New NDP leader Avi Lewis continuing family tradition of 'champagne socialism'
Avi Lewis is not just leading a political party, he is perpetuating a family dynasty of 'socialist royalty,' disconnected from the working-class realities his rhetoric claims to champion.
Article by Rebel News staff
Avi Lewis didn’t just inherit politics ... he inherited a family throne. His grandfather, David Lewis, led the Ontario NDP. His father, Stephen Lewis, took the federal party helm and later became Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations. And now Avi Lewis carries the torch, making it three generations in a row. Rare in any party, this succession looks less like democracy and more like royalty: an elite dynasty masquerading as populist socialism.
Yet while the NDP claims to fight for the underprivileged, Avi Lewis’s upbringing tells a very different story. He spent his formative years at Upper Canada College, Toronto’s priciest private school and a grooming ground for Canada’s elite. In the 1990 essay collection Old Boys: The Powerful Legacy of Upper Canada College, Lewis reflects on those years ... not as a student of modest means, but as one among the privileged. He describes classmates who “would run this world in their purest state” and recounts escorting Prince Philip during the school’s sesquicentennial.
Despite this, Lewis frames himself as a victim of wealth and privilege. He repeatedly emphasizes how “gifted” he was and how persecuted he felt, ignoring that he had access, opportunity and every material advantage imaginable. He paints the schoolyard as a microcosm of corporate ruthlessness, yet he personally benefited from the very elite networks he claims to disdain. This is the hallmark of the “champagne socialist”: lecturing the working class while living among the rich and insulated.
The NDP under Lewis reflects the same contradictions. Once the party of farmers and union workers, it now prioritizes identity politics, equity initiatives, and “race cards” in party procedures, an Orwellian twist that rewards activism over merit or experience. Lewis himself advocates public ownership of the means of production while comfortably ensconced in wealth, married to activist Naomi Klein, and surrounded by lifelong left-wing elites.
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Ezra Levant
Rebel Commander
Ezra Levant is the founder and owner of Rebel News and the host of The Ezra Levant Show. He is the author of multiple best-selling books, including Ethical Oil, The Libranos, China Virus, and most recently, Trudeau's Secret Plan.
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COMMENTS
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2026-04-01 17:51:02 -0400Grandson is a lot like Grandpa. I remember the 1972 federal election in which David Lewis made the phrase “corporate welfare bums” his campaign slogan. It appears that Avi, being of the upper, though leftist half, class, might have benefited from that “welfare” at one time or another.
Dippers hypocrites? Nah……
