Avi Lewis is a great opposition leader.
So why isn’t he trying to get a seat in the house?
He needs to be in the house. We all know it. Looking at the polling data on who knows Avi Lewis is painful. Lewis is a giant unknown. People would like him if he was able to get any attention outside of the left, but without the resources of Parliament and the daily media scrums, how is he supposed to get the attention that he so desperately requires to have a reputation?
It‘s even worse in Quebec.
Avi Lewis is a complete unknown in most of the country. He needs a platform to make himself known, and the best platform for that is the Parliament.
After Poilievre was elected leader of the Conservatives, more than 50 per cent of Canadians rapidly knew who he was. It seems that it could be as few as 10 per cent know who Lewis is. In a blind test where people were asked to write in the name of each leader of every party, a lot of folks still thought the leader is Jagmeet Singh.
If he was in Parliament, he could change that much easier. The truth is that his movement building outside of Parliament is not garnering attention. How do you rebuild the NDP if no one thinks of them as a relevant party? As far as most people know, the leader of the party doesn’t exist, or is the old guy.
Growth
When I interviewed Lewis way back in the day, I had criticisms of how he performed to my lowball questions. Since then he has significantly improved, and become an excellent communicator who has changed my view on his communication style. I said that he could wind up the “Pierre Poilievre of the left” because he repeated so many slogans early on in his run. He must have heard me, and whomever else, because these days he’s improved to a degree that‘s shaken me.
Still, this improvement isn’t going to make a dent when so few people know who you are. Right now, media outlets aren’t gonna quote the NDP on almost anything. Without the leader in the house, it doesn’t seem worth it.
Over and over media pundits have questioned his decision not to try for a seat, but unanimously they agree on why he doesn’t want to do it. It’s simple: He’s afraid.