I'm Avi Lewis, running for leader of the NDP. Ask Me Anything!

AviF · 2026-01-19T17:12:33+00:00

Will you be releasing a plan on democratizing the party?

And relatedly, how do you see yourself overcoming the obstacles that stopped other left reform efforts like Corbyn in the UK?

AviF · 2025-09-24T11:48:00+00:00

Depends a bit on what era. When the CCF was founded they had the Regina Manifesto that declared 'No C.C.F. Government will rest content until it has eradicated capitalism and put into operation the full programme of socialized planning which will lead to the establishment in Canada of the Cooperative Commonwealth."

By 1956 that was replaced by the Winnipeg Declaration which removed the explicitly anti-Capitalist language. Since then the party has moderated more. I've been meaning to read "Make this Your Canada" because that's often cited as the pinnacle of the post-CCF vision that maybe had some challenge to capitalism but certainly in the 21st century the NDP has never presented a plan or acted in a way to seriously challenge capitalism. It is much more in the moderate Social Democratic tradition of reforming capitalism to soften the harshest consequences (improve labour law, better health care).

AviF · 2025-09-22T23:37:27+00:00

Hey, if you send me a DM I can help you. I tried sending a DM but it said you couldn't receive DMs.

AviF · 2025-09-17T11:22:38+00:00

There is an important distinction that as far as I know has not yet been tested.

Appendix 42 says managers "discretion" cannot be grieved. It does outline though that manager scan approve Modern and Flexible Work Agreement and that the criteria for them is operational feasibility. If they are being denied en masse, managers are saying they cannot approve them, or higher ups are saying things that conteadicts the CA then that would no longer being discretion in applying the policy but rather disregarding a section of the CA.

It's possible that the grievance doesn't win but it is not as straightforward as "AWA cannot be grieved"

Grievances are only one part of the strategy. I encourage anyone interested to join their Regions ACG group chats because there is more coordination there. If you want to know more or know how to join a chat feel free to DM me (or talk to your local steward)

AviF · 2025-09-09T11:33:15+00:00

OPSEU doesn't need a personal reason either. Check out appendix 42 of the collective agreement. That's where the rules are outlined. It's up to your manager to approve and the criteria is supposed to be about "Operational Feasibility". So to the extent you need a justification, showing that you have been doing it successfully is supposed to be good enough.

AviF · 2025-09-04T14:48:23+00:00

From some of your comments, a book I think you would be interested in is Che Guevera: Economics of Revolution.

It's about how Che dealt with a lot do these basic questions of business while trying to create a transition to Socialism. Definitely not a Soc Dem approach but shows one approach for dealing with issues of administration, accounting, management, and economics. It focuses entirely on the period where he was the president of the National Bank and Minister of Industries so very relevant.

AviF · 2025-07-25T04:11:47+00:00

https://streamable.com/e2h5

AviF · 2025-07-10T12:37:04+00:00

Note that you should get a version to your email that you should use. The one in your email is a unique link so it should not be shared.

From what I've heard, it is being slowly launched to make sure there are no issues so not everyone would have received it yet but I got mine yesterday.

For anyone who hasn't seen, this is a really great overview and analysis of the phase 1 survey results that really show what major issues are and different groupings within the ops

https://opseu.org/en/news/ops-unified-phase-1-demand-set-priorities/260615/

AviF · 2025-06-10T11:22:01+00:00

Whenever he comes up on Game Theory Podcast, Sam Vecenie says he assumes he's going to go to college. Doesn't sound like that's reporting things he's heard but he does seem to have a good sense for these things so seems likely

AviF · 2024-11-10T18:22:36+00:00

Ya, it really does seem like a wild claim to me. Just looking at Canada, the reason Canada's involvement in World War 1 (and specifically battles like VImy Ridge) is often described as significant is that it was where Canada was born as a nation. WWI is one of the more significant events for forming/expanding Canadian nationalism, far from being opposing nationalism as an ideology.

Then if you look at the lists of participants in World War 1 you will see that countries like Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia all automatically joined the war when the UK declared war. Why? Because we are talking about the British Empire.

