New Jewish Canadian Party Leader Says 'Jews of Conscience' Stand Against Israel's Genocide in Gaza

Mehdi Hasan· Host0:00

As US President Donald Trump continues to cause global havoc, many people across the world are looking for strong lefty leaders to act as a counterweight to him and to American hegemony. That figure has still failed to emerge here in the US, with centrists maintaining control over the Democratic Party, for now. But in Canada, there's a new leftist party leader on the block, one who is not afraid to call out Trump's illegal war on Iran, and criticize the US' support for Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as his own Canadian governments. Of course, I'm not talking about Liberal Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney. I'm talking about filmmaker, journalist, and democratic socialist Avi Lewis, who was elected in March as the new leader for Canada's leftist party, the New Democrats. Full disclosure, Avi Lewis is married to Zeteo contributor Naomi Klein. Avi joins me now. Avi Lewis, thank you for coming on Mehdi Unfiltered. In March, you were elected as the new leader for Canada's New Democratic Party, uh, following the resignation of the former leader, Jagmeet Singh, who we've had here on Zeteo as well as a guest. He stepped down after the party's dismal performance in Canada's twenty twenty-five elections. Uh, what is it going to take, Avi, to rebuild your party? What does the process look like so far?

Avi Lewis· Guest1:12

Well, we are at the bottom of the electoral cycle. I mean, there's no, uh, there's no illusions about that. But we have a unique gift in Canada right now, which is a tremendous political space which has opened up. Mehdi, I don't know how closely Zeteo viewers, and I count myself among the earliest of, of that crew, have been