joining an effort like that.”<\/p>\n

Lewis was referring to Carney’s comments to a reporter’s question earlier this week that left the door open to participating in the escalating situation in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carney did not suggest Canada would join the U.S. and Israel’s campaign on Iran, but did say he couldn’t “categorically rule out participation” in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

“We will stand by our allies when it makes sense,” Carney said.<\/p>\n

The prime minister originally expressed support for the U.S. launching strikes on Iran. <\/p>\n

Lewis called Carney’s responses to the conflict “incoherent” and “all over the place.”<\/p>\n

“We’re waiting for the prime minister to actually come out and say what most Canadians believe, which is \u2026 that Canada is against this war,” he said.<\/p>\n

New Democrats and foreign affairs<\/p>\n

In the past, voters have not seen the NDP as being serious on issues of international affairs, which has in hurt them in previous elections, said \u00c9ric Grenier, a polls analyst with TheWrit.ca.<\/p>\n

(McPherson, however, notably did became an early and outspoken voice against the war in Gaza in her previous role as NDP foreign affairs critic.)<\/p>\n

“Foreign policy is one of the issues [where] the NDP at the moment can take a position that is quite opposed to where the Conservatives are and where the Liberals are,”\u00a0Grenier said.<\/p>\n

“If they stake out a position where it was wrong from the get-go, if Mark Carney is a little more wishy-washy or flip-floppy on some of those issues, then that could give the NDP an opportunity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-520455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}