David Lewis (politician)
David Lewis, CC (birth name: Dawid Losz ) ( born June 23, 1909 in Swislatsch, Minsk province, Russian Empire; † 23 May 1981 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) was a Canadian politician.
Biography
Ascent to the chairman of the NDP
Lewis came from a Polish family in present-day Belarus, immigrated in 1921 to Canada. Early on, he began his political activities and was in 1932 one of the founders of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF ), a socialist political party whose secretary he was 1937-1950. 1940, 1943, 1945, and 1949, he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate of the CCF for a seat in the House. Between 1954 and 1961 he was president of the CCF.
As it the merger of the CCF with the Canadian Labour Congress to the New Democratic Party ( NDP) came in 1961, he was elected at the founding congress to their Deputy National Chairman.
In 1962 he was first elected a deputy of the lower house, where he represented the electoral district of York South. At the general election in 1963, however, he was one of the two members of the NDP who could not defend their mandate. In 1965 he succeeded in re-entry as a deputy in the lower house and also in the elections in 1968 and 1972, he successfully defended his constituency successfully.
On April 24, 1971, he was elected as the successor of Tommy Douglas as Chairman of the NDP. His biggest success was the election campaign in the general election in 1972 against the " United welfare bums " ( Corporate Welfare Bums ) who received concessions and help the government. The NDP achieved with 31 seats in the House of her hitherto strongest result and also played the role of tip the scales. Under his leadership, the NDP supported from 1972 to 1974 the Liberal minority government of Pierre Trudeau, although the parties never formed a formal coalition. Together they adopted a number of reforms in social legislation such as financial support for veterans and the elderly and founded the State oil company Petro-Canada. In 1974, the NDP withdrew from the collaboration. When the NDP had to leave shortly after 15 of its 31 seats in the general election, Lewis lost his seat in the House and declared its withdrawal from political life. On July 7, 1975 Ed Broadbent was his successor as national chairman of the NDP.
In 1980 he was awarded the first ever by the Canadian Labour Congress award for outstanding achievements for humanity ( Award for Outstanding Service to Humanity ).
Family
His father Moishe Losz was an active member of the General Jewish Labor Union. His daughter Nina Lewis - Libeskind 's wife and partner of architect Daniel Libeskind. His son, Stephen Henry Lewis is also the NDP politician and diplomat. His grandson Avi Lewis, son of Stephen Henry Lewis, a documentary filmmaker and journalist who is married to the writer and critic of globalization Naomi Klein. His other son, Michael Lewis and his daughter Janet Solberg are also leaders of the NDP.