Stephen Lewis, former politician and lifelong social activist, dies at 88

OTTAWA —

Human rights. Equality for women. The plight of African families decimated by HIV-AIDS. Stephen Lewis spent a lifetime fighting for causes close to his heart — and his weapons of choice were words.

Lewis died on Tuesday at the age of 88, eight years after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.

“Stephen 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,” his family said in a statement released shortly after his death.

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

Lewis had few equals in this country as a writer and orator. He spent decades passionately championing the economically downtrodden and disenfranchised, warning the world of the threat of climate change and railing against physical and sexual violence visited upon women and children everywhere.

Always eloquent and never one to mince words, Lewis didn’t suffer fools gladly. But he had an inherent ability to work with others to get things done — whether as leader of the Ontario New Democrats in the 1970s, during diplomatic postings to the United Nations or as head of his foundation that provides support to African communities shattered by HIV-AIDS.

Lewis was born in Ottawa on Nov. 11, 1937 to Sophie (née Carson) and David Lewis, who was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), forerunner of the NDP, and later that party’s federal leader. Lewis’s grandfather Moishe Lewis was an activist in the Jewish Labour Committee in Montreal.

Growing up the eldest of four children in a family steeped in politics and social activism, Lewis learned early on to hone his oratory. In 1956, he entered the University of Toronto, where he joined the Hart House debating team. A year later, that team squared off against then-U.S. senator John F. Kennedy on the question: “Has the United States failed in its responsibilities as a world leader?” The future president narrowly beat the Hart House team 204-194.

Lewis switched to the University of British Columbia in third year, then returned to U of T for his final year, but didn’t write his final examinations. He went to law school twice in the early 1960s but dropped out both times. After university, he travelled to Africa, where he taught English and fell in love with the continent.

In 1963, he married journalist and social activist Michele Landsberg. The Toronto couple had three children, Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, Jenny Leah Lewis and Avi Lewis, who is married to writer Naomi Klein.

Avi Lewis was elected as the leader of the federal NDP on Sunday in a first ballot victory.

During his acceptance speech in Winnipeg on Sunday, Lewis acknowledged his father was “not doing too well” but was hanging on to see the next chapter of “the movement.”

“Ever the political fanatic, dad has demanded daily updates about our organizing, delivered to his hospital bed — a veritable IV drip of campaign data,” he said. “At age 88 he is more passionate about the promise of democratic socialism than he has ever been in his life.”

The Lewis family said Avi was travelling to Toronto to be with his family.

Former NDP national director Anne McGrath said Stephen Lewis was “determined” to see his son win the NDP leadership.

“Avi’s run for nominations a few times and run in a couple of elections now,” McGrath said. “Stephen was there for both, even when he was not particularly well.”

McGrath said she had known Lewis since the 1980s and he had a “monumental footprint” both in Canada and internationally.

“It’s really hard to encapsulate the kind of impact that he’s had,” she said. “It’s a huge loss.”

McGrath said Lewis always stepped up to help with anything from speaking at a convention to providing advice.

“He was unbelievably generous with his time and his wisdom,” she said. “He was someone to look up to, someone to listen to, someone to admire, someone that you really wanted to earn his respect.”

Lewis began working for the federal New Democratic Party and in 1963, at the age of 26, was elected to the Ontario legislature. In 1970 he became leader of the provincial NDP, which in 1975 became the official Opposition. In 1978, a year after the party suffered an electoral setback, Lewis resigned as leader and became a media commentator, lecturer and labour arbitrator.

In 1984, then-prime minister Brian Mulroney appointed Lewis as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, a post he held for four years. He was then named special adviser to the UN’s secretary-general on African affairs, a post he held until 1991. From 1995 to 1999, Lewis was deputy director of UNICEF and from 2001 to 2006 he served as the United Nations special envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa.

As that five-year appointment came to an end, Lewis admitted how unprepared he’d been in the beginning for what lay ahead.

“No one really knew what the job would be,” Lewis told The Canadian Press in a December 2006 interview. “I certainly did not know how grim the circumstances were. I had a sense that things were bad in Africa, but I did not at the time have a sense of the carnage on the ground, and particularly amongst women.”

So Lewis designed his own job description, repeatedly visiting such countries as Malawi, Zambia and Lesotho and then reporting back to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

What he discovered tore at his heart and his sense of social justice: millions dead or dying, a small number of the infected getting antiretroviral drug treatment, and millions of orphaned children caring for themselves or — if lucky — being cared for by grandmothers whose children had succumbed to the disease.

“Things were in terrible shape because the African leadership had been in a state of silence and denial until around 2001,” Lewis recalled. “Africa was only beginning to adapt to the reality that they would be struggling for survival, that this was an apocalypse. It simply engulfed them.”

But he refused to give in to despair. “You grit your teeth and keep fighting,” said the lifelong social democrat, who went after some of the sacred cows of the international community.

Lewis accused the G8 of turning its back on Africa, rapped the World Bank and International Monetary Fund for debt repayment policies that were crippling much of the continent, and challenged African governments to legislate policies to ease the suffering of their citizens.

He continued rallying support for Africa through the non-profit Stephen Lewis Foundation, established in 2003 and run by his daughter Ilana Landsberg-Lewis. The foundation works with community-level organizations in 15 African countries to provide care and support to women, orphaned children, grandmothers and those living with HIV-AIDS.

The foundation posted a tribute to Lewis on its website Tuesday, with testimonials to the legacy he leaves behind.

“Stephen was a respected humanitarian who spent his life championing social justice and human rights,” the foundation’s statement said. “Throughout his political and international careers, he was committed to creating a more equitable world.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement that Lewis was “a pillar of compassionate leadership in Canadian democracy and a renowned global champion for human rights and multilateralism.”

“He helped position Canada as a principled leader in ending apartheid in South Africa and believed that proper health care was key to reducing poverty and growing economies,” Carney said.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said people all over the world will be mourning his death.

“What he did was extraordinary,” she said. “He forced leaders all around the world to step up and take responsibility for the (HIV-AIDS) crisis.”

Stiles said she saw Lewis as a mentor and a friend, someone who never hesitated to reach out and offer support and advice. She recalled he once told her that he still got nervous “every single time he got up to speak in public.”

“I mean, 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,” she said.

While Lewis’s awards and honours are far too numerous to list, they include: companion of the Order of Canada, Maclean’s magazine’s Canadian of the Year (2003); the Pearson Peace medal (2004); being named one of the “100 most influential people in the world” by Time magazine (2005); and Canada’s Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012).

Author of the best-selling book “Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa,” Lewis was also awarded dozens of honorary doctorates.

Endlessly energetic, he kept up a gruelling schedule of travel and speechmaking in his later years, including one presentation at the 2016 federal NDP convention in Edmonton — where, as the party’s elder statesman, he masterfully laid out the challenges facing the party, Canada and the world.

Then 78, he summed up what it meant to be a social democrat by quoting from a lecture given by his father David, some 60 years earlier:

“The modern democratic socialist should proclaim his or her aims loudly and passionately. The equality of men and women is the socialist watchword; the moral struggle against injustice and inequality is the socialist’s duty; to be a strong and powerful voice for common men and women against the abuse and oppression of the privileged minority is the socialist’s function; and to forge an ever-finer and higher standard of values and a richer pattern of life and behaviour is the socialist’s dream.”

Stephen Lewis spent his life trying to live by those words.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 31, 2026.

— with files from Catherine Morrison, Allison Jones in Toronto and Sheryl Ubelacker

The Canadian Press