Canadian Health Coalition remembers Stephen Lewis
The Canadian Health Coalition joins people across the country who are mourning the loss of Stephen Lewis (November 11, 1937 – March 31, 2026). Lewis was a former politician, diplomat and global HIV/AIDS activist.
Lewis, 88, died of cancer two days after his son Avi Lewis was elected leader of the federal NDP. Born in Ottawa in 1937, he died in Toronto.
His work and advocacy around preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and ensuring access to quality health care is recognized and celebrated by people across Canada and beyond.
Lewis believed that access to health care was a human right.
He led the Ontario NDP to Official Opposition status in 1975, but by 1978 was out of politics and was a commentator and pundit including on the hugely popular radio panel called KCL on CBC’s Morningside, hosted by the legendary Peter Gzowski. The three members, Eric Kierans, Dalton Camp, and Stephen Lewis, were known for their piercing political analysis and to have a bit of fun as well.
Within a few years, he began his career in diplomacy and advocacy by accepting an offer from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to become Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations.
His commitment to public life gave him the opportunity to speak out, and he did so with remarkable prose and power. Former federal NDP Leader Edward Broadbent said Lewis was probably the greatest inspirational orator of his time.
According to Michael Valpy in The Globe and Mail, Mulroney became a good friend.
“I love the guy,” Mulroney said. “Even some of my old rednecks came to like him. Uniquely talented. Brilliant mind. His contributions to Canada and foreign policy will live on.”
Lewis served Canada and the United Nations for many decades as Canada’s ambassador to the UN from 1984 to 1988, the deputy executive director of UNICEF from 1995 to 1999, and the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa from 2001 to 2006.
He was a passionate defender of those infected with HIV/AIDS particularly young mothers who succumbed to AIDS related illnesses, and their orphaned babies and children.
“The absolute worst part of the job, the part I just can’t handle is the death,” he once said, as quoted in The Globe and Mail. “The omnipresence of death gets to you. I can’t stand it. And I just don’t know how to break through.”
Lewis was known to confront racism when he saw it. Back in Toronto 1992, he wrote a Report on Race Relations for Ontario Premier Bob Rae clearly identifying anti-Black racism in education in the province.
The Canadian Health Coalition offers deep condolences to his family and urges all to continue the fight Stephen Lewis took on so fiercely and effectively.
