Article by Rebel News staff.

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The NDP has found a formula. Under Jagmeet Singh, the party won just 6% of the vote and seven seats. Under Avi Lewis — grandson and son of former NDP leaders, and the most explicitly anti-Israel federal party leader in Canadian history — polling has already doubled to around 13%.

On Thursday's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra Levant argued that Naheed Nenshi is running the same calculation in Alberta.

Lewis has positioned the federal NDP as explicitly on the side of Hamas and Iran — calling Israel a "rogue state," demanding a two-way arms embargo and cancellation of the Canada-Israel free trade agreement, and recalling ambassadors.

"Every Israeli is an oppressor no matter what," Ezra said, summarizing Lewis's worldview, "and every Palestinian is oppressed no matter what, and any violence from a Palestinian is therefore justified."

The NDP's woke university base plus a growing bloc of antisemitic new migrants from countries that share that worldview, Ezra suggested, creates a winning coalition. "There's only upside for him."

The same logic applies in Alberta.

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Danielle Smith won her last government by fewer than 150,000 votes. There are now an estimated 250,000 Muslims in Alberta — up from a community roughly the size of the Jewish community when Ezra and Nenshi were university debating partners three decades ago. 

"If Nenshi can activate that base, he's got a real chance just by making that one change," Ezra said. The evidence that Nenshi is making that change came this week.

A video surfaced of him being harangued by anti-Israel activists at a Stampede event for the sin of being photographed with the Israeli ambassador. Nenshi initially pushed back — noting reasonably that he was not going to physically snub a diplomat at a public event.

Days later, however, he published a letter of apology.

"I'm so sorry for the harm it caused," he wrote, going on to describe Israel's actions in Gaza as violations of international law, cite casualty figures, and describe southern Lebanon as a victim of "a sustained campaign" — without mentioning Hezbollah, the peace deal, or Hamas's October 7 attacks.

Ezra noted that Nenshi visited Communist China, allowed the Chinese Communist Party to cover his expenses, stood in Tiananmen Square without a word about the massacre, and said nothing about the million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps.

"Tell me more about human rights and international law," Ezra said. "You hypocrite."

Ezra said he knew Nenshi 30 years ago and does not believe he was antisemitic then or is personally antisemitic now. But he said it no longer matters.

"He leads an antisemitic party proudly and loudly," he said. "And like Avi Lewis, he'll smear the Jews all day long. His conscience is clear on that because winning is everything."