It all started in the ‘80s. It was the Cold War, and we in Peterborough were consumed by nuclear dread, frightened by the remote possibility the Russians would nuke Darlington on the lakeshore and we would suffer unnamed damage from fallout.

At the time, a filmmaker named Terri Nash had made a 30-minute documentary for the NFB entitled “If You Love This Planet,” which everyone was watching. Not only that, but four bright teenagers — two boys and two girls from Montreal in a group called Students Against Global Extermination (SAGE) — got an old van and undertook to drive across the country showing the film and speaking at town halls and in school gyms.

The peace movement in town put out a call for billeting families, so John and I volunteered our top floor. One of the boys was the filmmaker’s son, Seth Klein, the brother of eminent writer, Naomi Klein (of “The Shock Doctrine,” “No Logo,” and “This Changes Everything: Capitalism and the Climate Crisis.”)

I remember one of the girls of SAGE, Alison Carpenter, only 17, took sick. John took her to PRHC, where she was very well treated.

The exciting thing was the morning after their presentation, when the youth woke up at our home in Peterborough, the Globe and Mail newspaper carried a front-page story and picture of the SAGE Tour. They were delighted and left our city happy.

The connection with this column today is that NDP national leadership candidate, Avi Lewis, who gave a barnburner of a speech at the standing-room-only Lions Centre on March 6, is married to Naomi Klein, sister of our billet, Seth.

There are five candidates running for that leadership and the vote is to be March 29 in Winnipeg.

I met Avi Lewis at the Lions Centre on March 6 but didn’t take the time to tell him this story. I did, however, tell him how greatly I admired his whole family, having marched with his mother, Michele Landsberg, in Toronto at women’s rights demonstrations, and having been inspired to write columns by her 25-year work at the Toronto Star.

Avi Lewis, who lives in Vancouver, told me with some delight that he’d be seeing his mother in Toronto the next day and would tell her about our meeting. It is a remarkable family of patriots and political leaders, now in its third generation. I wrote about his father, Stephen Lewis, who was the leader of the NDP, and then our ambassador to the United Nations, in this space in 2019. He has been declared Canada’s best orator. The son follows in his footsteps.

The room was covered in signs outlining NDP policies: “Renters Over Landlord-Profits,” “Green New Deal,” “National Rent Cap,” and “Public Option for Groceries.” The crowd, first entertained by songs from Faith Nolan and Benj Rowland, was enthusiastic. And it was mainly youthful.

For the NDP leadership race, supporters now have five choices. I met a woman at the YMCA who told me she favoured Heather MacPherson of Edmonton, “because we need a person who already has a seat in the House of Commons.” The NDP was reduced in the last federal election to seven seats, and just this week lost a member to the Liberals.

But Avi Lewis is undaunted. He is crossing the country and finding enthusiasm, which he says the press is not noticing. He has 1,000 volunteers. He points to the fact that Canada is run by five big banks, three telecommunications companies, and five oil companies. His is a battle against the excesses of capitalism, a military budget of 5 per cent, and a top-down method of decision-making. “Meanwhile,” he says, “the climate is still unravelling.”

He continues, “The cult of leadership age is over; the base is our source of power.”

Our politics needs and values this third-party presence and thinking. Perhaps Avi Lewis can channel Jack Layton to everyone’s benefit.

© Peterborough Examiner