He hopes his laser focus on corporate greed, which he says is driving Canada’s cost-of-living crisis, will help set him apart from other front-runners, including Edmonton Member of Parliament Heather McPherson and British Columbia union leader Rob Ashton.
“It’s a moral outrage that so many people in Canada can’t afford the basics of a dignified life at a time when corporate profits are only skyrocketing,” Lewis said as he unveiled an array of new proposals Monday. “When people are being gouged at the checkout aisle, on their phone bills, and in their rents, it’s clear that the market is failing.”
Lewis called for the creation of a public not-for-profit grocery store chain that would operate coast to coast to combat the growing crisis of food insecurity.
According to data published earlier this year by the Canadian Income Survey, approximately 10 million Canadians—over 25%—lived in food-insecure households in 2024, nearly doubling since 2021 amid skyrocketing food prices.
Lewis described it as a “market failure” that so many Canadians could struggle to pay for food while Galen Weston, the owner of Canada’s largest grocery chain, Loblaw, has a net worth of over $18 billion.
I like some of what he’s saying, hopefully he can reclaim some of the vote for the ndp if elected. I’m not sure who the other contenders are though, and itll most likely end up as a demographic politics type party again just pandering to different niche minority group interests.
I’m not totally sure what the postal banking system he references is, specifically. I’ve never lived in a remote area, which it seems is where it was more commonly used. But like, 99% of what you need to do with a FI you can do online these days, hell many options are online only with no physical retail locations. I get a feeling that postal banking is basically just an old person “I dont wanna use that internet thing!” type of issue, in which case I wouldn’t support it. The oldest generations who are most opposed to updating their skills are also the ones that pulled up ladders/profited from the younger generations current gong show – they’ve had enough charity from the public purse.
Besides, feds always seem to forget that many small communities have credit unions, or that credit unions are already there as an alternative to the big banks for most financial service needs. If this guys really about smaller communities/local financial options, he should be bolstering the CUs as an alternative to the banks (though cus are under prov jurisdiction).
YES. Socialized grocers would be huge. Still allows for competitors like Loblaws and Sobeys, but force actual competition
We have semi-socialized grocers in the form of Federated Co-operatives Ltd, but they aren’t popular nation-wide.
There used to be public Telecom companies. They were called Crown Corporations. There is only 1 left in Canada (Saskatchewan’s SaskTel). The other provinces that had them sold them off. No surprise prices went crazy.
Should we have kept them? Yes. Are we going to get them back? No.
I’m still surprised that Saskatchewan of all places is the one to keep a crown corp.
It hasn’t been easy to keep. The SaskParty is dangerously underfunding it and is whittling it away. Privatization by stealth is in force hard.
We also have SaskPower, SaskEnergy, and SGI all as Crown corps. So our utilities are all decently affordable. Which is very surprising, but one nice thing to living out here. Even if I am surrounded by crazy conservatives.
It hasn’t been easy to keep. The SaskParty is dangerously underfunding it and is whittling it away. Privatization by stealth is in force hard.
The same thing the PCs did in Manitoba to set up privatizing MTS and eventually selling it entirely to Bell.
And the same thing they were starting to quietly do to Manitoba Hydro before they got voted out.
If you like the sound of all this, help elect him: https://lewisforleader.ca/
10$ to become an NDP member, but make sure you do it before the January cut-off date.
I saw that first campaign ad of his a few months ago, it made a pretty strong first impression! I’d give him my vote.
Everyone else in Canada is calling for that too! He’s got his finger on the pulse for sure.
