Das NDP-Führungsrennen: unser Interview mit Avi Lewis

>Lewis believes his affordability-focused message is the reason for his success, saying his campaign is “staying laser-focused on the cost of living crisis,” which he brands “the everyday emergency of just trying to get by in an impossible economy.”

>Much of the Lewis campaign is directed towards public options for essential services, including public grocers, internet and cell providers, homebuilders, and pharmaceutical manufacturers, as well as public banking through “postal banking” with Canada Post.

>He suggests that private interests have become too influential, leading to powerful oligopolies.

>“We’ve got five big grocery chains controlling 80 percent of the market. Six big banks, five big oil companies, three telecommunication companies: Rogers Telus and Bell, with the highest prices almost anywhere,” says Lewis.

It seems that he finally refined the messaging a little bit. It’s nice that he stopped calling everything a monopoly (Side note: he’s tried to make the cartel argument in the past, not very effectively. It’s hard to make the cartel argument for a lot of them, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t major issues with these markets).

>His holds a system-wide critique of the economy, believing that the NDP should distinguish itself from the Liberals and Conservatives with a willingness to criticize capitalism.

The Liberals have certainly been in that camp before, albeit a long time ago. The days of Pierre Trudeau had a very social democrat flavour to them. Nevertheless, I don’t know if people want nuanced debates on the flaws of capitalism so much as they want government to address the clear failures it tends to produces (e.g., income inequality, concentration of wealth in capital, excessive market and political power of corporations and the groups and individuals who work for them, etc, though I am not sure how broadly people care about this).

>While his public option plan will certainly raise questions about costs, Lewis pushes back on this notion.

>He says his public grocery plan would cost about $300 million annually, “which is half of one percent of our current defence budget, before we double it and double it again in the next decade as Prime Minister Carney wants to.”

He should not be subsidizing public corporations if he expects to maintain a private market. Additionally, his estimated cost savings are completely unrealistic (up to 45%), and require subsidies, which is probably what part of that $300 million is likely from. This isn’t competition, and a lot of people will call it out.

While I am not inherently against the idea of a public grocer, Lewis is not being honest about how effective a public grocery could be, and his plan is problematic. For example, the size he wants to start it at (e.g., 50 stores and 7 distribution centers, which totals to 5 stores in each province) would not sufficiently serve rural communities, if at all. Cities like Vancouver and Toronto would need at least two stores each, and BC and Ontario have other major cities they need to cover; Even in a place like Saskatchewan, you have Regina, Saskatoon, Estevan, Weyburn, and Prince Albert that could all use a store, but you’d leave out Swift Current, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, etc.) There will be tons of Canadians who would not be able to access these stores.

>He says the federal Government is “doubling down on what we’ve always done, which is huge extraction projects that turn nature into money and export raw commodities to other countries.”

>Lewis says that with a resource extraction model, most of the benefits are not felt by local communities.

Comments like these will make sure he never wins in rural Ontario, Saskatchewan, BC, and Alberta, but probably in every rural provincial area. It makes you wonder if he’s ever stepped foot in those areas.