NDP Leader Avi Lewis says his first job is getting the party ready for the next federal election, not winning himself a seat in Parliament right away. Lewis, who has led the federal New Democrats for four months, told The Globe and Mail he expects the NDP to be ready to run candidates across the country within the next year. He plans to seek a seat in Parliament either at the next election or shortly before it.

The decision means Lewis will not run in several by-elections happening before the end of the year. By-elections are held when a seat in Parliament becomes empty between general elections. Three of those contests, in Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, are set for Aug. 31 after being called by Prime Minister Mark Carney (The Globe and Mail). The party now holds just five seats in the House of Commons. That is well below the 12 seats needed for official party status, which gives a party funding for staff and guaranteed time to speak during debates (Avi Lewis, Facebook). The number is down from seven seats after the 2025 federal election (The Globe and Mail).

Lewis has spent the last three weeks campaigning in Montreal with NDP candidates Pierre Céré and Nima Machouf, who are running in the ridings of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Laurier–Ste-Marie. A riding is a geographic area that elects one member of Parliament. The party hopes to hold Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, currently represented by Independent Alexandre Boulerice, who left the NDP to run in the Quebec provincial election this fall. In Laurier–Ste-Marie, former Liberal cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault has said he will step down, opening the seat (The Globe and Mail).

While in Montreal, Lewis has been taking daily three-hour French lessons focused on political communication. He said he has been studying the interview style of host Guy A. Lepage and political speaking techniques in Québécois French. Former NDP leader Jack Layton's appearance on the program Tout le monde en parle during the 2011 election campaign is widely credited with helping the NDP make a major breakthrough in Quebec (The Globe and Mail).

Lewis ran and lost in Vancouver ridings in both the 2021 and 2025 federal elections. He won the federal NDP leadership on March 29, 2026 (Lewis is Leader), defeating Heather McPherson, who had launched her bid the previous September (The Globe and Mail). Lewis entered the race promising policies including a wealth tax (The Globe and Mail) and campaigned on building an NDP that fights for the 99 per cent (Lewis is Leader). He was the perceived front-runner throughout (The Globe and Mail).

Before launching his leadership bid, Lewis had said he was considering seeking the leadership of the party his grandfather David Lewis led from 1971 to 1975 (The Globe and Mail). Two former NDP MPs had ruled out bids to lead the party (The Globe and Mail). The NDP had launched a review of its 2025 federal election campaign, which Lewis called "absolutely essential" and said he looked forward to participating in vigorously (The Globe and Mail).

The broader context here is a party trying to rebuild from a historically low seat count while its leader is not yet in Parliament. A party leader without a seat has happened before in Canadian politics. But the combination of a very small caucus, upcoming by-elections, and a leader who has lost two straight elections in Vancouver leaves little room for mistakes. Lewis's choice to skip by-elections trades the visibility of being in Parliament for time spent on party-building and on French-language skills that the Layton example in Quebec suggests matter at the ballot box.

Lewis's time in Montreal signals where the NDP sees its path back: through Quebec. That province delivered the party's 2011 orange wave, a sudden surge of NDP seats. Two of the three Aug. 31 by-elections are not in Quebec, but the party is testing its organization there through the campaigns of Céré and Machouf. Lewis's focus on Lepage's interview style and Québécois political rhetoric suggests he is preparing for media appearances that can shape how voters in the province judge a leader's credibility, not just meeting a basic French requirement. Whether a year is enough to build election-ready riding associations across all 343 ridings, and whether that timeline lines up with when the next election is actually called, will determine whether this plan works.