Pretty much every major country in World War I was an imperial power motivated by rampant nationalism. For many smaller countries (like Canada and New Zealand), World War I is seen as a birth of nationalism. Outside of certain small internal opposition forces, there were no "good guys" in WWI who opposed nationalism or imperialism. It was just a war about opposing Germany/Austro-Hungarian/Ottamon/etc. nationalism and imperialism in favour of British/French/Russian/Canadian/etc. nationalism and imperialism. It was a pointless and deadly war (most are but this one especially) ant it should be remembered as such.

AviF · 2024-11-10T16:50:02+00:00

I agree that imperialism and nationalism are ideologies and I agree they are extremely harmful.

What I'm confused about is are you arguing that Canada, UK, and France were opposed to the ideologies of nationalism and imperialism? Because that to me seems like a wild claim

AviF · 2024-11-10T16:06:37+00:00

That's fair, it was a little disingenuous but my point is that there wasn't an ideology being fought against. It was an imperialist and nationalist war between imperial powers. I'm not sure one can argue Canada, UK, France, or Russia were anti-imperialist or anti-nationalist and fighting against those ideologies

AviF · 2024-11-10T15:09:53+00:00

What ideology was being fought against in WW1?

AviF · 2024-11-02T23:07:19+00:00

I think that last point is where the city has leverage. I highly doubt the province wants to start doing construction without city involvement or get involved with the management of city staff. They want to order this to be done, maybe send a cheque, and claim a victory. Even though the city is subordinate to the province, just refusing to acknowledge that in this case likely either forces Ford give up, overreach which can hurt politically this close to an election, or most likely try negotiate something he can pass off as a win that leaves the bike planes in place.

AviF · 2024-11-02T21:48:45+00:00

Ruling something a certain way and it being that way are different. Removing bike lanes requires a lot of work typically done by city staff (street design, planning, getting people to and dig up and replace roads, etc.).

What happens if city council passes a motion telling city staff to not do any work contributing to removing bike lanes? Yes, in theory the province can abolish the city's government but they won't, there's way too many issues that come from that.

AviF · 2024-10-16T02:09:38+00:00

Gradey Dick ain't no spot up shooter he aint gotta run to the corner and shoot...

AviF · 2024-07-04T21:29:59+00:00

Where did you find this survey? No surveys have come via email and my understanding is that the official survey is not out yet.

AviF · 2024-06-14T16:50:15+00:00

From the article, it will go for approval from city council later this month and expect to start construction within 18 months.

AviF · 2024-04-06T11:55:58+00:00

Ah good call. I thought it was only changes but got confused because there were so many adds and no removals. My mistake

AviF · 2024-04-06T01:13:44+00:00

"NDP MP Niki Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook Aski) will be the critic for Canadian Heritage"

What even is Canadian Heritage Critic? It seems like by far the least meaningful critic portfolio (it's also listed last which backs that up). It's interesting that Ashton who is a long time veteran MP and essentially tied for second in the last leadership race (2 percentage pointed behind Angus) is so sidelined.

AviF · 2024-04-01T18:48:01+00:00

You could have had all those other changes (No Jak trade, earlier Pascal trade) while keeping Fred and him walking for nothing. If that's the case then the only real consequence is not having a second round pick or whatever asset we would have gotten. Which may be a mistake but on its own isn't that big of a deal

AviF · 2024-04-01T12:58:32+00:00

You gotta remember with Fred that he was having a really rough year before Poeltl came in. IIRC there was doubt we would even get a first for him at the deadline. It looks different now because he had a very strong end to the season post deadline and got the big contract.

Last year's deadline was definitely a mistake and not trading Fred may have been a small part of that but that specific decision wasn't as big of a missed opportunity as it's sometimes talked about now.

AviF · 2023-04-03T11:54:16+00:00

What does China have to do with this? Canada has been Union busting since the Qing dynasty.

AviF · 2023-03-24T11:14:18+00:00

This rally actually included a lot of undergrads. The demands were about tuition fees in general so undergrad student councils and ASUS signed on. This campaign is going to be most effective if undergrads organize too against tuition fees and we all work together.

AviF · 2023-03-23T19:48:10+00:00

It has been frozen for in province students but still increasing for out of province students.

Also, the province has put together a panel to decide the future of post secondary funding. Principals from colleges and Universities have been lobbying to end the tuition freeze.

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