NDP giant Stephen Lewis remembered as someone who demanded better of all

Stephen Lewis, a giant in Canadian activism, is being remembered as a tireless fighter who demanded better of all.

Lewis, a former leader of the Ontario NDP, Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime journalist and environmental activist, died early Tuesday morning, according to his family.

In a statement, his family said Lewis spent the last eight years of his life battling cancer “with the same indomitable energy he brought to his lifelong work: the unending struggle for justice and dignity for every human life.

“The world has lost a voice of unmatched eloquence and integrity.”

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Former NDP MP Charlie Angus said he first became aware of Lewis at age nine while growing up in Timmins, Ont., when his grandmother, a mining widow, pulled him in from playing to listen to a politician speaking about their plight.

“He was talking about the widows and he was talking about industrial disease and how we had to fight it. And my grandmother said, nobody has ever spoken up for us before,” said Angus, his voice breaking.  

“That was the moment that I realized politics has to be about serving people who have no voice.”

Angus, who served as MP for his region from 2004 to 2025, said he’ll remember Lewis for his “moral determination” and “his incredible eloquence.”

“He really tore apart the politics that was about the hit for the afternoon, the spin,” said Angus.

“He spoke from that moral root that we all have to be better. And he insisted wherever he spoke, that people had to step up and be better as well.”

A ‘pillar of compassionate leadership’: Carney

Lewis’s death comes just days after his son, Avi, was elected leader of the federal NDP.

New Democrat MP Don Davies, who had been serving as the party’s interim leader, said he’s grateful for Lewis’s contributions to “the NDP, Canada and the world.”

“We’ve lost a true Canadian titan. Deepest sympathies to Avi and family — blessed that his dad lived to see his incredible achievement as leader,” he said in a post on social media. 

Lewis served as an Ontario New Democrat MPP starting in 1963 and as leader of the party from 1970 to 1978.

After leaving politics, Lewis became a distinguished diplomat. He was appointed Canada’s ambassador to the UN by former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1984. He was later appointed special adviser on African affairs to the UN secretary general.

In 2006 he founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation to help people living with HIV/AIDS.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said he joins those mourning Lewis, who he called a “pillar of compassionate leadership in Canadian democracy and a renowned global champion for human rights and multilateralism.

“Lewis moved millions with his appeals for a compassionate and just society,” he wrote in a statement. Carney praised Lewis for positioning Canada “as a principled leader in ending apartheid in South Africa” who “believed that proper health care was key to reducing poverty and growing economies.”

In his work in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Carney said Lewis “pressed the world to see the human toll of this horrific epidemic not as a distant tragedy, but as a shared responsibility that demanded global action.”

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said she’s mourning the loss of a friend and sounding board who showed how opposition parties can help people.

“He was the person who helped to change so many things in our province with his commitment to raising up the rights of working people and social justice,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park Tuesday, pointing to his work on rent control and the 1974 Elliot Lake miners’ strike, which led to the creation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

WATCH | Avi Lewis on his father:

New NDP Leader Lewis says his father told him ‘not in my lifetime, maybe in yours’

After NDP members voted Avi Lewis their newest federal leader at the party’s convention on Sunday, the new leader spoke about his father, former Ontario NDP Leader Stephen Lewis — who is in hospital. Lewis said his father ‘isn’t doing too well, but he is still with us and hanging on to see the next chapter of our movement.’

Stiles said one of her standout memories of Lewis was advice he gave her about public speaking — including a confession.

“He said to me that every single time he got up to speak in public he was nervous, his hands shook. And that you sort of take that nervousness and you focus that on giving you extra energy and impact in speaking,” she said.

“Nobody that I’ve ever talked to could imagine that Stephen Lewis was ever nervous when he spoke because he was, I think, probably Canada’s most important and impactful public speaker.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said Lewis, who delivered the eulogy at her husband former NDP leader Jack Layton’s state funeral, “lived life fully.”

“Most importantly, his words, his wit, his deeds just bring out the best of us,” she said.  

“You can go from weeping because of what he was describing of what’s happening in Africa, to feeling so hopeful … I know his legacy will live on through the Stephen Lewis Foundation, through the thousands of speeches he has made, through all the young people and people worldwide that have now engaged in making the world a better place for everyone.”

A life’s work combating inequality

British Columbia’s NDP Premier David Eby remembered Lewis as “an incredible human.”

“As an NDP leader, as a global advocate to fight HIV and AIDS and as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Stephen always put people first,” he wrote on social media. 

Jen Hassum, executive director of the Broadbent Institute, which was founded by Lewis collaborator Ed Broadbent, said Canada has lost “a great one.”

“From union halls to legislative halls, his voice inspired, his actions delivered change,” she wrote in a social media post.

“Canada has lost a champion for human rights, climate and justice,” added Green Party Leader Elizabeth May on social media. “Such a bittersweet day so soon after Avi Lewis’s win.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre offered his “condolences to the loved ones of Stephen Lewis, including his son Avi. May he rest in peace and his family be comforted.”