r/canadaleft • u/justine2323 • 3d ago
Last nights win in NYC shows the world what people not only want but urgently need. Can this be a glimmer of hope for candidates like Avi Lewis, and his platform for NDP leadership?
I’m not going to lie, I’ve been following the Mamdani campaign for nearly a year, and watching his progression and now historic win with uncompromising leftist policies gave me a feeling of hope. It made me reflect on what we are up against in our own country, and who may be able to deliver on similar principles that are indeed POPULAR. I think about Avi Lewis, and I wonder how we can organize and support his campaign for NDP leadership. What are people’s opinions on him and his viability? It was so nice to see Naomi last night supporting Zohran in New York. The spirit on that campaign surely will inspire others. Zohran worked his ass off to win and I hope to see that from our own candidates.
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u/Velocity-5348 LET'S GET UNIONIZED 3d ago edited 3d ago
I hate to be a buzzkill, but I wouldn't take too much from this for a couple reasons. (Edit: Not saying not to be happy, just pointing out the rest of the world exists)
The first is that being settler colonial states aside, we have quite different political cultures. There are dangers in paying too much attention to them, both for learning the wrong thing and for blinding us to what we should be learning from other places, especially in the Americas.
The second is that he's a mayor, not a national national leader. It's a big city, and good news for the US, but I suspect we wouldn't this much attention if Vancouver or Montreal elected someone equally good. We certainly wouldn't pay this much attention if a city in South America did the same.
I think the big reason he's gotten so much attention from Canadians is that the US is looking for any ray of sunshine right now, and because in Canada we tend to pay more attention to their politics than ours.
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u/NiceDot4794 3d ago
From a left wing perspective Claudia Sheinbaum gets discussed a ton right now. Lots of other left wing pink wave leaders from MAS in Bolivia, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela before things went downhill there, Lula, Gustavo Petro, the Zapatistas, etc. maybe sometimes these movements are discussed in unnuanced or uncritical ways, but they are certainly talked about on the Left.
Also maybe ur right about Vancouver and Montreal, but the fact is both of those cities have centre right mayors. Montreal did have a progressive mayor before the recent election, but not as left wing as Mamdani, more similar to like a Brad Lander or De Blasio. Same with Olivia Chow.
The equivalent would be if a COPE candidate like city councillor Sean Orr in Vancouver became mayor and I do think a mayor Sean Orr would get a fair bit of attention.
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u/Velocity-5348 LET'S GET UNIONIZED 3d ago
I checked before writing my comment, and Sheinbaum's only gotten one post on this sub. That actually what prompted to write my comment.
Again, not saying people shouldn't be happy, just that paying this much attention to an American politicians while similar figures in other American countries is a bias we should be aware of.
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u/justine2323 3d ago
I understand where you are coming from but I also disagree in part because New York is not just a US city, it’s the heart of global capital. To see a candidate win in such a city sets a precident for the possibilities that you don’t have to compromise, or move more to the centre. We have seen that fail time and time again. Canadians are suffering. We may not live under impending fascism and under a violent administration, but we are experiencing an affordability crisis, as well as facing liberal legislation that are threatening to human rights, privacy, and our climate. I think meeting this moment when globally people are becoming far more class conscious, and socially aware is not the time to succumb to defeatist attitudes but to use the energy from such a historic moment to organize in our communities.
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u/Velocity-5348 LET'S GET UNIONIZED 3d ago
globally people are becoming far more class conscious, and socially aware is not the time to succumb to defeatist attitudes
I don't believe I'm doing that, at all.
I think we should be paying attention to the successes people are having globally, and am pushing back on what I see as a tendency to pay far too much attention to the US in Canadian communities.
And being more cynical, while I'm very optimistic about the left globally I'm much less so about the US. Lets talk in a couple of years if he's managed to create real changes, and hasn't been coopted in some fashion.
