‘Don’t know what it means to be a Liberal anymore’: NDP Leader Avi Lewis on recent floor-crossing

NDP Leader Avi Lewis opens up about his father, Stephen Lewis, reflecting on his legacy and shares plans to rebuild the party.

The newly elected leader of the federal NDP says political parties “should mean something,” in light of recent floor-crossings, the latest being former Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu, who crossed the floor to join the Liberals on Wednesday.

“I think Canadians are starting to question what this majority government will mean if Carney can assemble it,” Avi Lewis, the Vancouver-based documentary filmmaker and author who won the NDP leadership vote on March 29, told CTV Your Morning Thursday.

He also said he thinks Canadians are starting to question whether their votes stand for anything in light of successive members of Parliament defecting to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals.

The NDP has a longstanding policy that floor-crossers should resign their seats and allow their constituents to decide what party affiliation they want their MP to have, through a byelection.

Lewis, levelling a partisan jab at the prime minister, said, “I don’t know what it means to be a Liberal anymore after yesterday’s bombshell,” and accused Carney of building “a big tent” that’s “as big as the entire political spectrum.”

Gladu is the fifth MP to cross the floor to the Liberal party, and the fourth Conservative, in the last few months.

• NDP MP Lori Idlout crossing floor to Liberals, PM Carney two seats shy of majority
• Floor crossing comes after reflection about ‘gravity of the moment’: Jeneroux
• Another Conservative MP crosses floor to Liberals, brings party closer to majority
• Former Conservative d’Entremont crossed the floor. Here’s how his riding is reacting

The Carney Liberals have been inching their way towards forming a majority government, thanks to the number of floor-crossers. As of April 8, the Liberals need only one more seat to reach the required 172 for a slim majority in the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, three federal byelections on Monday, including two in Ontario and one in Quebec, could give the Carney government a leg up.

It wasn’t just Carney that Lewis levelled criticism of during the interview, he also said the successive MPs to leave Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s team is indicative his opposition rival is in a “leadership crisis.”

‘Lane is wide open for the NDP’: Lewis

Lewis, a self-described democratic socialist, pointed out that Gladu voted in favour of a Conservative private member’s bill in 2021 to ban sex-selective abortion and opposed a conversion therapy ban bill that same year.

He said that if she is now considered Liberal, it makes a clear case for Canadians needing “a progressive alternative, and the lane is wide open for the NDP there.”

Though, Lewis in the interview also indicated he doesn’t feel that “progressive alternative” needs to try to get a seat in the House of Commons right away.

When asked where he will run for a seat, Lewis stressed that he plans to focus on rebuilding the party first.

“I talked to the caucus, very first caucus meeting right after I was elected, and they were like, ‘You stay out there,’” Lewis said. “Keep travelling. Tour the country. Listen to Canadians. Talk to Canadians about our everyday solutions to the crises they’re facing and rebuild our party.”

“We’re going to pay off our debt, we’re going to build our war chest,” he added, referring to the debt that the party faces following the last election.

Reflections on his father

Meanwhile, Lewis described his father, Stephen Lewis – a former Ontario NDP leader and diplomat, who died two days after his son was elected as the federal leader of the party, as a “political junkie.”

“(I) took the stage, gave the victory speech, got off the stage, did the first major interview, called the palliative care room where my family was all gathered around my dad’s bed watching the results … and they put me on speaker and I gave him the breakdown,” he said, recalling the day of his win.

“My mom was like, ‘Do you hear him? Are you getting this?’ And he was like, ‘Yes.’ I think that was the last thing that he said.”

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News’ Luca Caruso-Moro, Rachel Aiello and Spencer Van Dyk