Avi Lewis snags first caucus endorsement for NDP leader with backing from Winnipeg MP Leah Gazan

OTTAWA — Winnipeg MP Leah Gazan says she’s backing activist Avi Lewis as the NDP’s next leader, becoming the first of the party’s seven-member caucus to endorse a leadership candidate.

Gazan said in a video released Thursday morning that Lewis was the right person to lead the party in a “critical moment” for Canada and the world.

“I’m supporting Avi (Lewis) because he can blow open the doors of our movement, making it a home for everyone who believes in economic, social and environmental justice,” said Gazan.

Gazan has been critical of Lewis’s moderate rival, Edmonton MP Heather McPherson. She wrote in a September social media post that McPherson’s suggestion that the NDP subjected would-be joiners to a “purity test” was an implicit rebuke of calls for justice from the various “marginalized communities” that the party has historically fought for.

Lewis is widely considered the most hard-left of the major candidates in the race, calling for a national wealth tax, more government control of food distribution and the phasing-out of fossil fuels.

He and wife Naomi Klein, a fellow activists, are two of the authors of the 2015 Leap Manifesto, a document calling for the NDP to embrace a radical social and ecological justice agenda.

McPherson picked up a key endorsement from former Timmins, Ont. MP Charlie Angus earlier this week and has also been endorsed by Rachel Notley, the former NDP premier of Alberta.

Lewis, McPherson and union leader Rob Ashton are considered the three frontrunners in the NDP leadership race, with the party’s next leader to be announced on Mar. 29 in Winnipeg.

National Post

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