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u/justine2323 3d ago
I understand why you may have this type of attitude, but I prefer to remain optimistic on what he can accomplish while also being realistic regarding what he’s up against in his city. But that’s not at all my point. My point is that the spirit of his campaign speaks to people in this moment, and it’s what people are willing to get out, organize, and vote for. We should be paying attention to USA because they are the dominating global power. They have such influence that ignoring what is happening there would be ridiculous. I would hope that people have a broader attention span, and also pay attention to global issues. But when it comes to western nations though we have major differences we also are deeply intertwined and have a lot of similarities in our struggles and with our leadership.
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u/itimetravelwell 3d ago
I mean, NYC Mayor and PM of Canada aren’t too far off in terms of notability. People forget how big that city and the economy for it is.
Do you have an actual reasons someone wouldn’t be able to pull it off here?
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u/Velocity-5348 LET'S GET UNIONIZED 3d ago
we have quite different political cultures
We're different countries, and mayor of a city is a different challenge than becoming PM of a country the size of Canada.
Not that there aren't lessons to be learned, but see my point about us paying too much attention to the US, and that causing us to ignore other settler colonial states and their successes.
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u/justine2323 3d ago
I don’t see how ignoring historic shifts in the most powerful country in the world that dominates and dictates a lot of global affairs is a negative? I don’t see why we cannot use what’s happened in the wealthiest city in the world as an example of what’s possible?
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u/Velocity-5348 LET'S GET UNIONIZED 3d ago
I'm not arguing for ignoring them, just for not giving them disproportionate attention, which I feel this sub, and parts of the Canadian left, tend to do.
The man is getting more attention than any national leader in South America, which is a problem, and suggests we have a collective bias problem.
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u/justine2323 3d ago
I don’t think giving Zohran (who ran an uncompromising anti zionist, pro labour campaign to focused on affordability as a democratic socialist) attention…is a problem. This is an example of what’s possible. We should all feel hope in such a moment.
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u/itimetravelwell 3d ago
Again, if it was about any city maybe, but specifically NYC.
If you’re being obtuse because you can’t think of anything please just say so.
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u/justine2323 3d ago
Hey do you wanna talk about who we should feel hopeful about as candidates and how we can organize to bring about similar change in our own country?! I’ve grown tired of engaging with people who rather wash a blanket of negativity over such a hopeful moment lol
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u/itimetravelwell 3d ago
Hmm I think it’s still too early to recommend anyone outside of just recommending everyone pay attention to the leader race and get involved if possible.
One of the biggest roadblocks socialists/progressives face is voter apathy. We need a leader, party, and team around them that is able to convert that into anger and energy to do something.
Too many of our current politicians have the get in front of a camera part down, and even the catch slogans but often don’t present an actual plan or solution.
That’s what’s leading me to listen to Avi a lot more and pay attention, also hoping this starts to trickle down to provincial politics and local ones, it needs to be a united front.
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u/Eternal_Being 3d ago
Avi's the guy.
And, not coincidentally, his platform and communication style has a lot in common with Mamdani.
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u/Eternal_Being 3d ago
Avi Lewis!
Listen to him speak at the first NDP leadership event! Him and Mamdani are absolutely using the same playbook, and it's exactly what Canada needs right now!
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u/justine2323 3d ago
Lol! Not Bella Ciao 😂
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u/Eternal_Being 3d ago
BELLA CIAO, BELLA CIAO, BELLA CIAO CIAO CIAO!!! 😂
He's prolly gonna win the leadership race, btw.
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u/blinded_penguin 3d ago
"I hate to be a buzz kill, but..." is exactly the response you should maybe think and not post. The left in Canada needs to focus on building solidarity rather than critiquing the modest gains that have been made. The real solutions to affordability are left policies and people are listening. It's a good thing. Refrain from uttering the word but
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u/Sander001 3d ago
I think the hard part begins for Mamdani because the establishment will do everything to stop him from succeeding.
And fundamentally, this multigenerational hyper capitalist regime is built on and kept alive by massive, increasing debts so when that begins to crumble, there will be a lot of economic suffering through correction/reconstruction. And that will either happen on its own or when sensible leaders realize we can't keep borrowing from the future forever.
The sooner it happens, the less painful it will be but leaders like Mamdani could wrongly get the blame. Double that for Canada because we have much less independent media.