New NDP Leader Avi Lewis has proposed a national telecom option. Can he make it happen?

Avi Lewis, who proposed a network of public telecom options during his NDP leadership campaign, took home gold this weekend when he was elected the party’s new leader in Winnipeg, Man. His proposal for a public telecom sparked debate when it was announced in November, even among those fighting for a more accessible industry, with advocates wondering if the idea was realistic. “ three telecoms corporations with mobile data rates that can cost a thousand times what people pay in Finland, and the worst customer service on earth,” Lewis said during his victory speech on March 29, while reiterating his promise to create “a public network for food, phones, and internet.” “Seriously, you can watch your best years drain away as you wait on hold just to make some small change to your cell phone plan.” However, despite his individual victory, Lewis will have to pitch his idea to a beleaguered party facing a potential Liberal majority government and an electorate that has largely stopped listening, according to the results of the last federal vote. Leah Ward, vice president of Wellington Advocacy and NDP strategist, told The Wire Report that, at the moment, Lewis has virtually no leverage to lean on. “The NDP is certainly not in a position to advance policy goals in this minority government," they said in an interview before the leadership vote. Ward said what brings ideas to life is having enough organized power to get them on the agenda. Therefore, Lewis’s task will be uniting and mobilizing the public behind his policy goals, which Ward added is also the strategy for rebuilding the NDP’s relevance and making the party’s voice integral to the national conversation. “Carney has made it clear that he’s not interested in making concessions on the left,” Ward said. Without public support behind Lewis’s ideas, they are just words, she added. “Who’s asking for it?,” they said. Erin Morrison, former deputy chief of staff to ex-NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, told The Wire Report she thinks Canadians would be “thrilled” with a public telecom option, adding they pay too much for their phone bills. Lewis’s proposal would be modeled off Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. (SaskTel), and Morrison, also a vice president at Texture Communications, said anyone in Saskatchewan would think this is a “very reasonable thing to do.” “Public telecom works extremely well in Saskatchewan where rural cell connectivity is far better than in provinces that don’t have a public option,” she said. Morrison believes the NDP will bounce back from the 2025 election, which saw only seven New Democrats elected across the country, and said there is “no doubt” the NDP will continue to have influence in Canada. “Every party goes through a period where their fortunes wax and wane,” she said. Although Morrison said a Carney majority feels inevitable, which she believes will “very seriously kneecap the NDP’s efforts to get things done,” it is not impossible. She also said the party needs to unite Canadians, emphasising that it can do that by putting forward policies Canadians feel would make their lives better. The key to getting the NDP’s policies on the agenda, she said, is mobilizing Canadians to pressure Carney into adopting them. “The ball will be in Mr. Carney’s court to decide if he cares about everyday Canadians,” and making things more affordable for them, she said. Meanwhile, Matthew Dubé, former NDP MP and current vice president of Proof Strategies, told The Wire Report before the NDP convention that Lewis’s policy goals might not be designed with the intent of having them implemented by the Liberals. Rather, Dubé continued, the ideas may just be a way to get the government talking about these issues. “I get the sense that Avi Lewis’s goal is to get affordability back on the agenda with the NDP lens,” he said. Dubé said Lewis will face a challenge in building a coalition in the party, noting that many members may not agree that his more radical ideas are the solutions to the issues they aim to tackle. He also said there are ways for Lewis to exert influence on the government without leverage in the House of Commons. Dubé, who was an opposition MP during two majority governments, said Lewis can start by building relationships within government and getting the Liberals to start talking about the issues that are important to NDP members, even if their solutions are not exactly what the NDP envisioned. But, he said, that will be much harder if Lewis does not seek out a seat in the House. Dubé said there is a mindset, especially after a difficult election, that the leader needs to be in community rebuilding and recruiting members. But he said that work should not take precedence over Lewis proving himself in the House of Commons. “In politics you can and should be walking and chewing gum at the same time,” he said. Pollster and Ipsos Public Affairs CEO Darrell Bricker said Lewis’s ability to implement his policy first comes down to his ability to unite a divided party. The NDP recently suffered a loss when MP Lori Idlout (Nunavut) crossed the floor to join the Liberals. Bricker said they could suffer more losses if caucus members are not happy with the leadership choice. Manitoba MP Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, Man.) was the only sitting New Democrat MP to publicly back Lewis's campaign. He also questioned if there would be any motivation for Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, Alta.) to continue with the NDP after losing the leadership race in such a decisive manner, as Lewis won on the contest’s first ballot. However, even with the party’s grassroots uniting behind Lewis, Bricker pointed out that Carney does not need the NDP as much as Justin Trudeau’s 2022 government did when it entered into a supply-and-confidence agreement with Jagmeet Singh’s NDP. Bricker told The Wire Report he does not see a Lewis-led NDP enjoying that kind of leverage any time soon. The only way he sees that happening is if the Liberals start crashing and the NDP gets on the up and up. “He has a very, very weak hand,” Bricker said. That being said, even if he does not have leverage now, Bricker believed we should take his ideas seriously because of what he might represent. Bricker shelves Lewis in with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani: a democratic socialist who has big ideas on public ownership. Bricker expects Lewis will be very aggressive in dealing with the private sector and monopolies like the telecom industry. He said rich conversations have been happening on the democratic socialist side, which has been gaining more traction around the world. Coincidentally, Carney’s governing style has vacated a space on the left side of the political spectrum, he said, which means it could be the NDP’s for the taking. mcollins@thewirereport.ca

New NDP Leader Avi Lewis has proposed a national telecom option. Can he make it happen?

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By Maria Collins
|March 30, 2026

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New NDP Leader Avi Lewis has proposed a national telecom option. Can he make it happen?

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